This was the seventh edition of the international design festival Melba. Thank you for being our guests and for sharing the experience together. The program was once again a vital platform full of lectures, exhibitions, exchange of ideas and meetings with exciting and meaningful design examples. Save the dates for the eighth Melba festival -> 6-16.11.2024. And until then, let’s recall some of the highlights from this one.
Overview of Bulgarian design with the theme “A Matter of Image”
For another year, Komplekt is producing an exhibition focusing on Bulgarian contemporary design. This year’s curators are Andrea Popyordanova, Viktoria Staykova and Mila Yaneva-Tabakova from the TI-RE collective, and the theme is Matter of the Image or How Media Change the Image. They invited 10 young Bulgarian artists working in the field of illustration, typography and photography to work on an assignment. In the travelling exhibition “A Matter of Image” participate Dimitar Ilchev, Alexandra Vacheva, Iva Ivanova, Elena Chergilanova, Stefani Nedelcheva, Dora Ivanova, Martin Grigorov, Nikola Lamburov, Pavel Pavlov, Andrea Popjordanova, and the exposition design is handled by Georgi Sharov. After the exhibition is shown at the Swimming Pool Gallery in Sofia, it will travel next year to the Graphic Days festival in Turin.
The International Symposium
Toplocentrala once again hosted the Melba International Lecture Symposium. On stage we welcomed Bram Broerse and Maurits Wouters from Studio Airport, Max Enrich, Anna Sarvira from Pictoric Illustrator Club, Maria Jeglinska – Adamczewska, Kirsten Algera and Ernst van der Hoeven from MacGuffin magazine. We heard their stories told through projects, ideas and dreams. Traditionally, the foyer was animated by our partners and friends who contributed to the good mood throughout the day.
The atmosphere during the coffee breaks of the international Melba Symposium was contributed by our partners and like-minded people in the lobby of Toplocentrala: Urban Embassy Specialty Coffee, иХляб, Mahala Bookstore, Punkt, Testpress, Sito Studio, Avrtikl Bookshop, No8, Crystal Water&Air, 1664 Blanc, MOTO-PFOHE, Fashion Days.
Design Residency: the exhibition Mamo Dzhanka by poet Bojana Slavkova and graphic designer Stefanie Nedelcheva
For the second year in a row, Komplekt produces a design residency for young artists. For this edition we partnered with the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation and Fashion Days. Bojana Slavkova and Stefani Nedelcheva spent a week together in Chepelare this summer. Inspired by the image of the junk as a symbol of wild and free nature, they created poetry and illustration, which they wove into a joint exhibition. Their project remains sealed in a small edition zine, which can be ordered or seen at the Studio Komplekt office.
Diploma project: Pandæmonium by Danail Kapchin
Following projects in ceramics and digital arts in previous editions of the Diploma Project series, this year the focus falls on fashion. Danail Kapchin’s diploma project Pandæmonium was selected second in the IDEA MODA competition. The fashion collection is his graduation project, with which he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in fashion at New Bulgarian University with teacher Nikolay Pachev. Pandæmonium comments on the role of demons in contemporary society through the language of clothing. We are grateful for the partnership and hospitality of Unicredit Studio.
Exhibition “The Pollinators of Slovenia”
With this exhibition, we at Komplekt are fulfilling our dream of expanding the festival programme by showing exhibitions created by the symposium’s guest speakers. Arranged in the Serdika Gallery at the Women’s Market, the interactive exhibition with creators Studio Airport and Emergence Magazine told through authentic and diverse stories about the interaction between humans and pollinators in Slovenia in times of ecological crisis. Characters include a forest beekeeper who shares his bed with bees, small family farms for regenerative agriculture, two urban beekeepers and a guest chef whose farm is entirely dedicated to bees. You can learn more about the project from its online presentation.
Posters by contemporary Ukrainian illustrators
In line with the idea of showing more international content in our programme is the #SUPPORTUKRAINEPIC exhibition curated especially for Melba. After participating as a speaker in the symposium, Anna Sarvira presented her 28 selected illustrations on the history, culture, traditions and nature of Ukraine to the audience and in the presence of the Ukrainian Ambassador to Bulgaria Olesya Ilashchuk. The extremely varied illustrations are the work of artists from the Pictoric Illustrators Club collective. On the initiative of the Ukrainian Embassy in Bulgaria, the exhibition is expected to visit other places in the country.
MOME University of Art and Design Exhibition
Once again, the festival partnered with the Liszt Institute – Hungarian cultural institute whose gallery hosted the group traveling exhibition “Interpreting Heritage” with projects by graduates from the Budapest University of Art and Design (MOME). Interpretations of traditional craft techniques and heritage could be seen on site, inspiring young designers to apply them to their work with 3D printing, ceramics, textiles, wood and recycled materials. All the objects showed both a high level of sensitivity to a wide range of topical issues, and attention to execution and the high quality of the end result.
Exhibition “Bulgarian Product Design: Furniture”
According to 84.3% of the visitors of the exhibition “Bulgarian Product Design: furniture”, which was presented in the San Stefano Gallery, Bulgarian furniture can be competitive on the world markets. The exhibition, organized by the design, interior and architecture magazine MD, presented 30 products from the winners of the “Bulgarian Furniture of the Year” competition in the period 2011 – 2023.
Melba School
Our ambition to support and develop talent is encoded in the Melba School series. We have re-emphasised learning new skills through experiment, play and good examples. The mentoring and teaching role, as usual, we cede to professionals whose work we like very much and believe that their knowledge and experience can be useful for others. Thanks to arch. Penka Stancheva and to graphic designer and visual artist Philip Boyadzhiev for agreeing to host the two-day Melba classes this year.
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The dates for the next edition of the Melba Festival are: 6 – 16.11.2025.
Photos from the symposium, exhibitions and classes: Mihail Novakov
Photo from MOME: Antonia Baramova / Liszt Institute Sofia
Photo from Bulgarian Design Review: MD magazine
MANY THANKS to our supporters and partners:
The Melba Design Festival is implemented with the financial support of the National Culture Fund under the Creation Programme and is part of the Calendar of Cultural Events of Sofia Municipality.
The festival is held with the kind support of the following institutions: the Ministry of Culture, the Embassy of Spain, the Embassy of Ukraine, the Liszt Institute – Hungarian Cultural Institute Sofia, the Polish Institute in Sofia, the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation.
Thanks for the support of: Fashion Days, Moto-Pfohe, 1664 Blanc, UniCreditBulbank, Mahala, FESPA Bulgaria, EpayGo, EasyPay.
Locations: Toplocentrala, SwimmingPool, L44, Unicredit Studio, Serdika Gallery, San Stefano Gallery, Dot Sofia, Komat Restaurant.
Visual identity and website: Punkt
Graphic designer, author of over 40 font families, numerous corporate and multi-font typefaces and more than 150 visual identities for companies, institutions and events. Designer of the year in the Polish Graphic Design Awards (2019). Co-author of TYPOTEKA.PL – the Polish typographic directory and coordinator of numerous exhibitions and cultural events.
Skillfully juggles between illustration, animation and mural. Her work is colourful, bold and highly expressive. Her murals often reference folk art and typography, weaving specific stories through careful selection of colours and motifs. Holly Pereira has talked about her work in institutions like the National Gallery of Ireland and the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin. She is also a proud member of The Minaw Collective, an all-female street art collective based in Ireland.
Adam Štěch (Czech Republic)
DUMBAR/DEPT® 
GUNIA PROJECT 
