Moran Been-noon

This project stems from my work at the Iatrus artist residency in Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria, during March 2024. The Iatrus website: Iatrus.art.

The work during the residency is documented on my blog Intersecting Interests: #iatrus.

A text that was part of the development was included in CCA Derry's Window Texts project.

The workshop and group performance were part of the Varusha South Festival.

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During the residency, I worked on telling a migration-related story through the history of Veliko Tarnovo, the ancient capital of Bulgaria. Once a centre of culture and ruling of Bulgaria, a centre for the resistance against the Ottoman rule, and briefly the capital of of the “Principality of Bulgaria” after the liberation from the Ottomans in 1877, Veliko Tarnovo lost a significant aspect of its status and purpose in 1879 when the capital status was transferred to Sofia (the current capital). I looked at migration from a viewpoint I've not explore so far, those who do not leave while others emigrate.

This story is relevant to my work, to Ireland, and to Israel, and with Veliko Tarnovo being a city with a lot of the natural and the ancient left in it, I felt this was a unique opportunity. There are many ways to think about immigration and emigration, and What the Water Whispers seeks to evoke a creative consideration of “incoming” and “outgoing” cultures and how they impact our lives.

The Yantra (Iatrus in Roman) river, the stones of the old city (Varusha), the water flowing to the Danube, and the ancient spirits of nature haunting the banks and the peaks: those were the characters I explored during the month in Veliko Tarnovo and alongside the river. What the Water Whispers is the title of the project developed during my stay. It is a ritualistic practice of preparing offerings of bread, sugar, charcoal, and fire to the river spirits, sending sweet secrets of potential futures from the stones of the city of the big river that eventually goes to the sea.

Months later this project featured in the form of workshop + group performance as part of Varusha South festival, an international arts festival organised by local creative minds. The workshop requested participants to be a stone, left behind from the old great Tarnovo as the focus and administration of the region and the country moved to Sofia as the new capital of Bulgaria. Together we imagined what conversations the stones have with the water of the Yantra as they deliver news from the capital, and sometimes bring new stones to Veliko Tarnovo. We learned about the protective spirits of the river and considered how old and new cultures make each other better when they respect each other and are allowed to mix.

Each participant created a small salt dough object that represented their story of old and new in Bulgaria and Veliko Tarnovo, and was included in a tribute procession we performed together, down from the old city to the banks of the Yantra, offering our tributes to thank the river and its protective spirits.

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Performance images by Ivelina Petkova @Photomonkey8;
Artist attending the residency (and thus inevitably part of my thought process) Aaron Head;