Childhood Years: Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center presents an exhibition at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Paris

On September 19, the exhibition “Childhood Years” by the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center for Contemporary Art – Gabrovo will open at the gallery of the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Paris. The occasion is twofold – 90 years since the birth of Christo Javacheff and 30 years since the emblematic Pont Neuf project, which left a lasting mark on the artistic history of Paris.

Childhood Years explores childhood as the first stage of imagination – a time when play and freedom outline the contours of future creative thought. The exhibition brings together rare photographs and documentary materials from Christo’s early years in Bulgaria with works by a new generation of contemporary artists currently working at the Center in Gabrovo. In this way, the exhibition creates a bridge between Christo’s personal history and the collective energy of young artists, between the memory of beginnings and the vision for the future.

Seven of them – Anton Ivanov, Gergana Lazarova-Runkel, Ivelin Penchev, Konstantin Zlatev, Nevena Ekimova, Pavel Tsarov, and Radoil Serafimov – will present their works in the French capital for the first time.

A special section is dedicated to Christo’s childhood – his family, schools and factories, favorite games, and first steps in art. These early experiences would later crystallize into the iconic elements of his work with Jeanne-Claude – fabrics, ropes, barrels.

Opened in 2023, the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center is located in the building of the former Textile High School in Gabrovo. It functions as an artist residency and space for contemporary art, inspired by the legacy of Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Though still in development, the Center already attracts young creators from different countries and is steadily establishing itself as a place for experimentation, dialogue, and new artistic horizons.

The exhibition “Childhood Years” is organized by the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center – Gabrovo and the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Paris, with the support of the Museum of Humor and Satire, the Municipality of Gabrovo, and the America for Bulgaria Foundation.

Radoil Serafimov: drawing has never been a decision so much as an extension of self.

For Radoil Serafimov, drawing has never been a decision so much as an extension of self. From early childhood, it existed as a natural motion – quiet, constant, and unquestioned. There was never a dramatic pivot toward art, no sudden realization. It was always there, simply unfolding along with him.

He studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Veliko Tarnovo, and after graduating, returned to his hometown of Gabrovo. The first couple of years back were marked by uncertainty: a stretch of time defined more by absence than direction. No income, no formal work, no studio. To sustain himself, he began creating paintings with commercial potential. Even in that space, he remained attentive to the integrity of the image, steering away from decorative clichés or cheap sentiment, committed instead to maintaining a sense of internal coherence and aesthetic seriousness.

Eventually, with support from his family, he secured a small attic space that became his first proper studio. In just a few months, he produced around twenty new paintings and began submitting them to competitions and open calls – many of which, at the time, still offered significant opportunities for young artists. Most led to silence. His early efforts were regularly overlooked, especially in the more centralized and saturated circles in Sofia.

But in 2014, something shifted. Though his application for the BAZA Award wasn’t selected, one of its jurors, curator Maria Vassileva, noticed his portfolio. Through the Stoyan Kambarev Foundation, she was then initiating a new award specifically for young painters. Serafimov received the 2014 prize, and with it came an opening – more invitations, more visibility, more recognition. What followed wasn’t a breakthrough in the cinematic sense, but rather a slow, steady unfolding of possibility.

For the next nine years, Serafimov balanced his painting practice with full-time work as a scenography technician in the local Gabrovo theater. It offered financial stability, but more importantly, it allowed him to maintain a consistent presence in the studio. Every free moment, before rehearsals, between productions, after hours, he returned to his canvases.

Over time, his work has evolved in form, palette, and tone, but its core has remained anchored in a particular way of looking: careful, considered, open to ambiguity. Some images are born from direct observation, others from fleeting impressions or visual memory. The subject matter ranges widely – figures, landscapes, fragments of architecture, imagined spaces – but what holds it together is a persistent desire to touch on something beyond the visible.

He rarely begins with a defined message or conceptual frame. Sometimes a painting arrives with urgency, completed in a day, responding to a specific sensation or internal spark. Other times, the process unfolds more slowly in days of looking, doubting, reworking. His more recent practice favors this latter rhythm, marked by intervals of reflection, hesitation, and quiet resistance. What compels him most are forms that resist simple interpretation – shapes or images that contain multiple readings, that suggest rather than state. The symbolic emerges not through theory, but through texture and tone. “I’m drawn to the spaces in an object where something else is hiding,” he says. “Something layered, something not immediately legible.”

When Serafimov was offered a studio at the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center in Gabrovo, his response was cautious. He had grown attached to his previous workspace, and relocating meant disrupting a familiar rhythm. It took months before he fully moved in – months in which the studio existed more as a potential than a place of work. Eventually, that shifted. The space settled around him. He began painting there consistently, finding his own pace within the new architecture. Today, he describes his studio at the Center as a functional, focused environment, less romantic than grounded, less about inspiration than about permission.

The building itself, once a textile school and now in transformation, holds a certain ambient charge. While Serafimov doesn’t directly use found objects or industrial remnants in his work, he responds to their quiet presence. To him, they are not resources to be repurposed but witnesses to time: objects that carry history without needing to explain it.

Though his practice is deeply individual, Serafimov recognizes the subtle value of proximity to others. The artists at the Center each work in distinct mediums, with different temperaments and trajectories, but over time, an organic form of community has begun to take shape – not one based on collaboration, but on presence, on shared effort, on parallel lives unfolding under the same roof. It is not a collective in the conventional sense. There are no joint projects or formal frameworks for exchange. But the slow accumulation of conversations, the gentle weaving of familiarity, has created a quiet current between the studios, one that Serafimov finds grounding, even if he remains mostly inward in his focus.

When asked about the connection between his practice and the Center’s namesakes, Serafimov is reflective but firm. He admires the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, their dedication, the magnitude of their vision, their insistence on impermanence. He sees value in the ephemerality they pursued, in the idea that an artwork can be both monumental and momentary. But his own work speaks in another register. It unfolds slowly, endures materially, resists spectacle. He does not seek to mirror their legacy, nor does he feel obliged to. What resonates is their conviction – their unyielding commitment to making, regardless of reception or reward.

In a cultural moment where painting is often asked to justify itself, where trends favor interdisciplinarity, political urgency, or social engagement, Serafimov continues to trust the quiet labor of the image. He is not indifferent to the world, but believes that complexity can live within the frame, within the act of looking, within the relationship between pigment and surface. Not every day in the studio results in a painting. Some are filled with silence, with music playing softly in the background, with notes, books, sketches, and pauses. Others begin with no plan at all: a brushstroke, a line, a movement that slowly unfolds into something more.

There is no fixed concept or unifying thesis behind his work. He avoids declarations. His approach is intuitive, exploratory, porous. If there is a theme, it lies in the attention he gives to things – his commitment to seeing, to lingering, to allowing meaning to arrive without force. As for the future of his place in the Center, he remains open. If the atmosphere shifts too far from the conditions that allow his practice to thrive, if the rhythms change, if the demands overtake the quiet, he may choose to move on. For now, though, he is here. And in this moment, that is enough.

“A Frame from the Textile” – A Theatrical Walk Through the Memory of a School

Alongside its artistic residency, the Metamorphosis of Workwear project also engages deeply with the local community in Gabrovo through the collection of oral histories. These stories – shared by individuals connected to the region’s industrial past – have been transformed into a work of art. Over the past month, the project team conducted a series of interviews that revived the memories of people whose lives were closely tied to the former Textile High School – now the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center.

In partnership with playwright and director Martina Novakova*, the collected stories were adapted into a script for a verbatim theatre performance – a form of “walking theatre” that took place on May 2 and 3 at the Center. Audiences were invited into the building, guided by the authentic voices of former students, teachers, local officials, neighbors, and tour guides – embodied by actresses from Gabrovo’s Racho Stoyanov Drama Theatre: Nadezhda Petkova, Magdalena Slavcheva, and Radostina Angelova. 

These performers became vessels for transforming these real-life testimonies into a moving, immersive experience, allowing the local community to reconnect with and reimagine its past through a contemporary lens. The audience was not merely passive – they were drawn into the architecture itself, discovering the building as a living heritage site from the peak of Gabrovo’s textile era. Memories of former students, teachers, and workers came alive before their eyes – familiar and deeply resonant.

With this work, the team set out to build a collective portrait of what the Textile School once was, and to inspire new visions for its future role – as the Regional Center for Contemporary Art Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

“A Frame from the Textile” is part of Metamorphosis of Workwear – a project funded by the Creative Europe programme. It brings together six cities with rich industrial histories – Chemnitz, Gabrovo, Łódź, Manchester, Mulhouse, and Tampere – around the idea of reimagining workwear through the lens of contemporary labor, design, and local memory. Gabrovo Municipality is the official project partner, and the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center is leading its local implementation.

Martina Novakova (Sofia, 1993) is a playwright, director, and educator whose work moves across borders – both geographic and emotional. She holds a degree in Theatre from New York University (2023), where she studied on a Fulbright and Tuk-Tam scholarship, as well as a BA in Theatre from Carlos III University in Madrid, which she completed with distinction. Among her mentors are renowned artists such as Anna Deavere Smith, André Lepecki, and Joe Salvatore.

Martina is the co-founder of Panoptikum Association, through which she develops projects in Bulgaria, Spain, France, and New York, blending documentary verbatim theatre, site-specific performance, and audio theatre. Her work is driven by themes such as memory, migration, war, and community engagement. Selected projects include the audio performance The Daughter of the Frame Maker (National Gallery Kvadrat 500), the documentary show Once You’ve Crossed the Ocean (toured in 11 cities across the US and Spain), the award-winning play A Lesson in Loneliness (First Prize, NBU, 2021), and The Wrapped Audioguide, created for the Sofia City Art Gallery. In 2020, her play Panoptikum was selected by EURODRAM and later realized with support from the National Culture Fund of Bulgaria.

Contemporary Design Inspired by Gabrovo’s Industrial Heritage

From April 23 to 27, 2025, the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center in Gabrovo hosted a creative residency with fashion designers Mariela Gemisheva and Nikolay Bozhilov, textile artist Nevena Ekimova, and curator Wiete Sommer (Germany). Titled Metamorphosis of Workwear, the project aims to rethink the design of workwear for the professions of today and tomorrow, inspired by the industrial legacy of six European cities: Chemnitz, Łódź, Manchester, Mulhouse, Tampere, and Gabrovo.

Nikolay Bozhilov, Mariela Gemisheva, Wiete Zommer (curator of the project) and Nevena Ekimova in workwear, at the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Centre. Photographer Ilina Peneva.

Over the course of five intensive days, the participants immersed themselves in the local context – from visits to active factories to walks across the city and encounters with its industrial memory. The residency began with a tour of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center – a building that once housed Gabrovo’s Textile School and now offers space for creative freedom and contemporary art. The city itself – historically known as the “Manchester of Bulgaria” – provided a rich backdrop for exploration.

The day continued with a visit to the Interactive Museum of Industry and a walk through the city in search of traces left by once-thriving textile giants – including the former Kartalov factory, now a second-hand clothing store, and the still-operating “Krushata” factory.

On April 24, the residents visited “Mak” – one of the last remaining textile factories still operating in the region. Their meeting with the factory’s owner, Mr. Bizhev, who personally guided them through the space, was a significant and emotional moment in their research journey. We are deeply grateful to him for his generosity and time.

On the final day of the residency, the artists presented their initial ideas for contemporary workwear designs inspired by the spirit of the past. Their concepts revealed each participant’s unique approach – from workwear designed for angels and visions for the future rooted in durable, sustainable materials, to an algorithm for designing garments for an army of artists. All drew deep inspiration from Gabrovo’s rich textile legacy and the energy of the spaces they explored.

Mariela Gemisheva presents a workwear design project she will be working on in the coming month. Photographer Ilina Peneva.

Nikolay Bozhilov presents a workwear design project she will be working on in the coming month. Photographer Ilina Peneva.

Nevena Ekimova presents a workwear design project she will be working on in the coming month. Photographer Ilina Peneva.

The Metamorphosis of Workwear project continues! Follow our website and social media for updates on the artists’ work-in-progress, the upcoming exhibition in Chemnitz (Germany) in September 2025, and the final fashion presentation, which will take place in Gabrovo in May 2026.

Metamorphosis of Workwear: Chemnitz, Łódź, Gabrovo, Manchester, Tampere unite to Explore Europe’s Industrial Heritage

Metamorphosis of Workwear is an international project that brings together six European cities with rich industrial legacies – Chemnitz, Gabrovo, Łódź, Manchester, Mulhouse, and Tampere. Funded by the Creative Europe program, the project seeks to explore, reinterpret, and present the industrial past through art, culture, and community dialogue.

Between January and June 2025, three residencies in Chemnitz, Łódź, and Gabrovo will bring together three artists from each city to create designer pieces inspired by local industrial heritage and culture. Through visits to operating or abandoned factories, conversations with workers, experts, and residents, the artists will explore the evolution of the textile industry in these cities, weaving their discoveries into artistic expressions.

As a project partner, the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center plays a pivotal role in actively engaging the local community, collecting and preserving stories from Gabrovo’s industrial heritage, and inspiring new artistic interpretations. In collaboration with the Interactive Museum of Industry in Gabrovo, the center will spotlight the city’s history, industrial development, and the sustainability of its processes, solidifying Gabrovo’s reputation as the “Manchester of Bulgaria.”

The Textile Technical School, the building housing the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center, has been a cornerstone of Gabrovo’s textile production history, serving for decades as a generator of skilled professionals for the city’s factories. Within the project framework, we will trace the school’s history through personal stories shared by its students, teachers, neighbors, and enthusiasts to create an archive preserving these memories for future generations.

In late April, in a residency program we will welcome three artists who, over the course of a week, will work with the collected archive, expand it through new meetings and visits to the city’s still-operating textile factories, and intertwine these threads with their own creative interpretations to design contemporary workwear. The names of the participating artists will be announced soon—follow our social media channels for updates!