In 2020, in a collaboration with the largest positive media platform, i.e., Uspelite.bg, we launched the rubrics “Octane number: Culture” as an intersection of our ideas about the people who are persistently changing the environment through the means of culture, thus making our common future better. The project was supposed to last for an year, but eventually it lasted 20 months, during which we introduced individuals for whom improving the shared context is not a cause, a charity event, or an extraordinary display of empathy, but simply, a normality, everyday life, and a lifestyle.
They are translators, researchers, managers, journalists, artists, but also people who see contemporary Bulgarian culture not necessarily as a profession, but certainly, as love. All of them, you would rarely or never see during prime time of the mainstream media, not because they have nothing to say, but because they have fuel instead of rating obsession running through their veins. Our selection of participants for the column was entirely subjective and therefore, even more personal.
Our guests were:
Neli Stoeva, Teodora Simova, Galin Popov, Vera Trajanova and Milen Vitanov, Monika Vakarelova, Daniel Dimitrov, Borayana Zafirova, Elena Shopova, Ivan Andreev, Nikolay Kolev, Petya Lund, Emilian Gatsov – Elbi, Tsveta Andreeva, Marina Delivlaeva, Evgenia Surbeva, Yuriy Vulkovsky, Tanya Blagova, Vasil Chitanov, Veneta Rangelova.
In the period February 2021 – November 2021, the rubric was implemented with the support of the “Active Citizens Fund Bulgaria”