✨The Artist in Residence grant „Sharing Future “of the International Elias Canetti Society, sponsored by the Danube Rectors’ Conference, is already in its SIXTH round this year. ✨

🟢We received many quality applications from artists and artist duos, so the selection process proved to be a difficult task.

🟢First of all, we would like to thank the artists from all over the world for their diverse project ideas and their interest in working in Ruse for a month.

🟢The selection of the scholarship holder was made by a four-member board of trustees of the Elias Canetti Society and the Danube Rectors ‘Conference. The exact composition of the Board of Trustees was as follows:

▪️Mr. Sebastian Schäffer – Secretary General of the Danube Rectors ‘Conference (our sponsor)

▪️Prof. Dr. sc. Penka Angelova – Chairperson of the IECS

▪️Ms. Elena Velikova – Director of Ruse Art Gallery

▪️Ms. Detelina Kamenova – Media Relations

🎊This year’s scholarship holder is MARIE CIVIKOV. Congratulations! 🎊

She is an artist from the Netherlands with Bulgarian roots on her father’s side. She has been researching family history for several years, starting with her grandfather’s life in Bulgaria and his anarchist publications. Next, she researched her grandmother’s background, whose origins are from Dutch Indonesia. Marie Civikov expresses this return to her family roots best through her paintings. New drawings will be born in Ruse as a continuation of the stories of the Civikov family. They will be the result of what Marie hopes to discover in the city archives. Some of the new paintings created in Ruse will be shown in an exhibition. In addition to her Bulgarian background, Marie is also incorporating her maternal colonial past in Indonesia into this project. Initially this may seem like two extremes, but in the meantime she has discovered enough connections that we expect to see in Ruse. And to continue the conversation about the communist past, which remains taboo in many families and about which the Civikov family has much to say.