Cabinets of wisdom

As part of Finlandia Vodka’s 1000 years of less ordinary wisdom campaign Next-DC created a pop-up exhibition that finds inspiration from an unlikely source. Bulgarian proverbs have already synthesized hundreds of years of wisdom into quaint phrases. But to give them new less ordinary forms, relevant for contemporary audiences, Next-DC and curatorial team Studio Komplekt enlisted the help of Finnish creatives. Six proverbs such as “Not every tree can a whistle make” and “If you pretend to be a sheep, the wolf shall eat you” were reimagined by artists Antti Kalevi, Iina Vuorivirta, Kirsi Enkovaara, Eero Lampinen, Saana ja Olli and Marjukka Takala. The resulting works vary in form and character but are united by the exposition design — six contemporary cabinets of curiosity constructed by Bulgarian stage artist Eva Ventova. Throughout the Renaissance such wooden cupboards known as cabinets of curiosity were filled with encyclopedic collections of extraordinary objects from the natural world. In this case they displayed the artistic interpretations of Bulgarian proverbs.
The exhibition took place in an abandoned space in the centre of Sofia and was opened for a week. Visitors could guess which was the wisdom behind every cabinet or could reveal it on an interactive microsite. Five more wisdoms could also be experienced as less ordinary cocktails with Finlandia Vodka.
More about the project: http://www.lessordinary.bg/en