From the 22nd to the 24th of April, the mounting of the installation took place on the site. The unpredictable weather caused us to miss work on the 23rd due to heavy rains. However, despite the short time, the Neon.BG team proved to be extremely efficient, accurate and fast in operations. Thousand thanks to Lena Simeonova and the whole team!

Today I was joining the team to document the process of assemply the components. Thanks to Lena Simeonova for the cooperation and some of the photos.

Finally everything seem to fall in its place. Looking forward to see the whole installation mounted and functioning.

Today we had a working meeting at the mausoleum site to clarify the details of the installation and electrification between Eng. Miroslav Yamakov (the author of the electrical project) and the team of Neon.BG, who will install the installation. The unsolvable problem we encountered is who will ultimately authorize the connection between the electrical panel on the site (operated by the Sofia City Art Gallery, which does not have a full-time electrician) and the installation panel that Neon.BG will install next to the former.

Today, with the project team, arch. Delcho Delchev and arch. Galya Krumova, we visited Neon.BG at the workshop to take a look at the first prototypes of several of the illuminated letters from the installation and the base elements. Many thanks to Neon.BG team for their exellent job!

After lengthy negotiations about who and how to clear the mausoleum site of the remnants of the previous installations on the site, eventually, with the help of a construction crew, today we spent the afternoon grubbing the thirty six concrete blocks leftover at the site from previous installations and prepared it for the upcoming installation.

Today, with the help of several Electrohold employees and with the assistance of the Sofia City Art Gallery, we restored the power supply to the site.

On October 20, 2023, after specifying and negotiating many parameters of the project, we signed a contract with the contractor for the production and mounting of the installation, the company Neon.BG. The implementation period is 100 working days.

On September 28, 2023, the project implementation contract (Decision No. 137 of Minutes No. 30 of March 18, 2021 for changes to the Outward Program and Decision No. 254 of Minutes No. 53 of April 7, 2022 for approval to place and fund the project "Between the Past That Is About to Happen and the Future That Has Already Been") was finally signed.

With this, work on the project can begin after a year and a half delay.

After numerous phone calls with everyone in the CO involved with the project, the conclusion is that no one knows exactly where the contract is and why it is not moving.

At the end of April I signed it and left it with the chief lawyer of the Culture Directorate. At the moment - 22 August - no one has been able to give a meaningful answer as to what exactly is happening, what the problem is and why the contract has not been signed. In the application regulations, one of the required documents was a schedule of activities. At the moment, this timetable has long since been completely rendered meaningless.

Well, that is simply not the way to work.

After a month's long absence from the country, I am surprised to learn that the contract for the project is still in the waiting phase, due to the lack of an approved state budget for 2023. I had no idea that my modest art project was tied to such large-scale processes as the election of a regular government and the voting of the state annual budget. We are waiting, me and all the experts from the team. The plan to open the installation in October seems now to be invalid.

Today, May 9, a letter was received from the Metropolitan Municipality - Sredets district, terminating the procedure, giving anyone interested within 14 days the opportunity to object to the placement of the temporary art installation "Between the past that..." on the Mausoleum site .

On the basis of §4 of the DR of ZUT, in connection with Art. 5 of the APC, within the statutory period, no objections to permit No. 25/31.03.2023 were filed.

This should be the last step in the bureaucratic procedure of obtaining all necessary permits for placing the installation on the site.

On the agenda is the signing of a contract between the author of the work and the Metropolitan Municipality.

On April 21, following the legally established procedure, the permit for the installation "Between the past which..." issued by the Architecture and Urban Planning Directorate was published by the municipality of Sredets. The announcement is made under §4 of the DR of ZUT, in connection with article 15 of the APC.

Within a two-week period, anyone affected may appeal this decision.

On March 31, 2023, after 6 months and 10 days from the submission of our application, a placement permit was issued by the Architecture and Urban Planning Directorate of Sofia Municipality.

A day for celebration! This opens the way to signing the contract and starting production on the project.

On February 2, 2023 (almost six months after the application was submitted) after an endless amount of phone calls, online checks, personal conversations, etc. The National Institute of Immovable Cultural Heritage issued a positive statement on the placement of the temporary art installation.

It took another month and a dozen emails and phone calls to issue an invoice for the fee due.

At meeting No. 67 of the Metropolitan Municipal Council, Report entry No. СОА21-ВК66-11699/5/09.12.2022 regarding the extension of the deadlines for the implementation of the temporary art installation "Between the past that is about to happen and the future that has already been" with author Krassimir Terziev under the program for temporary art installations in an urban environment "Outside". The extension is necessitated by the delay in project implementation deadlines related to the contract change and budget update - circumstances unforeseeable at the time of project approval, as well as by the delay in the release of the permits by the National Institute of Immovable Cultural Heritage (NINKN) to the Ministry of Culture (application submitted on 19.08.2022), and that by the Architecture and Urban Planning Directorate at Sofia Municipality (application submitted on 21.09.2022).

On December 13, 2022, we were invited to a meeting of a working group of architects, sociologists and designers engaged in an upcoming architectural competition for the reconstruction of the underground of the former mausoleum into a new cultural space, delegated to the Sofia City Art Gallery. At the meeting, we were informed and familiarized with a construction opinion, which established a compromise of the walls and supporting columns of one of the underground mausoleum rooms, under the site where our installation will be installed. In the newly created situation, after a series of conversations, we had to accept the fact that part of the site in the problem area would remain fenced off when the new work will be installed.

On November 23, 2022, together with arch. Delcho Delchev and Irina Dakova we attended a session of the specialized expert council on visual arts (SESII) at the Ministry of Culture. The meeting was scheduled for 10 am. Four projects were scheduled to be considered. We were third on the list and our turn came at around 2pm. During this time we studied the floor lobby interior in detail. Not since my exams at the National art academy had I experienced this unique pleasure of killing time for hours in front of the door.

On September 21, 2022, together with arch. Delcho Delchev, arch. Galya Krumova and eng. Miroslav Yamakov, we submitted an application for permission to place the temporary art installation "Between the past that is about to happen and the future that has already been" under the "Outside" program - "Mausoleum" site in the Architecture and Urban Planning Directorate at Sofia Municipality with entry number: САГ22-АХ00-641. The application contains the required architectural, construction and electric engineering projects.

On August 19, 2022, together with arch. Delcho Delchev, arch. Galya Krumova and eng. Miroslav Yamakov, we submitted an application for permission to place the temporary art installation "Between the past that is about to happen and the future that has already been" under the "Outside" program - "Mausoleum" site in the office of the National Institute of Immovable Cultural Heritage (NINKN) to the Ministry of Culture with entry number: 94 00-8444.

Resolution No. 594 of the Metropolitan Municipal Council of 21.07.2022 accepts the change in the project contract and the budget update by 15%, caused by the unforeseen conditions of rising inflation.

On 12.07.2022, at an online meeting with the creative commissions under the "Outside" program, an updated project budget was presented with the specific updates for specific features, as well as a justification for why this is necessary.

After the consultations with the BCNP, we drafted an official letter requesting the Metropolitan Municipality for changes to the contract to bring it into line with the goals and logic of the Metropolitan Municipality's "Out" program. The contract under which the Outward Program grant funds are supposed to be allocated (what is the purpose of the funding under this program) is not specified as a type of contract, and its content does not demonstrate the attributes of a grant contract ( grant). On the contrary, the contract is concluded on the basis of Art. 9 of the Law on Obligations and Contracts (LLC) and in content resembles a contract for production and/or order. Our request was to make a correction to the contract in the following sense:

• The contract to be named "agreement for grant funding" with parties "Financing Institution" and "Funded Party";
• To replace the terms "Price and Payment Method" with "Funding and Accountability";
• The amount of the financing should be indicated in the appropriate amount and there should be no indication "with VAT";
• To remove the obligation to provide an invoice when receiving any tranche of the financing.

Submission of a letter requesting correction of the conditions for the implementation of the temporary art installation with author Krassimir Terziev at the "Mausoleum" site.
The main requests concern (1) the status of the contract for the implementation of the project, and (2) correction of the financial framework imposed by the unpredictable at the time of application (20.09.2021) inflationary processes (as of 21.06.2022), which make the implementation of the project in the current conditions unrealistic.

Regarding the contract, the opinion is that formulated in this way, as a contract for commercial activities, represents an unnecessary administrative, financial and accounting burden for the author/executor of the project. The request is that the contract be reformulated in the spirit of not-for-profit subsidy in the field of Culture.

Regarding the financial framework of the project: The budget of the project was prepared and is part of the project documentation with which I appeared at the competition within the stipulated time - September 30, 2021. We all know how many waves of turbulent processes have occurred on a global scale within the framework of the past six months so far, from the post-Covid supply crisis to the inflationary processes associated with the war in Ukraine.

I have spent the last two months (May and June 2022) looking for alternative production bids to meet the original bid price, engaging manufacturers of all calibers, but unfortunately without success. The request is for a 15% budget increase. Attached in the letter is an updated budget and up-to-date offers from two companies able and willing to execute the project at the time.

The dismantling of the previous installation "One Person" on the "Mausoleum" site revealed the presence of about 30 concrete "steps" protruding about 20 cm above the level of the site, which have not been cleared during the dismantling of Plamen Deyanoff's "Bronze House" project back in 2018.

The official opinion that we submitted with the project architect Delcho Delchev to the Directorate of Culture of the City Council raised the alarm about this problem and requested that the concrete pavement be brought into a condition suitable for the installation of the new art installation on the site.

From May 12 to July 8, in correspondence with the excellent team of the Bulgarian Center for Non-Profit Law (BCNL), we worked on changing the contract for the implementation of the project between the author and the Municipality of Sofia. The problem in the initially presented contract was that it is shaped in the spirit of usual business activities and not, as I expected - in the spirit of the implementation of a non-profit project - an artistic work in the public space, which was conceived and exists only within the framework of the "Outside" program of the Metropolitan Municipality. In essence, the initially proposed contract provides for VAT registration following the VAT Act. With the new contract, drawn up with the invaluable support of BCNP, this overwhelming administrative and financial burden (for which I was in no way prepared in my initial budget) disappeared.

Report entry No. СОА21-ВК66-11699/09.12.2021 regarding the "Outside" program for 2022, Direction 1 - "Mausoleum Square": Deployment of a temporary art installation "Between the past that is about to happen" and the future that has already been" with author Krasimir Terziev.

With 7 votes "for" and 6 "against" at the meeting of the Committee on Territorial Planning, Architecture and Housing Policy, the implementation of the project "Between the past that is about to happen and the future that has already been" was voted.

On February 17, at the Regional Center for Contemporary Arts "Toplocentrala" the projects applied under the "Outside" program of the Metropolitan Municipality to support temporary art installations in an urban environment in the strands "City Garden - Mausoleum Square" and "Outdoor" were presented. A total of 12 art projects participated in the competitions and were examined by the commissions for creative assessment in both strands. The commissions for creative assessment propose that in 2022 a work by Krassimir Terziev be exhibited in the City Garden, and that Minà Minov's project be implemented in the lake in the Druzhba district. The Metropolitan Municipal Council is yet to adopt a decision on the implementation of the projects.

Watch the video recording here.

-- from the announcement in the ArtSofia Platfrom

The "Culture" Directorate of the Metropolitan Municipality presents the decisions of the Creative Evaluation Commissions for funding projects under the "Outside" Program in 2022: Strand I - City Garden - "Mausoleum" site - for support of temporary art installations and Strand II - "Open" - to support artistic interventions in an urban environment from the sessions held, namely:

Strand I

"Between the past that is about to happen and the future that has already been" with author Krassimir Terziev

Strand II

"Block in the Lake" with author Mina Minov
 

--> from the official announcement in the ArtSofia Platform

"In 2021, the Metropolitan Municipality, through the "Culture" Directorate, announces a session of the "Outside" Program to support temporary art installations in an urban environment for 2022 - "Mausoleum" site.

     The deadline for submitting projects is from July 30, 2021 to September 30, 2021, inclusive.

     The project proposals are accepted in the office of the "Culture" directorate at "Slaveykov" square #4, floor 4, room 409.

     Applications sent by post, e-mail and courier will not be accepted!

     You can see more information about the rules and requirements HERE.

     Indicative schedule for the implementation of Direction 1 ("Mausoleum Square") in 2021 - 2022:

     20.07.2021 - Announcement of the Program

     09/30/2021 - Deadline for submitting projects

     04.10. – 05.11.2021 - Review of documents and creative evaluation of received proposals

     November 2021 - Approval by the Metropolitan Municipal Council

     08.12.2021 - Publication of the results

     December 2021 – March 2022 - Implementation of the conciliation procedure by the competent institutions

     March 2022 - Review and approval by Metropolitan City Council

     March - April 2022 - Conclusion of contracts"

--> from the open call for projects under the "Outside" program (in bulgarian)