The Festival for Contemporary Art – Ruse, 2025 opened with three captivating video installations that transformed the spaces of the City Art Gallery into a stage for visual and emotional explorations of the present. The works by Georgi Ruzhev (Bulgaria), Miroslava Yankova (Bulgaria), and Boris Labbé (France) not only introduced new artistic languages but also offered a critical lens through which to examine the world we live in – through the prisms of culture, media, internal states, and philosophical reflection.
Georgi Ruzhev (Bulgaria)
"BOLLYWOOD4EVER"
A powerful video installation in which Bollywood is more than an aesthetic reference – it becomes a metaphor for global cultural syncretism. Ruzhev weaves together the theatricality of Indian cinema, remixed soundscapes, and visual symbols from various religious and social contexts to uncover alternative narratives of identity, struggle, and utopia. By transforming the gallery into a Bollywood-style cinema, he invites viewers into a parallel reality where myths and modern imagery intersect, raising questions about the role of theatrical illusion in a world of stylized realities and cultural stratification.
"DARK ROOTS – NEW OUTLETS. THE ALTERNATION OF COMICS"
Ruzhev’s second piece is a visual exploration of the evolution of comics as a language and a platform for contemporary expression. Moving beyond genre conventions, the project employs digital art, collage, and rhythmic animation to trace how comics have grown from pop culture media into vehicles for philosophical and political discourse. His personal presence at the opening further deepened the connection between artist and audience.
Miroslava Yankova (Bulgaria)
"DISTURBIA"
Selected for the prestigious MIAF and Tampere animation festivals, this short film became an emotional anchor of the festival’s opening night. Disturbia delves into the inner chaos, anxiety, and disorientation of life in the postmodern age. Through abstract forms, a subdued color palette, and elegant symbolism, Yankova creates a deeply personal yet universally resonant visual landscape—one that invites viewers to confront their own psychological shadows.
Boris Labbé (France)
"THE LAKE"
The French artist presented a poetic, near-meditative video installation where digital animation meets the natural world. The Lake is a hypnotic experience in which the real and the imagined blur, and time seems suspended. Water, as a symbol of the subconscious and inner states, appears not merely as an image but as a rhythm—deep, pulsating, and introspective.
"KYRIELLE"
Inspired by the traditional French poetic form, this piece is a visual symphony of repetition and variation. Labbé uses purely abstract elements—motion, color, and form—to craft a video poem that functions simultaneously as artwork and as mantra. Kyrielle activates associative chains within the viewer’s mind, prompting a contemplative journey beyond logic and into emotion.
The opening program of the 2025 Contemporary Art Festival – Ruse clearly asserts its mission: to present contemporary video art as a tool for social, cultural, and emotional navigation. These installations not only enrich the visual environment of the city but also create a space for dialogue, introspection, and shared experience.
