Part of the film " In the Middle of the Desert" was shot in the impressive gigantic flying saucer building called the Buzludzha. The monument is situated on the top of the historical peak Hadji Dimitar (1441m) in the Central Stara Planina, Bulgaria. On this peak was the final battle in 1868 between Bulgarian rebels led by Hadji Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha and the Turks.
The architecht of Buzludzha is George Stoilov. The construction of Buzludzha was made possible thanks to government funds and supporters’ donations for an amount of around 14 186 000 leva (around 7 000 000 €). The site was built by civil engineering troops from the Bulgarian army and volunteers. The construction was finished on 1891. Buzludzha was built in honour of the socialist movement and stays as one of the symbols of the socialism in Bulgaria. The monument was hosting the congress meetings of the socialist party and mayn public celebrations.
Ever since the superseding of the Bulgarian president Todor Givkov and the political changes that occurred in Bulgaria after 1989, the monument was abandoned. Since then no public institution seemed to be concerned about the conservation or the renovation of the building. After media publicity in 2010 the history of the monument got some public attention again. Politicians from the Bulgarian Socialist Party stated that they consider the monument their property and showed strong interest in getting it back from the Bulgarian state.
The renovation of the building is expected to be very high because of the bad shape of the building in the last 10 years. Eventually the current Prime Minister Boiko Borisov officially handed the ownership of the building back to the socialst party. Nowadays Buzludzha is still falling apart and there is no intention from the BSP Party or the state institutions to start soon with its renovation. It is also not clear what purpose the building would serve after the reconstruction- if it shall be a museum ot can also be used for commercial purposes like restaurant ot party centre. While the destiny of Buzludzha is still vague, many artists, filmakers and travellers continue visiting the abandoned monolite building and report about it.
The apocalypse is not happening in the future,
it is happening NOW...
To our parents, civilisation offered houses in the suburbs, computers, and automobiles.
And civilisation delivered. To the children of these workers, civilisation offered life on the moon, artificial intelligence, endless peace. All of which have failed to emerge. This world offers nothing to us: no meaningful work, no rest, no future – only fear.
And civilisation delivered. To the children of these workers, civilisation offered life on the moon, artificial intelligence, endless peace. All of which have failed to emerge. This world offers nothing to us: no meaningful work, no rest, no future – only fear.
The apocalypse is not happening in the future,
it is happening NOW.
It is not the result of our personal sins and
it is not the “collective responsibility of humanity”.
Climate change (or God, or whatever)
will not bring about the apocalypse.
The apocalypse began with the advent of our
current form of life based on industrial
there is no alternative to this form of
life,
that the way we live in this present
moment is simply a reflection of the way
things are.
Implicit in this common-sense
is the not-so-hidden assumption that the
present will extend indefinitely into the
future,
which both provides a measure
of comfort as well as the feeling of
imprisonment.
In times of crisis, a space of freedom returns,
and the possibility of a rupture with the present opens.
History,
long banished to dreary scholastic books,
returns to us fresh and alive.
To push away that which is closest to us, our
very form of life, and see it objectively
– this might seem impossible.
Yet it is not:
the first step is to give our form of
life a name, to identify it as something
finite in time and space, so capable of
ending.
This perpetual present that has
its only favor being the certainty of its
own destruction has a name:
capitalism.
IN TIMES OF DESERT
(Video )
it is happening NOW.
It is not the result of our personal sins and
it is not the “collective responsibility of humanity”.
Climate change (or God, or whatever)
will not bring about the apocalypse.
The apocalypse began with the advent of our
current form of life based on industrial
production.
It is easy to assume that there is no alternative to this form of
life,
that the way we live in this present
moment is simply a reflection of the way
things are.
Implicit in this common-sense
is the not-so-hidden assumption that the
present will extend indefinitely into the
future,
which both provides a measure
of comfort as well as the feeling of
imprisonment.
In times of crisis, a space of freedom returns,
and the possibility of a rupture with the present opens.
History,
long banished to dreary scholastic books,
returns to us fresh and alive.
To push away that which is closest to us, our
very form of life, and see it objectively
– this might seem impossible.
Yet it is not:
the first step is to give our form of
life a name, to identify it as something
finite in time and space, so capable of
ending.
This perpetual present that has
its only favor being the certainty of its
own destruction has a name:
capitalism.
IN TIMES OF DESERT
(Video )
