During the summer residency of the Urban Storytelling School, we talked with Vladiya Mihaylova from Toplocentrala – chief curator for visual arts at the new art center in Sofia that provides a platform for independent art, performance, and community engagement. The conversation is part of the Urban Storytellers Journal and touches on urban change, democratic processes, young people, and the relationship between art, community, and public life.

e first met Dimitar Nikolov during Imagining Cities – a symposium for situated practices within the Nine Elephants Festival, where his imaginative approach to urban space through sculpture immediately stood out.In this conversation, we talk about the dialogue between art and the city, how young people engage with public space, the value of temporary interventions, and the ways in which material and place carry memory and meaning.

he conversation revisits the topics introduced in the earlier piece “The Red List of Sofia – Threatened Spaces Unfolded”[1], which we published at the beginning of the year.