In 2025, the Institute of Contemporary Art – Sofia marks its 30th anniversary with a series of exhibitions and a publication that do not merely archive time, but unfold it as a field of tension. The anniversary is not a retrospective pause, but a parallax— a shift in viewpoint in which the object remains the same, yet its meaning changes according to the position of the observer.
“Where do we come from?” is a question addressed to the beginning—to 1995, when a group of artists and curators articulated the need for an autonomous platform for contemporary art in Bulgaria. This beginning was not only an institutional act, but also a gesture of self-organization and shared responsibility toward the context. Today, the memory of this gesture does not function as nostalgia, but as a critical instrument—it recontextualizes the past and places it in active dialogue with the present.
“Who are we?” is a question directed toward the community. Within the exhibition program, three group exhibitions bring together 14 artists—representatives of different generations, united not by stylistic homogeneity, but by a sustained position in relation to the time in which we live. Presented at the ICA–Sofia Gallery between June and November 2025, these projects construct temporary configurations of meaning in which individual artistic practices enter into dialogue—at times in resonance, at times in tension. The random distribution of participants further emphasizes this dynamic: identity is not fixed, but constructed in process.
“Where are we going?” is a question without a singular answer. If the past is a resource and the present a terrain of action, the future remains an open hypothesis. The anniversary publication traces the Institute’s long-standing activity—exhibitions, publications, international participations, research and educational initiatives. It does not seek to stabilize a definitive version of history, but rather to propose a polyphonic narrative about the effort to build a community grounded in shared values and a clear understanding of the relationship between art and the social reality in which we exist.
And finally: “Why will we not return to where we came from?” Because every return is already different. The context has changed, artistic strategies have transformed, and the Institute itself has undergone a continuous process of rethinking. Parallax, as a metaphor here, designates precisely this impossible return—the past is not a place, but a perspective.
Thirty years after its founding, the Institute continues to be a space for critical reflection and artistic freedom. The anniversary exhibitions and the publication are not a final reckoning, but an open gesture—an invitation to new questions, new shifts, and new horizons.
