Island in the Sun

"Island in the Sun" is part of Nine Elephants, a festival organized by Swimming Pool that explores Sofia through artistic projects in different neighborhoods and invites us to imagine new and unexpected ways of experiencing the city. The project is inspired by my love of animals, particularly the urban animals that inhabit Sofia's green spaces and neighborhoods. I imagine the work as a collection of miniature porcelain figures representing different species of the city's biodiversity, including invertebrates, mammals, amphibians, fish, and birds. I see these figures as small monuments to the animals that share the city with us and as a gesture of mourning and respect for the lives affected by urbanization, pollution, habitat destruction, noise, and other forms of human intervention. Each figure is accompanied by a bouquet of flowers, marking the unintentional sacrifice these small urban inhabitants make so that we can live in an increasingly dynamic and "modern" city. By placing these small and easily overlooked figures in the urban environment, I hope to draw attention to the other forms of life that surround us and encourage a conversation about urban wildlife and the importance of considering it from the earliest stages of landscape planning.

I chose the title Island in the Sun after the song of the same name, released in 1999 by the Californian rock band Weezer. In 2001, American director Spike Jonze created a second official music video for the song, in which the members of the band are shown playing and interacting with various wild and domestic animals, including bears, lion cubs, monkeys, cats, and others. The video was produced with the assistance of Stoyan Georgiev and the entire ROBO LAB team.