Saturday, 22nd July, Vienna

With the start of our trip to Bulgaria only a week away, L and I meet together with S and H to talk about the itinerary. S suggests a number of books and tells us about the basic structure of the company and the conditions it operates in. He also asks us about any special interest we have that might be built into the timetable. ‘Film studios’, says L, ‘and cinemas.’ ‘Monuments’, I suggest. Roses and ruins. Mosques, synagogues and cathedrals. Archaeology. Flea markets. S tells us a story about an American film production team which used a Sofia park as a cemetery, planting it with painted polystyrene gravestones and tombs. After finishing the shoot they saved themselves some time and money by just leaving the set in situ and walking away. He doesn’t think that it is still there. He also mentions acres of glasshouses near a village called Zwanichevo where almost all the panes are shattered. And a factory which produces toilet paper.

Due to the quality of the product, the cost of production and the economic situation in general many of the workers did not receive their wages and so they took their pay in toilet rolls instead. Members of their family started selling them at the side of the road with the result that whole streets of the village are lined with toilet paper towers… From an Austrian point of view, where everything is so strictly controlled and hedged about with regulations, these kinds of fractures or anomalies are almost unthinkable. However, if we follow them up, they are often visual indicators,  points of entry from which to explore the processes at work in the country.