“We opened the door to each other with foreign keys… A touch is every beginning, a meeting with my fears.”
– Andrea B. Veress, Creatopia participant
WHAT WAS THE PROJECT ABOUT?
Process First
Art that begins with the feeling – the urge to create, explore and stay in the process together.
Experimentation
Crossing and merging art forms: music with visuals, storytelling with movement, performance with sound.
Play & Trust
Improvisation, movement and games that turned a group of strangers into collaborators.
Nature & Place
Mountain hikes, sensory walks, a mountain lake and fire circles as sources of inspiration.
Co-creation
Artists and event makers dreaming up a shared festival from the ground up.
Rural Cultural Regeneration
Bringing creative life to a mountain village and exploring what culture can grow there.
Phase 1 – Gathering & Conceptualisation
17–25 SEPTEMBER 2025, SEMKOVO
Our beginning: ideas, conversations, fires. Nine days of a creative lab with hikes, workshops and collaborative ideation, where participants met as people and as artists, tested bold cross-disciplinary experiments, and shaped the first draft of a festival together.
Phase 2 – Creation & Festival
PLANNED FOR JULY 2026
Phase 2 was imagined at the time to build the artworks and bring them together in a large international festival in Semkovo. At the end, the festival didn’t happen.
The OUTCOMES
WHAT WAS CREATED?
Over nine days, a group of strangers became a creative community. Participants describe leaving with courage, renewed playfulness and a stronger trust in their own expression – along with friendships and new collaborations that already reach beyond the residency.
Along the way, the group created:
- Play with Silence – a non-verbal performance play by Kris Filipiuk from InnerArtive, captured on video (below)
- Prototypes of interactive and sensory experiences, tested together with the group
- Quick cross-disciplinary creations, shared in an open showcase and jam
- A collective festival draft, shaped by working groups on line-up, workshops, site, logistics, community and communications
- Connections and collaborations between artists that continue after the residency
PLAY WITH SILENCE
A PERFORMANCE PLAY BY INNERARTIVE
One evening, the group stepped into Play with Silence – an InnerArtive format led by Kris Filipiuk, where people create and connect through art and play without a single word. For several participants it became the most meaningful moment of the residency. Video by Toni P. Lyubenova from Axolotl.
“If you feel disconnected and overloaded with information – try to spend one hour in silence playing around with art of any kind together with your dearest friends.”
– Katerina, Creatopia participant
CAPTURED MOMENTS
PARTICIPANT VOICES
Testimonials
“Kris as a facilitator has the skills to work with a diverse group and make the experience meaningful for everyone equally, making sure everyone’s heard and seen. He reads the collective pulse of the group and adapts flexibly, taking the lead and stepping back as needed.”
– Antti Lähdesmäki
“Having a safe space for exploration and expression without judgment is the most valuable thing for me as a person and as an artist.”
– Zori
“Kris was building our way with such clarity, love and playfulness… An amazing listener, leader and friend.”
– Mihail
THE TEAM BEHIND CREATOPIA
FACILITATION, PROJECT MANAGEMENT, VOLUNTEERS
Behind every session, hike, meal and fireside conversation stood a small team that held the space for the group to create.
Kris Filipiuk
FACILITATOR, PROGRAM DESIGNER
Toni Lyubenova
CREATOR & PROJECT MANAGER
Miglė Tiškevičiūtė
Volunteer
Atanas Yonkov
Volunteer
ORGANIZERS
Coliving Semkovo, Bulgaria
Creatosphere, Bulgaria
This is my inspiration for this theme and it is something I recently discovered as a mindset. I found new logic for my entire life through caring for another and how much hope that brings to an individual when they have to do things to make another creature’s life better and not their own. Which of course makes everyone in the equation happy.