Diana Ivanova

Diana Ivanova, 2013

Diana Ivanova (Bulgarian Диана Иванова; born March 19, 1968 in Montana, Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian journalist, author and documentary filmmaker. In her professional work she is interested in intercultural dialogue between people in Bulgaria and other countries, preferably Germany. As cultural manager and curator, she is committed to international understanding and cultural exchange and organizes every year in northwestern Bulgaria an international cultural festival. As a group analyst in Sofia and Bonn she deals with traumas that have been suffered due to the political situation in both countries[1] in the time before the political change in Europe - in Germany primarily by citizens of the GDR.

Professional background

Montana central square

When Diana Ivanova[2] went to school her birthplace still was wearing the name Mihajlovgrad. It was given up in 1993 in favor of the original name Montana. On the local German school, which maintained friendly relations with the Thuringian school in Schmalkalden as part of a twinning, she passed the Abitur. She lives and works in Bonn and Sofia.

Ivanova studied Cultural anthropology and Mass communication at the University of Sofia, where she 1991 obtained a Master in Journalism. After that she worked as a journalist until 1995, including as reporter and moderator at Bulgarian National Television. She then until 2003 was Radio journalist at Radio Free Europe in Prague. That same year she completed her training as a cultural manager on International Centre for Culture and Management (ICCM)[3] at Prof. Herwig Poeschl[4] in Salzburg. In 2005, she was Milena Jesenská scholarship holder[5] at the Institute of Human Sciences. 2014 she completed her training as a group analyst at the International Association for Group Analysis (IAG)[6] in Altaussee. Her dissertation focuses on the relationship between elderly Italians and Bulgarian women who had to leave their villages in regions with hopeless labor market situation to make money with the care of the elderly in Italy, but by that lost contact with their homeland.[7] Since 2003 she is a freelance journalist, among others, for n-ost, Dnevnik, Capital (Bulgaria), Abitare and Foreign Policy. She is also manager of the New Culture Foundation[8] and researched the film heritage of the Bulgarian secret services in Sofia, Berlin and Munich.

Work

Ivanova emphasizes “slow journalism”, as she calls it.[9] Authenticity for her is essential. Journalism of this kind needs time and she is willing to take time. Against this background she is shaping her articles,[10] her films and projects. Contentual focus of her work are the individual and collective traumas of the people in Bulgaria and Germany having been suffered by political circumstances. With her understanding of the trauma phrase she leans on the social psychologist Angela Kühner[11] and the sociologist Kai Erikson,[12] who understands a collective trauma as a “violation of the social tissue and the connections between people”.[13] Cultural exchange and encounter groups are the chosen devices, by which she meets the traumas to prepare the ground for a better future. At the beginning of every project her look goes back to the past, which gives her information about the historical roots of the present and the actual experiences of the people.[14] After her cycle Hello Melancholy[15] was published in Capital weekly,[16] she was awarded on August 16, 2005 by the Austria Press Agency in Vienna with the price Writing for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)[17] – for her text Mrs. Bulgarian, Ivan Milev and Gustav Klimt.[18] In December 2013 Ivanova for the second time was invited on a scholarship for one month in the Künstlerhaus Villa Waldberta[19] in Feldafing. Among other things, she there showed the Films of the Bulgarian Ministry of State Security,[20] which were presented in the Brotfabrik in Berlin too.[21]

Projects (Choice)

Gorna Bela Rechka in Bulgaria

GOATMILK

Goat Milk is the name of an international cultural festival,[22] Ivanova, together with the team of the New Culture Foundation[8] organizes every year since 2004 in May as Festival of memories in the village of Gorna Bela Rechka in northwestern Bulgaria.[23] Involved are the almost one hundred more than seventy-years-old residents of the village and artists from different nations – people who otherwise would not meet. In this way, Bela Rechka becomes a place of encounter, where the participants in joint designing the festival share stories, experiences and memories.[24] The project is based on the question whether the cultural differences do separate people fundamentally or whether commonality and understanding are possible. For the inhabitants of the village and the participating guests and artists of the Goatmilk Festival this question already found an answer.[25] At the same time it comes through the festival to a revitalization of this by poverty and loneliness embossed region of the country.[26]

Every year the Goat Milk Festival is dedicated to a theme. 2008 was marked by the replacement of the bell.[27] Although Bela Rechka never had a church, there was a bell in the village. And that was very important for the residents until it was stolen in the nineties of the last century. The Goatmilk Festival paved by help of many artists the way for its replacement. Supported by the Goethe-Institut in Sofia, Bela Rechka 2009 received a new bell.[28] The bell of Bela Rechka was realized within the European program Culture 2000 by the New Culture Foundation in collaboration with the Borderland Foundation (Poland)[29] and the Laundry Association (Birmingham, England).[30] There were also donations and the participation of numerous volunteers.[31]

I lived Socialism

From 2004 to 2006 Ivanova worked with the poet and writer Georgi Gospodinov and the psychiatrist Rumen Petrov. The focus of their joint project was the question of which traces socialism had left in the souls of men and what influence had these marks on their lifestyle and identity. 171 stories of Bulgarians of different ages were collected. The website on which they were presented, no longer exists; yet they are preserved in a book bearing – in Bulgarian – the title of the project.[32] An online article of The Sofia Echo provides some of the shortened stories.[33]

My street

The project My street began with the waste crisis 2005 in Bulgaria.[34] It was an opportunity to reflect on the importance of the road, in which people live and feel strange or at home. So Ivanova started initially in Bulgaria and later in Cuba bringing people together who wrote down their story with their street, took photos and then in personal encounter shared with each other. Although many at first did not know what to do with the offer, they developed step by step while participating in the project a new relationship with an environment in which they have always lived but previously had paid little attention.

My street Bulgaria

Ivanova was invited along with Boris Deliradev by the British Council in Bulgaria,[35] to develop a concept for workshops with young people on the topic The EU and ME.[36] From the desire to avoid general and superficial conversations on the subject, and under the influence of the then current waste crisis the idea for the project My street took shape. After My street Bulgaria[37] having been successful, the project later in Cuba found its continuation.

My street Cuban Stories

Since 1997 Ivanova traveled to Cuba. 2009 she gathered together with the Iranian-Canadian photographer Babak Salari[38] stories and photos of people and their streets. As in all projects the identity of the people were in the focus and the question of how it is influenced by environment and experience.[39] The result was 2010 a first book[40] and 2012 a second one.[41]

Traumas and Miracles

Together with Babak Salari[42] Ivanova in 2008 began her research on the project Traumas and Miracles - Portraits from the Northwest of Bulgaria in one of the economically weakest and poorest regions of the country.[13] Inspired by the conviction of the French sociologist and philosopher Maurice Halbwachs, “that all of us unconsciously are ‘an echo’ of events that happened before our time”,[43] the aim of the project was a documentation of the oldest inhabitants of the region and their often traumatic stories. With the intention to create a space “for words, phrases, images, faces that convey a sense of the area”, a “collection of fragments”[43] emerged with portraits and stories of 50 inhabitants in eight villages. 2010 the project was presented to the public with an exhibition at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM) in Vienna and in the National Art Gallery in Sofia. Other presentations followed, from 2016 also in Germany.[44]

Filmprojects

Ivanova participated in various film projects. For the 2009 released film The Town of Badante Women by Stephan Komandarev she wrote the script.[45] Idea and interviews she contributed to the 2012 released film Father by Ivan Bogdanov, a Bulgarian-, Croat, German co-production.[46] Moreover, she published several short documentaries.

On November 14, 2014 after four years of preparation, her 76 minutes long documentary Listen[47] premiered in Sofia.[48] It reports about Radio Free Europe (RFE),[49] which broadcast from Munich from 1949 to 1995 but was banned in Bulgaria before the change in Europe. From 1995 to 2003 Ivanova had worked there. In Germany the film found his audience, for example, on 11 June 2015, at the America House (Munich).[50] Here, two former employees from Radio Free Europe (RFE) were invited: Luben Mutafoff, formerly journalist there, and Richard H. Cummings, former head of security – both after the film in an interview with the director. Also in June 2015, the movie was shown at Giessen University that thereafter provided an opportunity for discussion with Ivanova.[51] Also in the naTo in Leipzig[52] and in the Brotfabrik in Berlin[53] the film was shown, as well as in the Filmmuseum Potsdam, in Werkstattkino Munich and in Film Club 813 in Cologne. Outside Germany, the film was presented in Kosovo and Luxembourg.[54] The film historian Claus Löser wrote about the film: “Diana Ivanova succeeds in her debut documentary ‘Listen’ a small miracle. She manages retrospectively to soften the entrenched positions of the European postwar order, without playing down the historical and current conflicts.”[55] In the year of its formation Ivanova was awarded with the Best Director Award for LISTEN as best first film.[56] The film was developed with the support of the Bulgarian National Film Center.[57] After completing this film works, Ivanova turned researching the film archive of the Bulgarian State Security to what she received a grant from the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship.[58]

Self-Awareness-Groups

Since 2012 Ivanova organizes and since 2013 she conducts self-awareness-groups in Bonn and Sofia. As method she applies the technique of group analysis. Her interest in this context is it, to give a place to the suffering of people inflicted due to political circumstances on which it could be heard and may be alleviated.[59]

Publications

Filmography

Awards

References and Remarks

  1. ↑
  2. ↑
  3. ↑
  4. ↑
  5. ↑
  6. ↑
  7. ↑
  8. 1 2
  9. ↑
  10. ↑

  11. ↑
  12. ↑
  13. 1 2
  14. ↑ – about her archival work and the documentary LISTEN in the Bulgarian television. Original Titel: Диана Иванова: Да дадеш глас и да го чуеш (in Bulgarian). Published 2015-12-02. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  15. ↑
  16. ↑ "Capital weekly" (in Bulgarian). Retrieved 2015-12-23.
  17. ↑ "Journalism Prize „WRITINGforCEE“: 2005". Retrieved 2015-12-23.
  18. ↑ Ivanova, Diana. "Frau Bulgarin, Ivan Milev and Gustav Klimt". Journalism Prize „WRITINGforCEE“: 2005. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  19. ↑ Ivanova, Diana (2012-04-19). "Verwaiste Glockentürme, eine Stadt ohne Frauen und kahle Bauruinen: Bulgarien. Bulgarien?" [Orphaned bell towers, a city without women and bleak unfinished buildings: Bulgaria. Bulgaria?] (PDF; 4,5 MB). Villa Waldberta. Programm 2012. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  20. ↑ Anna Strugulla (December 13, 2013). "Suche nach dem verlorenen Sohn. In der Villa Waldberta organisieren drei bulgarische Stipendiatinnen einen Abend mit Kunst und Kulinarik. Das Werkstattkino zeigt Filme aus dem Archiv der bulgarischen Stasi" [Quest for the lost son. In the Villa Waldberta three Bulgarian scholarship organize an evening of art and cuisine. The Werkstattkino shows films from the archives of the Bulgarian Stasi]. Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). p. 20. ISSN 0174-4917.
  21. ↑ Ivanova, Diana, ed. (2015-08-24). "Filme des bulgarischen Ministeriums für Staatssicherheit" [Films of the Bulgarian Ministry of State Security]. Brotfabrik Berlin (in German). Retrieved 2016-03-26.
  22. ↑ Ivanova, Diana; Assenova, Mariana; Boykov, Nikolay; Mladenova, Radmila (2008). "GOATMILK. People and events" (PDF; 9,9 MB). Nova Kultura. Retrieved 2016-03-16. With photos and detailed information of the 5th Festival
  23. ↑ "About: What is Goatmilk?". Nova Cultura. Retrieved 2016-03-12.
  24. ↑ Ivanova, Maia (2011-03-30). "Im Nordwesten viel Neues" [In the northwest much new]. Bulgarisches Wirtschaftsblatt und Südosteuropäischer Report (in German). Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  25. ↑ Teneva, Rayna. "Goatmilkfestival 2012". Vimeo. Retrieved 2016-03-16.
  26. ↑ "Goatmilk-Philosophy". Nova Cultura. Retrieved 2016-03-12.
  27. ↑ "The bell of Bela Rechka". Nova Kultura. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  28. ↑ Bakalski, Julia (2008). "Erinnerungen. Goat Milk Festival" [Rememberings. Goat Milk Festival]. YouTube-Channel Goethe-Institute (in Bulgarian). Production: Goethe-Institut. Retrieved 2016-03-12.
    Kovatcheva, Albena. "How to make a bell (Photos 2008)". Retrieved 2016-03-12.
    Stanev, Raycho (2008). "Stories with bells. Sound installation" (Audio). Retrieved 2016-03-21.
    Ivanova, Diana (2010). How to make a bell. Plovdiv/Bulgaria: Janet 45. ISBN 978-954-491-544-5.
    Ivanova, Diana. "The old time Gypsies were good. Aunt Penka, Dolna Bela Rechka." (PDF; 78 KB). Retrieved 2016-03-12.
  29. ↑ "Borderland Foundation". Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  30. ↑ "Laundry: Projects". Retrieved 2016-03-21.
    "Intercultural Dialogue". Retrieved 2016-03-21.
    "Creative Laboratories of Intercultural Dialogue". Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  31. ↑ Harvey, Beverley; Jackson, Brendan; Mirwa, Gregor D.; Trow, Steve. "We no longer talk. Gorna Bela Rechka. A place of memory" (PDF; 26 MB). Retrieved 2016-03-21.
    Harvey, Beverley; Jackson, Brendan; Mirwa, Gregor D.; Trow, Steve (2010). Jackson, Brendan, ed. We no longer talk. Gorna Bela Rechka. A place of memory. Sejny, Poland: Fundacja Pogranicze/Borderland Foundation. ISBN 978-83-61388-72-2.
  32. ↑ Ivanova, Diana; Gospodinov, Georgi; Petrov, Rumen (2006). Аз живях социализма [I lived socialism. 171 personal stories] (in Bulgarian) (4 ed.). Plovdiv/Bulgarien: Janet 45. ISBN 978-954-491-946-7.
  33. ↑ Cooper, Lucy; Dimitrova, Christina (2005-10-10). "I lived socialism". The Sofia Echo. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  34. ↑ Lalowa, Elena (2006-11-16). "Mülldeponie gesucht. Sofia stinkt zum Himmel" [Landfill searched. Sofia stinks]. n-tv. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  35. ↑ "British Council Bulgaria". Retrieved 2016-03-14.
  36. ↑ Ivanova, Diana. "My street". Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  37. ↑ "My street in Bulgaria (Documentation)". Retrieved 2016-03-13.
    Krastev, Nikola (2006-05-29). "Bulgaria: Romany Women Ponder Life In The European Union". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  38. ↑ "Website Babak Salari". Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  39. ↑ Scarpaci, Joseph L. (2011). "Mi calle. Historias cubanas (review)". Journal of Latin American Geography. 10 (1): 209–210.
    "My street Cuban Stories (Documentation)". Retrieved 2016-03-13.
    Salari, Babak. "Traumas and Miracles 2008–2010". Bulgarian Photography Now. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
    "My street – Cuban stories" on YouTube
  40. ↑ Salari, Babak (Photos); Ivanova, Diana (Text) (2010). My Street. Cuban Stories. Plovdiv/Bulgaria: Janet 45. ISBN 978-954-491-603-9.
    Salari, Babak (Photos); Ivanova, Diana (Text). "My Street Cuban Stories. Contents and Foreword" (PDF; 342 KB). Janet 45. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  41. ↑ Dietrich, Martin (Photos); Ivanova, Diana (Text) (2012). Behind doors. Plovdiv/Bulgaria: Janet 45.
  42. ↑ Salari, Babak. "Traumas and Miracles (Photos)" (php). Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  43. 1 2 Salari, Babak (Photos); Ivanova, Diana (Text) (2016). Trauma und Wunder. Porträts aus dem Nordwesten Bulgariens [Traumas and Miracles. Portraits from the northwestern Bulgaria] (in German). Plovdiv/Bulgaria: Janet 45. p. 9 (own translation). ISBN 978-619-186-221-4.
  44. ↑ Salari, Babak (Photos); Ivanova, Diana (Text) (2016). Trauma und Wunder. Porträts aus dem Nordwesten Bulgariens [Traumas and Miracles. Portraits from the northwestern Bulgaria] (in German). Plovdiv/Bulgaria: Janet 45. p. 118 (own translation). ISBN 978-619-186-221-4.
  45. ↑ Komandarev, Stephan (Director); Ivanova, Diana (Script). "The Town of Badante Women". Doc Alliance Films.
  46. ↑ Bogdanov, Ivan; Ivanova, Diana (Idea and interviews). "Father – The Team". Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  47. ↑ "LISTEN. Synopsis, Biography, Team" (PDF; 504 KB). Central and Eastern European Film Festival Luxembourg. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
    Pavlova, Veneta (2014-10-11). "Radio Free Europe featured in new documentary ‘Listen’". Radio Bulgaria. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
    "Listen". Sofia Independent Film Festival. 2014-10-01. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  48. ↑ Ivanova, Diana. "LISTEN (Trailer)". Vimeo (in Bulgarian and English). Retrieved 2015-12-23.
  49. ↑ "Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty". Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  50. ↑ "LISTEN by Diana Ivanova. Film Screening & Discussion". Stiftung Bayerisches Amerikahaus (in German). 2015-06-11. Retrieved 2015-12-23.
  51. ↑ "LISTEN: Filmvorführung und Diskussion mit Regisseurin Diana Ivanova" [LISTEN: Screening and Discussion with director Diana Ivanova]. Universität Gießen (in German). 2015-06-25. Retrieved 2015-12-23.
  52. ↑ "Radio Free Europe: Diskussion und Film: ‘Listen’. Dokumentarfilm von Diana Ivanova" [Radio Free Europe: Discussion and film: 'Listen'. Documentary by Diana Ivanova]. die naTo (Sociocultural Center Leipzig/Germany) (in German). Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  53. ↑ "Bulgarische Filmwoche. Listen" [Bulgarian Film Week. Listen]. Brotfabrik (in German). 2015-06-05. Retrieved 2016-04-01.
  54. ↑ "International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2015 in Prizren/Kosovo". Retrieved 2016-03-15.
    "8. Central and Eastern European Film Festival Luxembourg 2015". Retrieved 2016-03-15.
    "CINEAST 2015 in Luxembourg". Sofia City of Film.
  55. ↑ Löser, Claus. "Listen (own translation)". Filmmuseum Potsdam (in German). Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  56. ↑ Golden Rhyton Bulgarian Documentary and Animation Film Festival: Regieprize for the best debut-film at 21. Documentary and Animation Film Festival 2014 of the Bulgarian National Film Center in Plovdiv/Bulgaria. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  57. ↑ "Bulgarian National Film Center". Retrieved 2015-12-23.
  58. ↑ "Austauschprogramm "Memory Work"" [Exchange program “Memory Work”]. Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung (in German). Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  59. ↑ Ivanova, Diana. "Groups". Retrieved 2015-12-23.
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