GOATMILK FESTIVAL
24-26 MAY
MYTHS, UTOPIAS AND REALITIES IN THE PERIPHERY
FULL PROGRAM
Gorna Bela Rechka is a village in the periphery of Northwest Bulgaria with about 50 inhabitants. The Northwest is the periphery of Bulgaria. Bulgaria is the periphery of the EU … The village is the center of the international festival of memories GOATMILK and 16 years gathers people from all over the world. For the people who live here, the place is the center of their lives, their memories, dreams and sorrows.
Periphery or center is Bela Rechka? Could the feeling of a center and periphery be changed and how? What makes us consider a place a center or a periphery? Do myths and utopias matter when we identify a place as a center and how they influence its inhabitants identification today? Is the utopian wish to move from periphery to center a possible explanation of waves of migration in the world today?
How does the feeling of a center and periphery change from the view point of the generation of transition – 30 years after the Berlin Wall fall?
Vaclav Havel used to say, that for people from Eastern Europe 1989 was a year of “leaving the periphery of history”. But philosophers like Jurgen Habermas instantly announced the 1989 Revolutions in Eastern Europe as “catching up” that cannot create anything new – because they do not come up with a new utopia but just catch up with what has already been created elsewhere . Myth, utopia or reality was the idea to leave the periphery of history in 1989? And what is the reality 30 years later?
Bella Rechka gives us the opportunity to critically examine all this. For 16 years now on the festival of memories is the other new place for the personal story and memory. Namely because the festival’s home is a periphery and because since the very beginning the aim is new voices and stories from the periphery to be included in history.
Was that wish an utopia? What is the reality today – what’s happening with people, cities and villages in the Northwest? Which are the myths and utopias still alive, which are the lost, which – a new born?
WELCOME TO THE GOATMILK FESTIVAL!
HERE IS THE FULL PROGRAM
FRIDAY, 24. MAY
6.00-8.00
“Here.Now.Dispatches from Utopia”
Meditation&writing with Gita Hashemi(Iran/Canada)
Every morning during the festival, Gita Hashemi will host a participatory contemplative writing process. We will start with silent meditation to bring the mind into a contemplative state. We will follow this with writing/making session during which we will write short passages and make postcard to mail to outside receivers. In this way, we will create tangible lines of connection among the participants, and also between Bela Rechka and the world outside it. We will think and write through the themes of memory, myth, reality, and utopia. The writing may be in any language that the participants may choose to bring in.
Gita Hashemi is Canadian-Iranian multiple award-winning artist, she attended the Goat Milk Festival for the first time in 2011 with the project Chronicle of Abandoned Dreams.
White hall
8.00-10.00
Yoga Session for all
With Om Murti (Serbia)
This year the GOATMILK festival meets 3 women from different parts of the world who use Yoga as a tool for healing trauma – Om Murti from Serbia, Minna from Finland/Lebanon and Regina from Germany. Every morning festival guests will be able to experience a different session by one of them.
Om Murti (Vesna Kostic) is the founder of Bg Yoga Center in Belgrade and also a founder and organizer of the NO STRESS Festival. She turned to yoga and meditation in the mid 1990s, after surviving a burnout followed with a PTSD. In 2018. with the help of Helen Cushing (Australia), she organized the first twelve weeks program for trauma recovery in Belgrade. A research, conducted parallel to the program, showed excellent and very promising results.
Blue hall
10.00 – 13.00
CONNECTIONS
Project by Sarah Przibylla, Artstudent in Kiel (Germany)
Ludger Boensch, Artherapeut in Cologne (Germany)
Every day during the festival the abandoned house on Street 1 in Bela Rechka will be a place for artistic interventions where everyone can take part. Last year both authors turned the house into a center of personal images and stories under the theme: “What makes me alive?”. Now they want to explore the topic about „connections“: how the old pictures from the past year are connected with our present experience – are they marginal, or are they still affecting us today? Do they have the power to make us alive? How are (our) past, present and future connected – what do we take to the center of our perceptions, what remains in the periphery?
You are invited to explore for yourself creatively those questions every day during the festival in the morning between 10.00 ans 13.00 and in the afternoon between 15.00 and 18.00.
Abandoned House, Street One
10.30 – 12.30
FOREST SCHOOL // The Hidden Treasures of the Woods
With Maria Sprostranova (UK) and Theya Ivanova (BG/UK)
Learning the art of making knots and building a woodland village the Forest School way – workshop for ALL – Big & Small – Families Welcome – ages 5+yrs.
SIGN-UP for your places! 1st come 1st serve, up to 20 people. Outdoor clothing and shoes.
Starting point: the fountain in front of the school
11.00-13.00
“Goatmilk Poets” – workshop on rhythm and rhyme
Reading, understanding and talking about poetry
With David Jacobs (Germany)
David Jacobs invites you now to explore the world of poetry by reading, writing and talking about poems. Feel free to listen and talk about poems and poets that have touched you.
Feel encouraged to share some of your own poems. If you wish, you can also have feedback by the other participants. The workshop is organized in three units. You can take part in all of them or just in one of them, the choice is yours.
Unit 1: Reading, understanding and talking about poetry
Unit 2: First steps in writing poems
Unit 3: we carry on writing poems
David Jacobs is 59 years old and has a lifelong love affair with language and literature. In the past he worked as a teacher and a manager for homes of people with mental handicap. Since 2014 he works as a trainer, counsellor and coach on issues centered around personal growth. Last year he visited GOATMILK Festival for the first time and felt in love.
White hall
15.00-17.00
Afro-Brasilian Drums Workshop
with Annette Moehle (Germany)
Annette’s love affair with Brasilian Samba and Percussions has a long history. Since 1995 she visits Brasil regularely and has finished different trainings in Samba, Maracatu Percussions. Since 1998 she is teaching Afro-Brasilian Drumming in Germany.
The workshop is suitable for everyone! Bring your own drums (all big drums could be used!)
ROOTY BAR
15.00 – 18.00
CONNECTIONS
Project by Sarah Przibylla, Artstudent in Kiel (Germany)
Ludger Boensch, Artherapeut in Cologne (Germany)
Abandoned House, Street One
15.00 – 16.30
“THE GREAT OUTDOORS”
Introduction to FOREST SCHOOL + Q&A with Maria Sprostranova (UK)
Children and The Great Outdoors – why all the hype?
The Forest School philosophy – its origin and how it is different to other outdoor practices. Keeping children safe outdoors: The element of risk and exposure to risk, letting children explore and learn about boundaries through activities in the great outdoors.
Spacial and self-awareness, emotional intelligence – the concept is based around areas of learning, development and multiple intelligences – the basics of a healthy holistic upbringing – reconnecting with ourselves, each other and nature – through the environment. In order to protect the natural world, we must love and understand it first!
Maria Sprostranova – Social Entrepreneur dedicated to reconnecting children and adults to nature. Founder & Director of GreenWise People www.greenwisepeople.co.uk Director & Trainer at Greenbow Forest School Training www.greenbow.co.uk Council Member of the Wild Network www.thewildnetwork.com
Big Hall
16.30 – 17.30
FOOD IS MY IDENTITY
With Rayna Teneva and Kalin Serapionov (Bulgaria), Xiri Noir (Denmark)
Research workshop, part of CENTRIPHERY project. The international artistic team – a photographer, a contemporary artist, a choreographer and an actor, will research the food myths and weather and how they affect our identities today.
Slow Food Corner
18.00
GOATMILK OPENING
The Singing Society of Bela Rechka
Big Hall
19.00 – 20.30
FILM
“Rock’n’Roll”
2019, 90′
This documentary of Borislav Kolev comes to the GOATMILK Festival just after the premiere in Sofia! It will open your eyes for the amazing Bulgarian rock bands of the 80’s just before the end of communism – Ahat, Review, Era, Er Malak, New Generation, Kontrol, Kalle, Hipodil. Their revolutionary by the 80’s standards music and lyrics shattered the social conventions and became a guiding light for the counterculture in Bulgaria.
in Bulgarian, with subtitles in English
Big Hall
21.30 -23.00
CONCERT: MARION & SOBO BAND
MARION & SOBO BAND for the first time in Bulgaria! The quintet celebrates cultural diversity and connects the creatively engaging sounds of global music with the tradition of improvisation in jazz. The French-American singer Marion Lenfant-Preus, the Polish guitarist Sobo and their German band create their own modern style of gypsy jazz by seeking for more freedom in their music, by honoring traditions and yet not letting those limit them in any way.
What makes MARION & SOBO BAND so special is also their singer, Marion, to whom language is music as she sings in French, Spanish, English, German, Portuguese and several Balkan languages and dialects. (There will be a special surprise for the GOATMILK guests!) Unlike most gypy jazz bands playing with a singer, the MARION & SOBO BAND plays without using any drums but instead using the percussive gypsy guitars in the style of the Selmer-Macaferri of the 1930s. The violin, the guitars and the double bass deliver an energetic and rhythmic sound and combine expressive and sensitive melodies with improvisation. The stage is their home and the five musicians play and sing with charm, humor and enthusiasm to a cross-generational audience!
Marion Lenfant-Preus, voice
Alexander Sobocinski, guitar
Frank Brempel, violin
Jonas Vogelsang, guitar
Stefan Rey, contrabass
The first Bulgarian Tour of Marion&Sobo Band is made possible with the support of Goethe Institute Sofia, the New Culture Foundation and the Bela Rechka friends Club.
Big Hall
24.00
Meditation of thankfulness
Big Hall
SATURDAY, 25. MAY
6.00-8.00
“Here.Now.This breath.Dispatches from Utopia”
Meditation&writing with Gita Hashemi(Iran/Canada)
White hall
8.00-10.00
Yoga Session for all
With Minna (Finland/Lebanon)
Minna Jarvenpaa originally discovered yoga and meditation as a means of maintaining balance under stressful – and occasionally dangerous – circumstances while she worked as an international diplomat in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan. Yoga has been part of her daily life for more than ten years, giving inner strength, happiness and a deeper connection with life. In 2018, she completed three years of training at the Bihar School of Yoga in India. Minna is the founder of Tools for Inner Peace, a non-profit organisation aiming to bring yoga to refugees and others suffering from war trauma. She has been working with refugees in Lebanon for over a year.
Blue hall
10.00 – 13.00
CONNECTIONS
Project by Sarah Przibylla, Artstudent in Kiel (Germany)
Ludger Boensch, Art-therapeut in Cologne (Germany)
Abandoned House, Street One
10.00-12.00
“Goatmilk Poets”
Workshop on rhythm and rhyme with David Jacobs (Germany)
First steps in writing poems
White hall
10.00 – 12.00
FOREST SCHOOL // The Hidden Treasures of the Woods
Taster session for Teachers With Maria Sprostranova (UK)
SIGN-UP for your places! 1st come 1st serve, up to 20 people. Outdoor clothing and shoes.
Starting point: the fountain in front of the school
10.00 – 12.00
FOREST SCHOOL // The Hidden Treasures of the Woods
With Theya Ivanova (BG/UK)
From dream catchers to story stones – join us for a morning of nature connection, all welcome from 1-101years :-)) Drop-in workshop for families, max 20 people at any given time. Outdoor clothing and shoes.
Theya has a PhD in biology, ecology and nature conservation. Forest school leader, outdoor teacher, urban gardener and parent, based in London / Kukuryak @bgforestschool
Starting point: the fountain in front of the school
11.00-13.00
Memory, trauma, healing – can yoga help?
Discussion with Minna (Lebanon/Finland), OmMurti (Serbia), Regina (Germany)
How to fill gaps in history? 30 years ago it seemed to be enough that someone just takes an interest in forbidden stories. A similar idea stands behind the GOATMILK Memories Festival – the importance to create a place of trust that makes it possible to tell what was impossible to tell before.
Today we know that even that is not enough. There are traumas beyond words and storytelling. There are gaps in history that remain gaps.
Powerful movements through the yoga community worldwide have given birth in the last years to new ideas in that direction. GOATMILK now meets 3 women – pioneers in that movement in different parts of the globe.
Big Hall
12.00-13.30
Afro-Brasilian Drums Workshop
with Annette Moehle (Germany)
Rooty Bar
12.00 – 14.00
Gipsy Jazz Guitar Workhsop for advanced
with Sobo & Jonas (the guitarists of the MARION & SOBO BAND)
The two guitarists will demonstrate the basic elements of Gypsy Jazz guitar playing. They will show what the rythm guitar does and also show you a few lines to play on solo guitar. You will learn also some interesting things about the origins of Gypsy Jazz style in general and about the great Django Reinhardt.
Blue Hall
14.00-16.00
CONCERT
BRASS ORCHESTRA VARSHETZ
Varshetz brass band was established in 1971, in his best years it reached 32 people and has won 4 gold national medals. In the 70s the orchestra has been conducted even by the Bulgarian patriarch of brass bands Diko Iliev. They are loved by all and are at the GOATMILK every year. They play traditional horo-dances, overtures, suites. They have one horo-dance, Varshechkoto or Belorechkoto which is played left!!( See what happens in Bela Rechka as they play it.)Instruments: trumpet, flugelhorn, clarinet, saxophone, percussion.
New Stage
14.00 – 15.00
MUSIC IS MY IDENTITY
With Rayna Teneva and Kalin Serapionov (Bulgaria), Xiri Noir (Denmark)
Research workshop, part of CENTRIPHERY project
New Open Stage
15.00 – 17.00
FOREST SCHOOL // The Hidden Treasures of the Woods
With Theya Ivanova (BG/UK)
From mud creatures to woodland jewellery – join us for a morning of nature connection, all welcome from 1-101yrs :-)) Drop-in workshop for families, max 20 people at any given time. Outdoor clothing and shoes.
Starting point: the fountain in front of the school
15.30 – 17.30
The Periphery in Transition: Myths, Memories and Stories about the Past
Discussion organized by Sofia Platform and New Culture Foundation, part of CENTRIPHERY project
With the participation of Mihail Gruev (historian), Boyan Znepolsky (sociologist), Dimitrina Arnaudova (teacher in history), Evelina Kelbecheva (historian), Chris Baldwin (theatre director).
Moderated by Diana Ivanova and Mariana Assenova
Bulgarian history of the 20th century is a history in flux. From being the heartland of the Soviet sphere of influence, Bulgaria transitioned to the periphery of post-1989 Europe – whole and free. While our recent history is still work in progress, the discourse is best described by conflicting narratives and personal stories and experiences.
How did we as a society experience communism and transition to democracy? How did our understanding of borders change? What is it like to be in a periphery and is it a matter of geography or of perception?
In a conversation with experts and students in 30 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, we want to try to find few answers and stimulate the public conversation about history of the recent past.
Big Hall
16.00 – 18.00
CONNECTIONS
Project by Sarah Przibylla, Artstudent in Kiel (Germany)
Ludger Boensch, Artherapeut in Cologne (Germany)
Abandoned House, Street One
18.00 – 21.00
FILM
‘Project Wild Thing’
2013, 83’
Screening + Q&A with David Bond, producer, director and actor of film (UK). Moderator Maria Sprostranova
„Funny, alarming and uplifting. This film will change your life”, The Guardian
David Bond is a father. Things have really changed since he was a kid. His children are hooked on screens and don’t want to go outdoors. They want iPads, TV and plastic toys. The marketing departments of Apple, Disney and Mattel control his children better than he can. Determined to get them up and out, David appoints himself as the Marketing Director for Nature. With the help of branding and outdoor experts, he develops and launches a nationwide marketing campaign to get children outside. PROJECT WILD THING is the hilarious, real-life story of one man’s determination to get children out and into the ultimate, free wonder-product: Nature.
One of the biggest documentary film releases of 2013, screening in 120+ cinemas nationwide, selected for 54 international festivals including Sheffield Doc/Fest, Cork, IFF Boston, Madeira, San Francisco, CinemAmbiente (Italy). Winner 2014: CinemAmbiente Film Festival SPECIAL AWARD (“The House Of Tomorrow”), San Francisco Green Festival INSPIRING LIVES AWARD, Japan Prize CONTINUING EDUCATION AWARD & GRAND PRIX WINNER.
In English, subtitles in Bulgarian.
Big Hall
21.00-22.00
Wake up your voice and body
Singing Workshop with Marion
(the singer of MARION& SOBO BAND)
This workshop is for everyone! Everyone should participate even if you never sing or only in the shower!
Your voice is a wonderful tool that you use everyday! Marion’s approach to singing is always linked to her body and how she can use it to feel better and more confident when she speaks or when she sings. She will teach you a few excercises you can do at home to start your day by waking up your body and your voice. You will get tips you can use before giving a speech in front of your colleagues, or of course before singing and all will learn a fun song to sing together.
No special clothing required, but preferably something confortable. Participants will mostly stand.
White hall
22.00
Jam Session
New Stage
SUNDAY, 26. MAY
6.00-8.00
“Here.Now.This breath.Dispatches from Utopia”
Meditation&writing with Gita Hashemi(Iran/Canada)
White hall
8.00-10.00
Yoga Session for all
With Regina (Germany)
Regina was an undergraduate teacher. She discovered in school that she mostly feels with the troublesome kids. She studied later psychology, specialised analytical psychotherapy and started working as a psychotherapist. Nearly 20 years ago she travelled to India where she practiced in a clinic between Mumbay and Poona. She was fascinated to realize that the clinic was healing ALL illnesses only with Yoga. After that she studied intensively Yoga and started to integrate breath- and physical exercises from Yoga in her psychotherapy sessions. Since 5 years (together with 2 colleges who have long experience with children and prisoners) she established the educational training program Traumasensible Yoga (Ingradual) for teachers, social workers, yoga practitioners, psychotherapists in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Blue hall
10.00-12.00
“Goatmilk Poets”
Workshop on rhythm and rhyme with David Jacobs (Germany)
writing poems
White hall
10.00 – 13.00
CONNECTIONS
Project by Sarah Przibylla, Artstudent in Kiel (Germany)
Ludger Boensch, Artherapeut in Cologne (Germany)
Abandoned House, Street One
11.00-12.00
Iquitos – a center in middle of wilderness
Presentation and talk with Antina Zlatkova & Thomas Lindermayer
While travelling through South America Thomas and Antina came across a variety of places that shift the meaning of periphery – from the marginal to the extraordinary. Probably the most fascinating of those places is Iquitos. With its population of half a million people it is the capital of the Peruvian Amazon and the largest city in the world unreached by roads. And yet it is a center – of the rubber boom era, the ayahuasca tourism, the myths, magic and controversery of the region.
Big hall
12.00-13.00
FILM
“ENVER’S BULB – A SHORT HISTORY OF ALBANIA’S ELECTRIFICATION”
(2018, 53’,Romania/Germany)
director B.Reinhardt & Eckehard Pistrick
100 years after Edison had invented the electric bulb, the last Balkan mountain valleys saw the first electric light thanks to Enver Hoxha, dictator of one of the most oppressive Stalinist dictatorships of the entire 20th century. Historical propaganda film sequences, oral history testimonies and first hand ethnographic material blend together in a thrilling artistic collage telling the fascinating story of enlightenment as a history between reality, fiction and propaganda.
“Enver’s Bulb” is a cinematic parabola about human belief in progress, technology, development and a better future – shot in hydropower stations, flooded villages and transformer stations. The film sheds for the first time light on a forgotten chapter of the communist era and the problematic entanglement of ideology with modernization practices. It reconnects as well the narratives of the past with those of a postcommunist present guided by the unshakable myth of electrification.
Big Hall
11.00 – 13.00
FOREST SCHOOL // The Hidden Treasures of the Woods
With Theya Ivanova (BG/UK)
From ground art to natural paints and dyes – join us for a morning of nature connection, all welcome from 1-101yrs :-)) Drop-in workshop for families, max 20 people at any given time. Outdoor clothing and shoes.
Starting point: the fountain in front of the school
11.00 – 13.00
FOREST SCHOOL // The Hidden Treasures of the Woods
Taster session for ADULTS. Come and experience the magic of Forest School 1st hand for yourselves. With Maria Sprostranova (UK)
SIGN-UP for your places! 1st come 1st serve, up to 20 people. Outdoor clothing and shoes.
Starting point: the fountain in front of the school
12.00 – 13.00
Gipsy Jazz Guitar Workhsop for beginners
with Sobo & Jonas (the guitarists of the MARION & SOBO BAND)
The two guitarists will demonstrate the basic elements of Gypsy Jazz guitar playing. They will show what the rhythm guitar does and if you are a beginner – this workshop will still be interesting for you to also learn about the Gypsy Jazz style in general, the origins of this music and about Django Reinhardt.
Blue Hall
15.00 – 16.00
MYTHS ARE MY IDENTITY
CENTRIPHERY project and the first Research workshop presentation
With Mariana Assenova, Artistic Director for Bulgaria, Rayna Teneva and Kalin Serapionov (Bulgaria), Xiri Noir (Denmark)
Next three years and a half New Culture Foundation together with eight EU partners will explore what is happening with our myths and how they affect our self-identification. A central voice (CENTRAL) in exploration and transformation of local myths and the re-creation of local identities and European narratives is given to the citizens of the periphery (PERIPHERY). CENTRIPHERY (CENTRAL PERIPHERY) is an interdisciplinary and inclusive European project engaging professional international artists in an intensive dialogue with local artists, participating citizens (citizen artists) and students in decentralized regions.
Big Hall
15.00 – 18.00
CONNECTIONS
Project by Sarah Przibylla, Artstudent in Kiel (Germany)
Ludger Boensch, Artherapeut in Cologne (Germany)
Abandoned House, Street One
15.00-17.00
Afro- Brasilian Drums Workshop
with Annette Moehle (Germany)
Rooty Bar
17.00-18.00
FILM
WALKING ON WATER
(2016, 50’, Italy)
The flood of 1966 in Florence through the eyes, the camera and the creativity of Beppe Fantacci, who helped the famous artisans of Florence to survive the devastation of the city. A forgotten story of desperation, creativity and recovery, the film features unreleased, amazing 16 mm colour footage, and exclusive memories of the flood by families such as Bargellini, Ferragamo, Pucci, Tayar, and by gifted artisans who survive today thanks to men like Beppe Fantacci.
The film has been selected to more than 40 international film festivals, winning several awards, including Best Director, Best Documentary and Audience Choice Award.
https://vimeo.com/gianmarcodagostino/camminandosullacquatrailer
After the film there will be a discussion with the director Gianmarco D’Agostino
Big Hall
19.00-20.00
Family portraits from Bela Rechka
Presentation and talk with Diana Ivanova
Which family portraits do we keep and why? Talking to people in Bela Rechka last year, Diana Ivanova found those questions fascinating and decided to scan, print in a bigger frame and make a gift to everybody in Bela Rechka – a family portrait from their personal archive of their choice – and to record the story behind that choice. Part of the stories and photographies in that project in development you can see and hear.
Big Hall
21.00-22.00
GOATMILK POETS
Reading and Music Jam Session
Final reading from the poetry workshops in Bela Rechka with some musical improvisations and the Singing Society of Bela Rechka
New Stage
23.00
Meditation of thankfulness
Surprising place in the village
Goatmilk Festival is a voluntary non-commercial project by New Culture Foundation, supported in 2019 by:
Friends of Bela Rechka Club, Goethe Institute Sofia, Bauorden Germany, Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, Varshetz Municipality, Centriphery, Chitaliste Izgrev 2019, Yatri Ltd
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