Symposium Brieftopia: Archives of Futurity
23-24.05.2026 Speakers: Behzad K. Noori, Boris Buden, Edgar Schmitz, Michael Dutton, Magnus Bärtås, Maria Lind and Snejanka Mihaylova Moderated by: Behzad K. Noori and Snejana Krasteva Organized by: Museum of Humor and Satire, Gabrovo Location: Library building, Technical University of Gabrovo, Hadji Dimitar Str N4 In preparation for the 26. Gabrovo Biennial of Humor and…
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Briftopia: Archives of Futurity brought together critical voices from Europe and beyond in Gabrovo
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…
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Speakers Symposium Briftopia: Archives of Futurity – Michael Dutton
Michael Dutton, “Moments of Communism” Michael Dutton examines political life through the lens of various theories of energy expenditure that go beyond the calculative logic of both capitalism and traditional Marxism. He draws on the Daoist concept of qi (vital energy), which offers a hydrodynamic ontology in which energy is fluid and shaped by context…
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Speakers Symposium Briftopia: Archives of Futurity – Edgar Schmitz
Edgar Schmitz, “Trading in Brieftopia” To shape and face the future without negotiating it with the past would simply be preposterous in most cases. When the here and now is so marked by depletion and erasure that it starts trembling under the pressures of its excessive futures, it tends to strike new bargains with the…
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Speakers Symposium Briftopia: Archives of Futurity – Maria Lind
Maria Lind will address the question of “How far do we get with moments of magic?” through presenting and discussing three projects with which she has been involved: The TV Trampoline: From Children’s Television to Contemporary Art and Literature in Moscow, Kalmar, Umeå, Norrtälje and Kiruna, The Silent University by artist Ahmet Ögut at Tensta…
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Speakers Symposium Briftopia: Archives of Futurity – Magnus Bärtås
Magnus Bärtås, “A Tower Taller Than Myself: A Brieftopian Experiment in a Prison” What do prisons and museums have in common? Having emerged historically at the same time, they are considered opposites, yet at their core they share a common trait: the principle of observation. In one of his latest projects, Magnus Bartas works with inmates…
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Speakers Symposium Briftopia: Archives of Futurity – Snejanka Mihaylova
Snejanka Mihaylova, “Diagonal Thinking” Snejanka Mihaylova’s lecture explores thinking as a creative and political practice unfolding in the gaps between past and future, destruction and renewal. Beginning with Hannah Arendt’s notion of the interval as a condition for new thought, the lecture moves through Paul Valéry’s poetic dialogue “Eupalinos ou l’Architecte” toward the architectural spaces…
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Speakers Symposium Briftopia: Archives of Futurity – Boris Buden
Boris Buden, “Can it laugh? Surviving with AI” AI is an agency supposedly able to think. But can it laugh? When asked directly, the AI answers: “If making a joke means ‘producing a text that causes a human to laugh,’ then yes. If it means ‘having a sense of humor or understanding why something is…
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Speakers Symposium Briftopia: Archives of Futurity – Behzad K. Noori
There’s just over a week left until the “Brieftopia: Archives of Futurity” symposium on 23 and 24 May in Gabrovo, and over the next few days, we’ll introduce you to the speakers who will be taking part—artists, curators, researchers, and thinkers from Bulgaria and around the world. They will speak about the future, memory, crises,…
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