The Art Today Foundation

History

The Art Today Foundation was established in 1997 by a group of Plovdiv artists and intellectuals united by the common idea of setting up a center for contemporary art in the town, having an extraregional and national significance and performing an educational, information and cultural function. The idea for such a "Center for Contemporary Art" sprung up about 10 years ago when a part of the Foundation's founders established the "Edge" group (a nonformal group of artists working with nonconventional and vanguard forms - something almost unknown to the cultural situation in Bulgaria at the time). The group with its work and name is an original reaction against the established conventions and cultural norms modelled in accordance with the orders by the then totalitarian regime in Bulgaria.

The Edge Group has developed the idea of a new pictorial code and language, adequate to the international and European tendencies in the visual arts. The group seeks a new social status and function of the art and the artist - to serve as an indicator of the processes in society, and protest against censorship and the substitution of artistic values.

The group has gradually generated a public interest and reaction by its activities - a necessity for a place where to receive, keep and present such type of expressions not only by the Edge members but of other similar authors has been conceived by the public. A place (center) where to analyze, keep and disseminate accessible information for the contemporary art . So, the idea of establishing a Center for Contemporary Art has come into being. The Center is meant to be a modern structure whose activity shall be based on artistic principles free of bureaucratic restraints. It would be a dynamic model differing from the standard scheme of any museum or gallery. Being a promoter of festivals, symposia, theoretical conferences, as well as organizer of curated exhibitions, The Center would be a starting point for active communication. The aims of The Center for Contemporary Art are to work for a European and world integration, to be an informational basis for current cultural events, a multimedia laboratory establishing contacts with similar structures as means of cultural exchange.

With the changes brought about in a political aspect in recent years as well, the Edge members established the Art Today Foundation as a possibility for a more flexible work with the institutions, expanded their activities, started to organize lectures and presentations before a wide audience, to invite various authors from both Bulgaria and abroad. For this purpose, they use an old Turkish bath building (a historical monument of culture). A Week of Contemporary Art is organized annually, aiming at decentralizing the established model of concentrating all cultural events of importance in the capital. Its first edition took place from May 25, 1995, and turned into an original overview of unconventional and alternative forms of Bulgarian art with the participation of over 30 authors. The specific interior and space of the old building (the bath) has proved to be appropriate for accepting the activities of a future center for visual arts. Therefore, a second edition of the Week was held in 1996, "The Man - The Document", followed by the 1997 project "The Art - The Money", and the 1998 exhibition "Video Art" presenting the fourth edition of the Week.

The Art Today Foundation has succeeded in winning over, following intense negotiations and work, the Municipality of Plovdiv by convincing them of the necessity for the future center for contemporary art. The Municipality, the owner of the building, has agreed to give "Banya Starinna" ( the Ancient Baths) to the center in question and to take on the main work concerning the repairs, conservation and restoration of the building. The Art Today Foundation is the legalized institution to raise funds for carrying-out the activities of The Center for Contemporary Art.