open call – imagining cities

Rapid spatial and demographic growth, mass building investment and disappearing centers, administrative withdrawal and poor social infrastructure, frozen democracy and growing isolation, environmental crises and sudden catastrophes – these are some of the issues many large-scale cities face today, whether neoliberal, post-socialist, or part of the Global South and East. Cities are expanding fast, but often in fragmented ways, driven by investment-led urbanism that puts profit before community. Participatory and democratic processes are being eroded, making it all the more urgent to explore alternative, creative ways of reclaiming and reimagining urban space.

Over the past few years, the Center for Social Vision, and since last year the Nine Elephants Festival, both based in Sofia (Bulgaria), have been exploring the contradictions and complexities of urban life – its open structures, informal interactions, and non-discursive relations. Inspired by spontaneous street encounters, informal care networks, everyday activism, and unexpected urban affinities, we support transdisciplinary artistic and curatorial practices that imagine more desirable ways of co-living.

As part of the second edition of Nine Elephants Festival (10-20 July 2025), we invite emerging artists, curators, researchers, and cultural professionals to join Imagining Cities, an open and informal practice-sharing event in Sofia. It’s a space to connect with peers, experts, and colleagues, and to engage in meaningful, in-depth conversations around a shared field of work.

The forum is hosted by the Center for Social Vision, an interdisciplinary platform that sees art and culture as part of an expanded field of practice – bringing together diverse disciplines, experiences, and forms of knowledge. Our work connects public and exhibition spaces and is supported by a wide network of practitioners based in Sofia and beyond. Our partner is the Urban Storytelling School, a Sofia- and Berlin-based research initiative developed together with C*Space Berlin.

The event is part of the Nine Elephants Festival, returning for its second edition between 10 and 20 July 2025 in Sofia. This festival has brought new energy to our city, drawing the attention of both niche communities and broad audiences, including art professionals and public officials. With this second edition, we aim to expand our reach to European and international expertise, connecting distant yet kindred urban contexts and geographies.