Nikola Boshnakov

Sofia, November 7, 1952. A replica of the cruiser Aurora parades along the yellow cobbles – a revolutionary symbol reduced to spectacle. In the shadow of the celebrations, Maria, the daughter of an industrialist condemned by the People’s Court, survives as a prostitute in a decaying bourgeois hotel. Her lover is Axinia, an official sculptor of the regime who creates ideological monuments while living in fear.

Ray van Zeschau, frontman of the legendary German rock band FREUNDE DER ITALIENISCHEN OPER (Friends of Italian Opera), flies to Sofia to sell an apartment inherited from his Bulgarian uncle—the artist Lyuben Stoev. However, the artist’s home is filled to the brim with paintings, installations, stories, and video footage. Piece by piece—like assembling a puzzle or unraveling a mystery—Ray reconstructs the image of his Bulgarian uncle, both as an artist and as a person, for himself and for the audience.

Sofia, November 7, 1952. A replica of the cruiser Aurora parades along the yellow cobbles – a revolutionary symbol reduced to spectacle. In the shadow of the celebrations, Maria, the daughter of an industrialist condemned by the People’s Court, survives as a prostitute in a decaying bourgeois hotel. Her lover is Axinia, an official sculptor of the regime who creates ideological monuments while living in fear.

Sofia, November 7, 1952. A replica of the cruiser Aurora parades along the yellow cobbles – a revolutionary symbol reduced to spectacle. In the shadow of the celebrations, Maria, the daughter of an industrialist condemned by the People’s Court, survives as a prostitute in a decaying bourgeois hotel. Her lover is Axinia, an official sculptor of the regime who creates ideological monuments while living in fear.

Ray van Zeschau, frontman of the legendary German rock band FREUNDE DER ITALIENISCHEN OPER (Friends of Italian Opera), flies to Sofia to sell an apartment inherited from his Bulgarian uncle—the artist Lyuben Stoev. However, the artist’s home is filled to the brim with paintings, installations, stories, and video footage. Piece by piece—like assembling a puzzle or unraveling a mystery—Ray reconstructs the image of his Bulgarian uncle, both as an artist and as a person, for himself and for the audience.