During the uncertain times of the state of emergency and mandatory isolation in the spring of 2020, ВИЖ! invited writers, poets, photographers, artists and illustrators to tell the story of what it feels like when outside means inside. The resulting book When outside was inside. Isolation diaries, published in collaboration with Janet 45, compiles works by 72 authors, including world-renowned names such as Georgi Gospodinov and Theodore Ushev, as well as a number of other popular or entirely unknown artists working in different fields. This creative diary of the days we spent in isolation became the only physical memento of an interesting and unusual point in our lives.

The project received an award from the Sofia Metropolitan Municipality for outstanding achievements in the field of culture. The book launched as part of the Sofia International Literary Festival and received two nominations for the annual “Golden Lion” literary awards of the Bulgarian Book Association – in the categories “Publishing Project with Great Public Significance” and “Best Book.”

The exhibition Isolation diaries  took place in June 2020 at CREDO BONUM gallery in Sofia, with curators Vesela Nozharova and Gergana Minkova. It featured artists Alexander Stanishev, Theodore Ushev, Andrea Popyordanova, Boryslava Karadjova, Martin Iliev, Boryana Pandova, Georgi Gospodinov, Boris Dalchev, Konstantin Kostov, Omana Katsarska, Mila Yaneva-Tabakova, Nadia Radulova, Vyara Boyadzhieva, and others. In September 2020, the exhibition visited Plovdiv as part of the Plovdiv Reads literary festival.

Client: ВИЖ! Magazine

• Photo credits: Georgy Velichkov, Kiril Peychev, Galya Yotova