FIG.FIVE

How We Work Together explores collective practices in the fields of graphic design, illustration, graphic arts, and visual arts. It delves into the ways collectives function, highlighting their structures, methodologies, challenges, and coping strategies. Through an interactive and participatory format, it examines the realities of collaboration, touching upon shared experiences, coproduction of knowledge, notions of understanding, solidarity, friction, disagreement, participation, conviviality as well as the subversive potential of collective work. 

This exhibition marks the opening of FIG. 5, the fifth edition of the Festival for Illustration and Graphics, which this year focuses on the theme of collaboration. FIG. 5 will investigate collective work across disciplines, from co-authorship and shared resources to mutual care and resistance. As its inaugural event, How We Work Together sets the stage for this exploration, gathering perspectives from collectives worldwide to create an evolving conversation around working together.

At its core, the exhibition is built upon an extensive survey of collectives, mapping their structures, decision-making processes, and coping mechanisms. Responses will be presented on a table, an object that facilitates work, negotiation, conviviality, and rest. Visitors will be invited to explore the collected insights through printed materials, annotated surfaces, and a digital platform, where they can contribute their reflections, expand a collaborative playlist, and browse reading lists and resources that have shaped the participating collectives.

By bringing together diverse voices, How We Work Together explores key questions of authorship, hierarchy, sustainability, and care. It considers how collectives balance friendship and labour, how they distribute responsibilities, and what happens when conflict arises. It also looks at collective work beyond practicality—how it fosters new ways of thinking, making, and resisting within an increasingly fragmented cultural landscape.

How We Work Together is a shared space of exchange, continuously shaped by those who engage with it. Whether through contributing to the growing archive, adding songs to the playlist, or simply gathering around the tables over coffee and snacks, visitors become participants in an ongoing dialogue about what it means to work together.

On the evening of 07.06 FIG. teams up with Goethe-institut Sofia in an evening of screening movies created by the collective Metahaven. Vinca Kruk and Daniel van der Velden are a Dutch collective known for their groundbreaking work on the intersection of design, art, and politics. Their work spans various media, including film, visual design, and writing, often addressing themes related to digital culture, propaganda, and geopolitics.

During FIG.5, for the first time in Bulgaria, two of their movies will be screened in the summer cinema of Goethe-institut Sofia.

The Feelings Sonnet (2024)

This film is a collective adaptation of Eugene Ostashevsky’s poetry, shaped through years of creative exchange. Based between Berlin and New York, Eugene’s work intersects with ours through a shared fascination with illogical poetry and linguistic play. Since 2017, our collaborations have spanned film, translation, and live discussions.

The film brings together voices and sounds in a layered dialogue: Eugene’s poetry is embodied by Amélie Haest, scored by inti figgis-vizueta, with cello contributions from Vesper (their daughter) and Aliona Ciobanu, a close collaborator of theirswho  has worked on electronic sounds with the cello. We filmed alongside two cinematographers, crafting a visual language that plays with palindromes and time reversals.

Chaos Theory (2021) is a film about patterns, unpredictability, and the ways language bends over time. Inspired by Eugene Ostashevsky’s poetry, it explores how small disruptions can shift meaning, creating a space where logic and absurdity coexist.

Paper Thread tells the story of the Kowary Carpet Factory, situated at the base of the Karkonosze Mountains in south-western Poland. After upgrading its production methods in the 1960s, the factory grew to an impressive enterprise that employed over 3000 workers, exporting woven carpets worldwide. The carpet patterns were first meticulously hand-painted on paper by a team of female designers, and then used to program the weaving machines. In 2009 the factory closed its doors, leaving behind little of its impressive library of designs.

The Paper Thread publication collects historical materials, conducted interviews and new graphical forms created on the basis of one of the remaining pattern papers found on site of the factory.

In this risography workshop taking place in Slopi Kopi, the polish graphic designer Radek Gorniak will delve into his research-based methodology. This process is a collaboration with the remnants of non-existent textile industries. For FIG. Radek and the participants of the workshop will research a variety of textile practices and industries in Bulgaria, using these discoveries to create new patterns to later be risoprinted and compiled into a publication.  

Every edition of the festival debuts a solo show by a young artist. FIG. 5 welcomes Lora Nestorova – her work is inspired by ancient cultures and myths, particularly the Mayan civilization, yet vibrant colors and humor add a playful but thought-provoking dimension to it. „This journey is not mine alone. It is a collaboration—between me, the myths, and a very special person who taught me to believe in them.”

To be Reborn you First have to Die a Little will take place in Charta Gallery. In the exhibition, Lora will be revisiting and showing the body of graduation works she created for her diploma in the ceramic bachelor’s program at NBU. 

The central question of the exhibition explores two pivotal and timeless concepts – apocalypse and sacrifice. The series of ceramic works are positioned on the intersection of ancient mythology and contemporary expression, creating a dialogue between past and present. They are a result of a collaborative journey between the artist, myths and her mentor. This taught Lora how to look at mythology as a living organism, allowing her to see these stories not as relics of the past but as forces that shape our present. 

Through her point of view the artist reimagines the concept of sacrifice and the apocalypse as a chance for creating destruction – where the end of one world gives rise to a new one, vibrant and full of life. 

ChattyPub is a collaborative and experimental editorial design and publishing workshop led by Hackers and Designers. H&D is a non-profit initiative and conglomerate (based in Amsterdam) of various artists and designers that organizes activities at the intersection of technology, design and art.

In their collective practice they create hands-on learning moments that promote the collaborative process across disciplines and technological literacy. H&D engage in creating tools that support the realms of communal experimental publishing and design as well as surpassing the traditional tools and forms used while designing.

ChattyPub is an experimental instant publishing tool developed by the collective. The workshop participants will explore its abilities to create a small publication, collectively and on the spot, using its interface to create layouts and take decisions about the narrative together.

Bring your own device (computer/tablet/phone) from which to join the platform and work with the tool. There will be a thermal print station on which zine output can be printed instantly. The workshop will accommodate different levels of engagement: participants may get involved in all layers of the publishing workflow (writing content, designing the publication with ChattyPub, coding the css styles that determine the design…) or choose to focus on just one aspect. 

Through a playful fusion of painting and sculpture, Paul creates a multidimensional space where form, colour, and humour coexist. At the same time, the show aims to start a discourse on how art, technology, and human ingenuity continually reshape one another. It reflects upon our relationship to creativity amidst a rapidly changing cultural context.

This show will concentrate on a dynamic exploration of the evolving crossroad between human creativity and artificial intelligence. Each piece begins as a collage of diverse image sources, carefully selected and transformed through a meditative process of layering and composition. This approach blurs the lines between the familiar and the unexpected, resulting in works that challenge conventional perspectives about these topics.

What does it take to be a freelance graphic designer in today’s fast-changing creative landscape? Whether you’re already freelancing or just curious about taking the leap, join us for a five-day shared studio in Sofia.

During the five-day workshop, hosted at Siesta Studio, participants will have the chance to work in a shared studio space in the center of Sofia. The workshop is led in collaboration between graphic designers Zahari Dimitrov (BG) and Paul Voggenreiter (DE). Project Swap is open to freelance practitioners but also to employed designers who are simply curious. Expect brainstorming, critiques, and group discussions to simulate a real-world freelance experience.

The workshop will blend actual client work, mentorship, and practical insights into freelancing. Participants need to apply with a project — find a local business or cultural organisation that needs a fresh visual identity. On the first evening, each participant will pitch the project and swap it with a fellow designer.

Over these 5 days each designer will receive guidance on the process, allowing them to sharpen their conceptual, design and presentation skills.

Painting the Clouds is a mural painting workshop for children from Concordia Youth and Social Center in Sofia. The workshop is led by Alexi Ivanov, who is a multidisciplinary artist and illustrator with a focus on urban muralism.

The workshop will take place over a couple of days, in which the children will learn about the conceptual and technical process behind it, as well as paint the mural together. The mural will be based on their interests, hobbies, dreams, and collaborative spirit, allowing them to explore the concepts of togetherness and collaboration. The children will develop their characters and composition, which will later on, during painting become one coherent piece.

The workshop will be held in collaboration with Concordia Youth and Social Centre in Sofia. The mission of Concordia is to provide sheltered housing and educational opportunities for young people from marginalised communities.

Join us for an insightful conversation with Jannis Zell and Metahaven, exploring the role of collective practice in contemporary art and design. Both guests bring unique perspectives on collaboration, authorship, and shared creative labor, offering reflections on its significance in shaping critical and experimental work today.