Daniel Nenchev about "ideas without borders" in free Bulgaria

Today, Bulgaria celebrates its National Day of Liberation - March 3. It is 145 years since Bulgaria's Liberation from Ottoman rule and the return of Bulgaria on the European political map. The good news is that these days Bulgaria is everywhere in the world, journalist Daniel Nenchev tells us. Because Bulgaria is where there is even one person who carries it in his heart and mind. Today's holiday brings the spirit of another liberation - the one from the communist regime in the country. March 3 was declared a National Holiday by the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria in 1990. And more than 30 years later, in full-fledged European Bulgaria, we must find the courage to admit that liberation does not always mean freedom.

"Freedom is the most sore spot in our history and national identity. Vasil Levski, Hristo Botev and the National Revival Period leaders in our past imagined that we should free ourselves with our own efforts. And there lies our dramatic fate - the April Uprising was crushed, our apostles for freedom died and our attempt failed. This is our great drama - "He who frees us will enslave us," writes Zahari Stoyanov in Levski's biography. But it is very important to understand that their efforts were not in vain. They are the basis for the Russo-Turkish war of liberation, in which Bulgarians, Russians, Ukrainians, Finns took part and gave their lives for our freedom. What happened in the 20th century is a function of some other interests. These traumatic events and facts of Bulgarian history seem to prevent us from calling ourselves free people and from perceiving our Liberation as our own deed. We continue to think of it as something that was given to us. Therefore, even today, most of our contemporaries are ready to sacrifice democracy and freedom in return for low prices, according to a Eurobarometer survey. We dig into our personal comfort and supposed security, for the sake of survival, not living," Daniel Nenchev says in an interview for Radio Bulgaria's Vessela Krasteva.

"Perhaps freedom is, above all, the lack of fear of being able to say and feel what you are," Bulgarian opera diva Raina Kabaivanska shared in a frank interview with Daniel Nenchev in 2019. This conversation with the outstanding soprano is included in Daniel Nenchev's book "Ideas without Borders" and builds an inspiring and free picture of 30 interviews with world-renowned artists from Bulgaria that the journalist took in the last 15 years.

"These individuals are a representative sample of Bulgaria in the world today. One of the most successful Bulgarian artists in various fields of art, who, in addition to their personal talent, are also an epitome of the Bulgarian cultural code. Through the art they make, they create meaning and truth for other human beings without borders. They bring forth the most important things about Bulgaria identity, but the good thing is that in the modern world and the discourse of globality, we can have multiple identities at the same time - Bulgarian, American, European, and thus connect with other, different people. Regardless of whether we talk about literature that was first written in Bulgarian and then translated - in the case of Georgi Gospodinov, who is the most translated contemporary Bulgarian writer, or literature that was first written in German and then translated in Bulgarian - as is the case of Iliya Troyanov. All these artists carry something from us, from Bulgarian culture and history. They are an emanation of the freedom our forefathers fought for.”

The artists who use their Bulgarian identity as a fuel for their success, not a brake on their lives. Even the Bulgarian language can unite people, regardless of where they are, says Daniel. And he mentions Georgi Gospodinov again as an example of someone who writes about Bulgarian reality, about the Bulgarian transition, about the narratives that make sense of our life here. But they are also a universal language for connecting with people through translations. It is much easier with music - with the voices of Alexandrina Pendatchanska, Raina Kabaivanska or Vasko Vasilev, Theodosii Spassov or the visual means of cinema and animation created by Theodore Ushev. And of course, the freest and largest person among the Bulgarian artists with "ideas without borders" for the journalist is Christo Vladimirov Javacheff-Christo.

"With the full weight of this concept, I will say - yes, he is Bulgarian. But he is also French, and American, and a citizen of the world. But the first thing you will read on his website is that he was born in Gabrovo on June 13, 1935, in Bulgaria. And everything he does - whether it was packing the Reichstag in 1995, whether he's doing the Floating Piers at Lake Iseo in Italy in 2016, it all comes from his childhood. Textiles, paints, barrels - these are all things he played with as a child in a factory his father ran in Gabrovo. He turned these roots into art, into his own style, and became Christo. Of course with the invaluable help and like-mindedness of Jeanne-Claude. He doesn't speak Bulgarian - people say. No, he speaks in Bulgarian with his closest people. With the boys and girls from the National Sports Academy helping the floating piers come to life. He walked past them and asked – “how are you, do you need anything, thank you”. But when he had to convince the world of his art, he did it in English, and that's completely normal," says Daniel Nenchev.

Christo, along with many Bulgarian artists who built their lives abroad before 1989, do not run away from Bulgaria, from their homeland, from their family and friends. He fleed the totalitarian system, the non-freedom, the ideas with limits. Freedom is a personal experience, says Nenchev:

"And as a society, even if we don't value freedom, we live in a free world today. Europe is a free space with freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of association and identity. We are respected for being Bulgarians. This is the motto of the European Union - Unity in diversity. We are united by values such as freedom, peace, tolerance, life, and I say all this against the backdrop of the war that is currently happening on the Old Continent. The people who started this war obviously believe in other, opposite values. And we have to be aware of that. Everything we are today is a function of that freedom once dreamed of by the brightest personalities in our history. We are living that dream.”

Daniel Nenchev is currently preparing a project called "The Running Man" together with the artists from Plakat Kombinat. Through posters and author's videos, they will tell stories of refugees from Ukraine and the world who have found a new home in Bulgaria. He is also preparing a documentary film "155 Kilometers of Air". This is the length of the Berlin Wall when it was built. And today, nearly 35 years after the fall of the socialist regime and the borders, he is looking for an answer to the question - what happened to us.

And time continues to move forward, history continues to happen and freedom continues to be at the tip of the spear hidden within us.

Photos: Facebook/ Daniel Nenchev

Editing by Elena Karkalanova
English version Rositsa Petkova