In 2009, actress Ina Dobréva, a student in Sofia, found some letters discarded in the street. Dated 1995, they were sent from Paris. In these letters, a woman named Miléna, a graduate of Sofia's Lycée Français, describes to her relatives in Bulgaria her daily life and her feelings during the period of her studies at the Sorbonne.
Miléna left for Paris in 1993 with two friends, two duffel bags and ten dollars in her pocket.
Each attempt to find out more about their story raises new questions, from what it meant to be young in the mid-1990s to what it was like to study abroad at a time when Bulgarian citizens face all kinds of administrative hurdles and returning home is tantamount to failure. The themes addressed by the letters and the current installation are in line with political change, the chaos of the 1990s in Eastern Europe, the importance of subcultures in this redefinition of values and social equilibrium, and the search for one's own path in a different world.
In the final days of 2022, the two women meet again, and their exchanged thoughts form the video segment of the exhibition.
The exhibition was first shown in Sofia in January 2023, and in Varna last August. With its current visit to the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Paris, its theme closes a conceptual circle: the letters return to where they were sent, read and understood not only by the friends to whom they were addressed.
Free admission.
Dates and Opening Time
From September 24, 2024 to November 20, 2024
Location
Bulgarian Cultural Institute
28 Rue La Boétie
75008 Paris 8
Prices
Free
Official website
ccbulgarie.com
Instagram page
@institutculturelbulgare
More information
Thursday, October 24, 6.30pm, at the Galerie de l'Institut culturel bulgare in Paris
