In \u00bbThe Slap Factory\u00ab Georgi Gospodinov has turned to images and situations from old Bulgarian films in an effort to stir up thinking and memories of violence against children. Ear-pulling, slapping and humiliation are still a traditional form of home upbringing. A 2012 public opinion survey revealed that some 70% of Bulgarians approve of the use of the so-called \u00bbminimal violence\u00ab as a disciplinary method.<\/p>\n
With this project Mr Gospodinov is stepping forward in a role that’s at once novel and unexpected, and he is a surprise. But it also is a radical follow-up of his work with childhood and Socialism that we are familiar with from his novel \u00bbPhysics of Sorrow\u00ab and the projects \u00bbI Lived Socialism\u00ab and \u00bbSocialism, an Inventory\u00ab. Stemming from them, the current installation is a tribute to Bulgarian cinema of the 1960s and ’70s, which, sharply and sensitively, has kept episodes of \u00bbminimal violence\u00ab over children, some of which have become indelible in the memories of Bulgarian cinemagoers. On another level, Mr Gospodinov’s new project has a social dimension; it is open towards the present, stirring up a sincere discussion about violence against children, and among children. The cause for this is that the slap factories are still fully operational and the erstwhile children are grownups today. Is it that that by growing up we cross over to the other side of slapping?<\/p>\n
Georgi Gospodinov (1968) is among Bulgaria’s most read and translated writers. He is the author of a couple of short films, among them \u00bbThe Rite\u00ab and \u00bbOmelet\u00ab, which were selected for the Berlinale and Sundance film festivals, respectively. He is the author of, most recently, \u00bbThe Invisible Crises\u00ab and \u00bbWeddings of Animals and Other Things\u00ab (written jointly with his daughter Raya) and \u00bbWhere We Are Not\u00ab, a book of poetry. In 2015 he was guest professor at Humboldt University in Berlin, where he held courses on the connection between ideologies and childhood in the 20th century, among other subjects.<\/p>\n
Technical production is by Kalin Serapionov; sound is by Dossiu Amudzhev.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In \u00bbThe Slap Factory\u00ab Georgi Gospodinov has turned to images and situations from old Bulgarian films in an effort to stir up thinking and memories of violence against children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[156],"class_list":["post-3336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibitions","tag-exhibition-2016"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/credobonum.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/credobonum.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/credobonum.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/credobonum.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/credobonum.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/credobonum.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3338,"href":"https:\/\/credobonum.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336\/revisions\/3338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/credobonum.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/credobonum.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/credobonum.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/credobonum.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}