It is with a touch of roguishness that Lisl Ponger and Tim Sharp refer to themselves as “artist-tourists,” although the two of them have little in common with the cliché of excursionists fixated on amusement. Their working principle is “research as an artistic strategy.” The “Bulgarian Project” has been approached very carefully as well: during a preliminary stage and in a kind of extended brainstorming, they have collected data and historical facts about Bulgaria, as well as relevant materials – personal photographs, anonymous films, and a myriad of objects. The knowledge they acquired was constantly being complemented and combined with impressions they gained during their journey. Eventually, it was translated into a combination of text and image. Their look at the landscape endows the term “pictorial language” with a special interpretation.

Their approach to Bulgaria – or, more precisely, the region where EVN Bulgaria operates – takes place on two – or rather three – different levels: The first level is based on the principle of a journal (logbook), with the texts having been written exclusively by Tim Sharp. The second level is of a visual nature and comprises photographs and film shots. As the artists took turns in handling the cameras, it is difficult to determine the individual authorship. Hence, an essential component of this work is that things have been looked at from at least two different perspectives. However, Lisl Ponger and Tim Sharp have not only relied on their personal points of view, but have also incorporated stories from the surroundings – which constitutes a third level. The logbook was continuously enlarged in the course of their travels, changing in terms of both structure and content, as in a road movie, where sudden events can bring about unexpected turns. The viewers – who simultaneously are always also readers – thus proceed from an abandoned modernist movie theater to a factory for bridal fashion. One can choose between attending a folklore festival and visiting secluded workers’ holiday camps. There is an opportunity of viewing the mosaic floor in the synagogue of Sofia as well as the golden yellow paved roads in the Bulgarian capital. Photographic motifs of rusty company trucks alternate with filmed scenes of narrow mountain roads. However, a mere description of the themes and motifs does not suffice – only the multifariousness of possibilities will allow reconstruction to turn into experience.

This DVD is not a travel guide presenting unspoiled nature or edifying cultural monuments. It does not recommend any restaurants, hotels, or “the hottest spots to be.” It is indeed a description of Bulgaria, although not one that is reduced to facts and hints. The artists’ intensive preoccupation with the country has supplied numerous of its heterogeneous aspects: history alternates with current events, special features with everyday banality. Lisl Ponger and Tim Sharp have captured the region in the sense of social perception, directing their narrative through their subjective views.

However, the project of Logbook 2006/2007: A Bulgarian Journey can also be seen from the perspective of communication, embracing the company EVN, its collection of contemporary art, and two European countries and their interrelationship. According to Luhmann, communication is a synthesis of information, message, and comprehension. Communication cannot happen without comprehension. Seeing works of art as “senders” means that they inform and impart a message. It rests upon the “addressee” or “receiver” to understand them and their content. Logbook 2006/2007: A Bulgarian Journey is a paradigm of such a communicative relationship. It supplies information and imparts a message through the artists’ “pictorial language.” It presents a variety of stories, with the artists’ subjective and nevertheless pluralistic perspectives offering multiple opportunities of dealing with them. The strength of the approach lies in the great diversity of unfolding variations.

Heike Maier-Rieper