Talking about the future during a storm
On May 23 and 24, the University Library of the Technical University of Gabrovo hosted the international symposium Briftopia: Archives of Futurity, organized by the Museum of Humor and Satire. Despite the complicated situation in the region, the event brought together participants and guests from different countries for two days dedicated to critical thinking, imagination and conversations about the future.
In days when attention was naturally focused on the consequences of the floods and on one of the brightest and most respected Bulgarian holidays – May 24, Gabrovo briefly became a place for an intense conversation about the future, imagination and the ability to withstand crises – personal, social and political.
With an impressive program and participants from different countries, Briftopia: Archives of Futurity brought together in Gabrovo some of the brightest critical voices from Europe and beyond. The symposium featured speakers Behzad K. Noori, Boris Buden, Edgar Schmitz, Maria Lind, Magnus Bartas, Snejanka Mihaylova, and Michael Dutton, and the discussion was moderated by Snezhana Krasteva and Behzad К. Noоri.
Over two days, the discussions covered topics such as war and the end of the world(s), faith and the sacred, necromancy, education, artificial intelligence, critical thinking, and the possibility of creating new forms of community and imagination.
From a student room in Tehran to the spaces between hope and hopelessness, Brieftopia participants raised questions about how we think about the future in a time when it often seems canceled or reduced to ready-made images and algorithms.
Among the highlights of the program were discussions about laughter as a form of resilience, the possibilities and limitations of artificial intelligence, and the idea of diagonal thinking – thinking through gaps, intervals, and uncertainty. Special attention was also paid to the question of how cultural institutions can work within existing structures without being completely absorbed by them.
What Brieftopia made clear is the need to continue talking, gathering, and imagining the future – even and especially when reality seems unstable.
We will meet again, we will discuss again, we will try again. Because this too is a Brieftopian act.
The symposium is realized with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture.
