Mercer Times

Princeton grad student Julian Chehirian, along with his collaborators Lilia Topouzova and Krasimira Butseva, will be showcasing their work at the 60th Annual Venice Biennale which opens on April 20. The exhibition pavilion representing Bulgaria will feature their multimedia installation titled "Neighbours: Forms of Trauma (1945-1989)." Chehirian's mother, who returned to live in Sofia, Bulgaria, will be attending the Biennale's opening, adding a personal touch to the event.

"Neighbours" aims to shed light on a chapter of Bulgarian history often overlooked, focusing on the forced labor and political violence in the Bulgarian gulag under Communist rule. Chehirian's installation creates a space for survivors' stories, with audio recordings and found objects providing a poignant narrative. Chehirian expressed that the installation "holds space for those who wanted to speak but could not, those who chose not to speak and those who did not survive to be able to give testimony."

The path to the Venice Biennale was a culmination of years of effort and collaboration. Chehirian's team decided to submit their work for consideration after Bulgaria's Ministry of Culture announced an open competition for proposals for the Bulgarian Pavilion. Their project, which has been a decade-long endeavor, was selected to represent Bulgaria at the prestigious event. Chehirian expressed his astonishment at the recognition, stating, "I still cannot comprehend that our efforts are being recognized in this way, and that voices of survivors, silenced for so many decades, will be heard for seven months in a nationally commissioned pavilion about the echoes of Bulgaria's past in its present."

Funding from Princeton's Department of History and the support of programs like GradFutures University Administrative Fellowship have been instrumental in bringing the project to fruition. The team's work has been exhibited in Sofia, Toronto, and Princeton, preparing them for the global stage of the Venice Biennale with an expected 800,000 visitors over seven months.

Chehirian emphasized the broader message in their work, stating, "In a moment where authoritarian politics are ascendant globally, we hope that our approach to working with silenced archives and testimonies can encourage compassion and tolerance towards difference, ambiguity, complexity, and contradiction." The team's aim is to encourage collective reckoning, reconciliation, and healing through their art, viewing artistic attention as a form of care.