Alexandar Hadjiev wurde in Sofia, Bulgarien geboren. Er studierte Fagott am Musikgymnasium L. Pipkov in Sofia und an der Folkwang Universität der Künste in Essen. Von 2011 bis 2012 war er Stipendiat der Internationalen Ensemble Modern Akademie e. V. in Frankfurt am Main. Er ist Mitglied der MAM. Manufaktur für aktuelle Musik und Gast-Musiker bei dem Ensemble Modern. Als Komponist und Performer arbeitet Hadjiev aktiv im Bereich der interdisziplinären Performance u.a. mit Deutsches Theater Berlin, Theater Münster, Mousonturm und anderen. Er ist ist Stipendiat des Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, MusikFonds , Fond Darstellender Kunst, Mercator Stiftung, Kulturstiftung NRW und anderen .Im Jahr 2014 gründete Alexandar Hadjiev das Festivals „180° – Laboratory for Innovative Art“ in Sofia, das sich auf den Prozess der interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit zwischen internationalen KünstlerInnen fokussiert. Ab 2024 übernimmt er zusammen mit der Regisseurin Ksenia Ravvina die künstlerische Leitung des Festivals für darstellende Künste “Hauptsache Frei” in Hamburg.
Hadjiev arbeitet aktiv im Bereich der Kulturellen Bildung, von der seine künstlerische Arbeit stark beeinflusst ist.
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EINBLICKE IN DIE PRAXIS von Alexandar Hadjiev
„180° – Laboratory for Innovative Art“
180° Festival – risk taking in contemporary art by collaborative work
180° – Laboratory for Innovative art Festival is an international event held annually at the end of July. The focus of the festival is experimentation with contemporary, innovative and interdisciplinary art forms. The aim is to form an international community of young free artists from diverse backgrounds (values, religion, race, gender, nationality) and art fields (music, dance, theatre, literature, visual arts, film, architecture, criticism).
Within the history of art, most artists have experienced a constant struggle with one of its main questions – “Are we making art or a product?”. Nowadays we are surrounded by various formats created according to certain society-determined criteria in order to easily fit into labels and categories. Often those criteria are forcing us to change the artistic vision in order to fit in those categories and we ask ourselves “What would give brighter popularity or sell more?” rather than taking a risk with an innovative idea. We strongly believe that the key to advancement comes from the risk takers and this is why we provide our artists with an environment that allows them to explore and go outside of the box.
By creating a space for free collaboration in teams of three artists from different artistic disciplines, we are able to provoke an extremely intense creative process. Every team works for three days, using our yearly topic as a starting point. The topic is an abstract word which could lead to а palette of boundless possibilities and definitions. On the last evening we invite the audience with whom they could share their ideas. The form of presentation is up to the artists (performance, installation, exhibition, lecture, concert, etc.). Every year we are provoking the teams, by giving them the option to “fail” and not present an artistic work at the end, but just share their collaboration journey. This way we would like to motivate the artists to take risks and concentrate mainly on the artistic aspect, rather than the final product.
Our sustainable vision focuses on the following core principles:
– Giving artists the possibility to research their artistic interests avoiding criteria and the pressure of creating a “high quality product” in the end.
– Taking risks in the name of innovation. Failure is an important part of art development. “A lot of interesting things come out of a mistake”.
– Diversify talent by bringing together different social backgrounds, challenges and experiences as a means to spark innovation and freedom of expression.
– Providing a platform for exploration of different genres, technologies and novel art formats in order to empower participants to pursue brave ideas and approaches.
– Involving the audience as an observer of the artistic process from its very beginning.
Community Lab°
In 2022, we took a step in further developing, launching the new program 180° Community Lab, an educational and outreach program of the 180° Foundation with a symposium, workshops and student projects that aims above all to provide development opportunities for young artists, to create artistic networks, to involve and reflect on socio-cultural institutions and to bring our society closer to art and its function in our development. In 2023, Community Lab will consist of programs for art high schools and university art students, workshops led by renowned international artists, and a symposium examining and discussing topics important to culture and society.
Audience
With its 9 successful editions, 180° has managed to generate a steady international audience. Because of the interdisciplinary aspect, the audience is of diverse interests and social status. All events are freely accessible, bilingual and without age or experience restrictions, which contributes to the broader spectrum of the audience. The average age range is 18 to 80 of age, with younger audiences predominating.
By delivering a project in partnership with art schools, we are aiming to introduce the young generation of artists to aspects of art that are unfamiliar to them. A successful example of this happened in the 2022 edition when the participants of the creativity workshop invited their classmates to the event, followed by a visitation to all the other events of the festival, communication and exchange with the artists of the festival and a motivation to participate in the 2023 edition.
Through an active online campaign and our regular newsletter and digital magazine, we will continue to expand our followers and inform them about artists and events that fail to get enough attention from standard media channels.
180° Team
Alexandar Hadjiev – Curator and Festival Director
Main duties: Coordinate and supervise the overall implementation of the project, prepare the overall artistic concept of the festival, selection and management of the artists. Budgeting, Fund-raising and partnerships establishment.
Katerina Bachvarova – Administrative director
Main duties: Administration and accounting. Communication with partner organizations, information exchange for planning, implementation of activities. Organization and coordination.
Milena Balkandzhieva – Marketing/Fundraising
Main duties: Fund-raising. Financial sustainability. Marketing strategies. Sponsoring.
Mihaela Dobreva – Artistic manager
Main Duties: Assist in the creation of the artistic program. Funding applications. Partnerships establishment. Coordinating with artists, preparing rehearsal plan.
Simona Ganeva – PR/Communication
Main Duties: Communicating with media, implementing media partnerships, sending press letters, organising press releases, arranging interviews and creating press clippings.
Partners
Since it first edition, 180° builded partnerships with:
Ministry of Culture Bulgaria, National Cultural Fond(Bulgaria), Sofia Municipality, Goethe Institut, Auswärtiges Amt, Pro Helvetia, Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung, Foundation Heneberger-Mercier, Swiss-Bulgarian Association for Culture, Institut Cervantes, Polish Institut, Czech Center, Council of Lithuania, European Festival Association, Ensemble Modern and International Ensemble Modern Akademie, National Academy of Arts (Sofia), National School of Music L. Pipkov Sofia, Ulysses Network, Hessischer Theaterakademie, Stadt Gießen, Gießener Hochschulgesellschaft, Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, Kurt Weill Fest, Bianalle Zagreb, Eclat Festival, International festival Showroom of Contemporary Sound(Zagreb), Darik Radio, Bulgarian National Television, Bulgarian National Radio, Vij!, BGonAir, Boyscout, Derida (Bulgaria), ATOM Theater, Fabrica 126, Regional Center for Contemporary Art – Toplocentrala Sofia, Sklada, Vivacom Arthall, Studio 5, The Steps, Bobina, Stolichno, Starobrno, Cola Fritz, Kradeca na Iabylki (Cider brand)
And many more…