Museum from the future, Bulgaria
Project selected for the festival “Rivers of Sofia” taking place on the 29-31st August 2025
Organized by the Collective, КОЛЕКТИВЪТ
Designed and built by Ekaterina Leondieva and Julien Clabecq
Ekaterina Leondieva holds a Bachelor’s degree in History and History of Art from the University of Glasgow, Scotland (2016), and a Master’s degree in Design at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. She is a curator, designer, and cultural manager. She has worked on a number of social and artistic projects related to urban art, urbanism, the conservation and restoration of architectural heritage, and festivals. Kate is now based in Varna, Bulagaria.
MUSEUM FROM THE FUTURE
The Museum from the Future is an interconnected series of interactive site-specific installations exposing the ways in which we think about water, resources, waste and nature. The structures are linked through a fictional story placed in a future world that has experienced an environmental collapse. Our descendants of the future have engaged in the archeological and anthropological study of the past through remains and artefacts they uncover in their environment. They have created a museum which can show to their contemporaries how humans of the past (ourselves) lived and thought. The exhibition unfolds within the festival site highlighting specific “archeological finds” or providing interactive and educational installations. Each installation builds up the story and reveals the contradictions and peculiarities of our way of life in a witty and playful manner.
Welcome to the Museum from the Future.
The world as we know it has experienced an environmental collapse. Explore the archeological finds which help our descendants understand our way of living. Follow the red pipeline to unravel the story.
Human observatory
Look into the pipe to glimpse rare evidence of the customs of people from the past. They seemed to find joy in water, in the sounds and freshness of rivers, as can be seen in these archival images. Why, despite that, they kept polluting them is unknown and subject to further investigation.
The pipe Oracle
It has been suggested that humans of the past might have held unusual beliefs in relation to pipes. Could mysterious powers in pipes make your problems disappear? Let’s find out. Throw your problems down the pipe and proceed to the other end to hear the prophecy of the Pipe Oracle.
A bathtub with a view
Relax in the armchair, made from a rare fragment of an antique bathtub. Pick up the shower-phone to learn about the hidden network that made the past human civilization possible, but also led to its demise.
The wound of the forest
Recovered atmospheric data suggests that elevated CO² levels played a central role in the Great Collapse. It is unclear whether our ancestors understood the ability of Trees to capture carbon and produce oxygen. Traces of peeled bark, preserved to this day, suggest a conflicted relationship – perhaps of utility, perhaps of disregard.
The living bark
In the past giant Trees known as Sequoias existed in various places on Earth. Due to pollution and climate change they are now considered to be extinct. Here we can observe a sacred fragment of the Cycle of life – the bark of dead sequoias sheltering rich biodiversity of insects, birds and microscopic fungi. Walk around the Tree and look into the pipe to discover them.
Another brick
These rust-coloured porous “pebbles” found across the river are believed to be of anthropogenic origin. In the past, they were mass produced and commonly used in construction. The circumstances which scattered them across the river are unclear. One theory is that this could have been part of a ritual performed by construction developers to ensure the success of a new investment. Another suggests that a big storm carried them from a nearby construction site.
The language of the pipe
Visually and conceptually all installations are linked through the pipe as a main structural and symbolic element. A flexible red pipeline runs through the festival site and guides the Museum visitors, emerging in places that lead to installations. All pipes will be painted red in order to visually connect the installations.
The pipe and accessories connected to it relate to the displacement and control of water. They are symbols of modernity, progress and comfort and also a way to transport energy.
Pipes are witnesses of our industrial era. The pipe is embodying the contradiction of the world we live in: between modernity, comfort, progress and exploitation, pollution, destruction. This is why we chose the concept of pipes as a vehicle to tell the story of our world and throughout the installations we utilize the pipes as an observation device.
Visual style and commitment to upcycling
All installations are constructed from found upcycled parts and elements scavenged in various places mainly dumpyards and abandonned buildings in Varna and Sofia. The process of finding materials through urban exploration fed our creativity and the original compositions of the installations. This create a rather rough makeshift aesthetic that match the story of a fictional dystopian world in which humans are likely to scavenge old materials and use them to construct things.
