Temple of Light

I love classic, Bulgarian way of life - urban house and workshop floor combined with a farm and a summer house somewhere in the wilderness, close to the herds and agriculture. The current unconscious version of the model – an apartment in the center, a villa by the sea, is not appreciated by me, I prefer a large building in a nearby village, a property corresponding to the Tibetan concept of  a hermitage - neither too far, nor too close to the city. This is a studio, after all.

At the southern entrance of the city, direction Burgas, is the Haramia, 8 - 9 km away from the center. UBA owned a foundry over there with a large yard where I was creating my constructions. The road ran along the lake, then through the woods and Zvezditsa village. I liked the place. So one day I found myself in front of the mayor’s office. I knocked at the door and entered.

- Hello.

- What is the ssue?

- I am a sculptor. In the east end of Zvezditsa, there is a lovely meadow between the forest and the village. I want to buy three acres and to build a studio.

- We offer six hundred square meters to two  households – alone, you want three acres for yourself.

- I went over the village. I saw that there are no memorial monuments.

- Come back on Monday.

I returned on Monday.

- According to the demographic structure and social development plan, we have a norm of 3% intellectuals. We are six hundred people living here. So you have to bring me twenty artists, members of your creative union. I will detach from the meadow enough grounds for a street. It will become the Artists’ street.

On the Artists’ street, in my house with Tsetso Krastev and Vladimir Ivanov, ten years later we created the Club VarTna.

A view over the meadow and the forests close to the lake and the village is revealed from my bedroom. At night, the glow of lights makes visible the fog over the village, it is like a ceiling, and a bright spot of the beam of a searchlight slides over it. I have been observing it for years before I decided to finish the concept of Temple of Light.