Mediating metamodernity in Bulgarian cultural production : an exploratory case study of Klaxon Press Collective

Abstract

This exploratory case study will examine the way in which Klaxon Press Collective, a new independent media producer in Bulgaria, is reflexively re-presenting and re-imagining the identity of their local community during a period of socio-political flux. The study strives to gain a preliminary understanding of the characteristics of the Collective's imagined "metamodern" Bulgarian identity as they are manifested both in Klaxon’s material cultural production as well as the organization's structure, goals, collaborations, and live events. A non-profit art collective and small press, Klaxon positions itself as part of a larger cultural transformation taking place in Sofia, Bulgaria. This process of transformation is evidenced by the country's admittance to the EU in 2007 and the extensive 2013 protests and national political instability. While explicitly placing themselves within this politicized context, Klaxon Press Collective has come together to further art as a business and the development of a creative community within the Bulgarian capital. The organization's espoused goal, to serve as a distribution platform for young Bulgarian and International artists, and more broadly, to support the promotion of a progressive mode of thought that they dub "metamodernism" within Bulgarian society suggests a unique connection between the imagination of communal identity, social transformation, and artistic media production. It is this connection between context, cultural identity, and artistic production that this interdisciplinary study seeks to investigate through the study of KPC's extant web content and premiere publication via the application of multiple methodological approaches including document, organizational, and literary analysis.