European Center for Immersive Performative Art - ECIPA
67 avenu Vassil Levski - Sofia / Bulgaria
ECIPA - European Center for Immersive Performative Art / VARIANT culture is a place dedicated to creation, that uses the bodies of the audience, performers, light, sound and ordinary objects to present immersive art acts.
Immersive art happens when the body is physically active, in possession of all its senses and sensitivity, interacting with other bodies or objects at the same space in a movement directed towards the inner self, exploring the limitless internal theater that each human being possesses.
ECIPA is located in the space of "VARIANT culture", 67 avenue Vassil Levski, Sofia / Bulgaria and supported by the National Fund of Culture / NFC Bulgaria - EU Program for recovery and development of private cultural organizations.
Team members
Christian Bakalov
Director
After studying at the National Ballet School of Sofia and at The Young Ballet of France, Christian started working for Robert Wilson, Jérôme Bel and Florentina Holzinger, amongst others. His artistic journey ended up in close collaborations with Jan Fabre, Miet Warlop and Ivo Dimchev. In 2013, he began developing his first immersive performative installation, BRIGHT, in which the audience plays the main role.
Blurring the boundaries between performative action and installation, Christian develops a series of immersive methods which introduce the audience to a parallel universe, individually engaging their different senses and inviting them to reconsider the audience—art object—performer relationship.
Milena Dimitrova
Manger & Co-Director
Milena has accomplished more than 10 successful projects as an event manager and PR expert in the fields of music, literature, education and visual arts. She is a philologist by education, a long-time journalist in radio and print media, she worked for the development of audiences for classical and jazz music in Jazz FM and Classic FM and a long-term communication expert for large national and international projects.
Daniel Denev
assistant / performer / teacher
After his career as a Dancesport competitor, winner of the Bulgarian Cup and part of the Bulgarian national dance team, Daniel settled in Vietnam, as one of the professional dancers in the dance show "Dancing with the stars" for 6 seasons. During his 10-year stay, he worked in show business as a dancer, choreographer, model, actor and music concert director. Dance teacher at Vietnam-Australia International School, as well as Event manager at the biggest fitness club - CFYC.For the last 2 years, Daniel has been in Bulgaria, where he dances and choreographs on the independent dance scene. He is holding workshops for Dancesport, dance movement workout and teaching dance meditation and dance therapy. After his first participation in Christian Bakalov's project - UNREAL, he decided to dive into the immersive performance art, as an assistant and part of ECIPA.
Nikolay Barzakov
assistant / performer / teacher
Nikolay is a multi-disciplinary artist with expertise in visual and performing arts and theatre pedagogy. He has lived and created in Budapest, Hong Kong and currently based in Sofia, Bulgaria.
He has extensive experience in acrobatics, stage combat, juggling, clowning, pantomime, martial arts and dance improvisation. Long-term researcher and practitioner of the techniques of Grotowski and M. Chekhov. Currently, he is working on his doctoral thesis exploring the "Psychology of gesture and behavioral perception in cinema and theatre".
Tatyana Petrova
assistant / performer
After graduating in Master of Theology at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", Tatyana Petrova has being working as sell manager in clothing for Zara, H&M and Balenciaga. In 2014 she start assisting and performing in "BRIGHT", the first immersive performative installation of Christian Bakalov and continue since then to be part of all his projects. Tatyana was also assistant at IMAL center for digital art space in Brussels from 2019 - 21, and has participated in the organization of "Working title festival" for Workspacebrussels.
Demir Berisha
assistant / performer
Demir Berisha is a Belgian self-taught performer, who studied information science and photography.
He has been assisting, and performing for Christian Bakalov since 2017.
He has performed in works by Katharina Zimmerhackl, Ilke Gers, Benjamin Vandewalle, Jan Martens, Selma and Sofiane Ouissi, Fabrice Samyn, and Tetsuya Umeda, amongst others.
He currently lives and work in Brussels.
Mario Tomchev
assistant / performer
Born in Sofia, Mario specializes in Cinema & TV Arts. In 2013, he won the Audience Award for his performance at 'Assembly of Shame' exhibition at Ivo Dimchev's MOZEI in Sofia where he met Christian Bakalov. Since then, he has worked in Nu Boyana Film Studios, also few films and music videos, one television show, a theater summer school, a private film school and festivals such as Sofia International Film Festival and Meadows in the Mountains. Currently, he works in a television as well as assisting Bakalov since 2018, touring with him in places such as Amsterdam and New York City.