Alternative Culture | Място за бъдеще

Under the surface of society has begun invisible battle – a battle between two different Europas – the living alternative culture of the XXI century and the dead official cultural forms inherited from the XIX century. In this point of view we can observe two opposite faces of the New Modernity – two opposite Modernities – Τέχνη and Фιλία – the official Europe of Technocratic Obsession and the Unofficial Europe of Loving.

Traditional communities and behavior models have been disintegrating; some have already become anachronistic. World-scale changes in our societies are so dynamic and unpredictable that they pose serious challenges to the capacity of inpiduals or groups to adapt. It has become increasingly difficult for groups to identify themselves on the basis of enduring, traditional interconnections. Identities seem to be ever more focused on personal choices, unfettered by long-lasting relationships and commitments. The structures, institutions and interactions fundamental to any society—family, matrimony, class oppositions and pisions, intergenerational, intersexual and interspecies relations—have undergone drastic transformations. At the same time, the necessity for new sustainable models of social behavior, interaction and coexistence has become increasingly acute on all levels of social interrelations.

The need for communal belonging and sharing, however, often conflicts with the isolation and alienation stemming from the hyper inpidualization of our communities. The increasing geographical, economic and cultural mobility brought along by globalization processes has created further challenges to preserving established communities. Moreover, these processes prevent inpiduals from maintaining organized forms of shared life. The new inpiduals, who reject (and become ever more incompatible with) traditional norms, institutions, values and models of communal life, turn into institutions in themselves, and it is their calling to construct the new communities and norms of their world. There emerge communities developing new kinds of ‘common life.’ Some of them categorically break with tradition, others categorically return to it, still others rediscover it, attempt to modernize it and hand it down to future generations.

The traditional ‘old’ communities have the advantage of being examined in their natural environment.

In parallel, participants will learn about other such communities in Europe and around the world, based on the principle of intentional communities: ecovillages, cohousing,residential land trusts, income-sharing communes student co-ops, spiritual communities, and other projects where people live together on the basis of explicit common values.

Still more examples will be drawn from some of the newest types of communal life in Bulgaria: from social networks such as the Food Co-op and Bg-Mamma movements, to civic groups and environmental protection networks such as the For the Nature Coalition and the Save Irakli civic group, to the new forms of ‘informal formal’ association such as our own Place for Future education network.

Why do new communities emerge? How do they attract young or educated people? Can we discern, past their obvious persity, some common principles and values? Do they offer more—or different—opportunities for personal expression? How are they related to democracy? How do communities make decisions? Do they foster a more responsible attitude to communal wealth and public responsibilities? What are their drawbacks? Can they offer solutions to the crisis of community and identity? Do they overcome the disadvantages of ‘living in communes’ characteristic of the ‘old’ new communities from the 19th and 20th centuries? How?

We can observe several important aspects of the expression of alternative informal culture in modern Bulgaria:

1: Alternative public aesthetics is actually esprit and the esprit is spirituality: witty paintings, drawings and graffiti on the facades of buildings in the city center of Sofia:

2: Alternative public aesthetics is actually ethics

Eco Rock Festival “Save Ruse” 21 years later:

3:The public’s aesthetic is also human nature and a new connection between the humans and the nature

The scandal caused by the index case of restructuring of the Soviet troops from the statue of the Soviet Army in Sofia and ‘magicaly turning them in symbols of Americanism (» with the times») could be also interpreted as an invisible battle between two cultures, between two ethical and aesthetical paradigms, between two worlds.

This is a battle between informal beauty against legitimate ugliness, battle between small and giant, which is actually a battle between the human and the inhuman, an invisible cultural battle between David and Goliath.

See also:

New Generation: Alternative Culture in Bulgaria

and

Eco Rock Festival “Save Ruse” 21 years later:

dedicated to Dimitar Voev (1965-1992)

series of events of Shtastlivetsa Association and Place for Future Educational Networkand partners Red House and the “Dimitar Voev – New Generation” FoundationDecember 2012

dedicated to Dimitar Voev (1965-1992)