Right now I'm slightly tired, shell shocked and perplexed to find myself sat in a hotel room in Sofia ahead of a week of talks, performances and meetings with international artists for International Art Forum, Sofia.
It all came out of Bottled, a performance-like-something that Tracy Harris, Matt Ball and myself put together in October for Experimentica at Chapter Arts. Paul (Tracy's significant other) was the link, and when I told people I was coming, no one quite believed I could be lucky enough to have bagged another free international excursion, so much so I'm sure some of my friends don't believe I'm actually here, but I am.
Having just landed in Sofia after a three hour flight from Luton, we've arrived at our hotel, The Ganesh Hotel. It's strange. Stuck, slightly, in the 80's it has a dark-oak, thick carpet romance to it. The building it's self is situated in some suburb somewhere in Sofia, where exactly I'm completely unsure as it's 1am here and we arrived in darkness. Picked up by an enthusiastic theatre student; Marco (who I'm sure I will be writing about consistently in these blogs), his boundless enthusiasm, excitement and energy seems to have fed of what remaining energy Paul, Tracy and I had left. Although he left us with our enthusiasm and excitement.
The hotel is still. It's scent is that of "old-man" cologne mixed with thick, stale cigarettes, and it bombards your nostrils and paints an image of burly business men walking around the dim rooms in well worn underpants after a day of selling sponges. The elevator, barely big enough to fit two people inside, has it's own persona and it speaks in hum's and whirs and squeaks, like something out of a Stanley Kubrick film. The door shuts violently before you've had a chance to get fully out, like it's lonely and wants to keep you inside it for company.
Outside on the street a few cars trickle by and seem to slow down, curious of what might be going on inside this old hotel. I can hear the voices of the people in the room next door, and they sound like they're planning something. Nothing sinister, maybe just planning a trip to get more cigarettes, or ask the stoney old Bulgarian dude on reception where they can pick up booze at this time of night.
This morning I woke up in Cardiff, packed a bag and placed all my trust in Trace and Paul. From Cardiff to Luton to Sofia they haven't let me down. Paul may as well be a Bulgarian citizen, he's been here so many times, even lived here a short while, he's taught us some choice phrases and so far we've laughed and talked about all kinds of stuff. Mainly we've asked one another hypothetical questions about the week ahead: "What do you think the other shows will be like?" "What other countries do you think will be here?" "How on earth did this happen?". It's incredible, really.
Sad to say Matt couldn't join us, and the performance we will be presenting is something like a version of the something we did at Chapter for Experimentica, what that version is we're really unsure, but it's (to quote Marco) "Fucking exciting" all the same.
I'll keep you posed.
Mucho,
Justin
