Nonument 2.0 is a film about the radio ballet premiered to the Park-monument of the Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship in Varna, in October 2022. It is a trilogy, presenting the monuments, which with time have lost their meaning, and from places of memory and tribute became such of worship of ideological myths and convenient historical narratives. The so called “no-numents” are ideologically charged, surrounded by hate, nostalgy, attitudes of revisionism and destruction, but also by desire for protection, conservation, and rethinking of their function in the present.  

Can a theatrical interference (performance) demythologize a NO-nument? Can it make a contemporary interpretation of it so that we change the imposed perceptions of the past, we can live the same emotional and critical sense of the present and provide a meaningful future without any lies?

Since 2002 the German company LIGNA – Ole Frahm, Michael Hüners, Torsten Michaelsen has been developing the so called “temporary situations” and has introduced the concept “radio ballet” which encourages the audience to act as a team creating seemingly spontaneous situations in mostly public spaces such as railway stations or shopping centers. LIGNA is working very actively with the Bulgarian artists Stefan A. Shterev and Emiliyan Gatsov, due to whom this specific theatre aesthetics has been transposed to the Bulgarian stage practice as well. So far they have worked jointly on the radio ballets “Secret Radio” at the Bulgaria Mall in Sofia, “Drunkenness and Anger – studies on the authoritative character”, which opened the theatre season in Künstler innenhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt in 2017 and was performed at more than 10 international festivals, as well as Nonument – performative approach towards Buzludzha” in 2019, which received the special ICARUS award in the category “Contemporary Dance and Performance” in 2020.

The film was realized with the financial support of the National Culture Fund under the Restoration and Development of Private Cultural organizations Programme.