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Love Speech Campaign

Stanislav Belovski for Fine Acts / Photo by Mihail Novakov
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For our Love Speech campaign, we engaged 35 of the leading Bulgarian artists in a vast art action against hate speech - featuring a series of urban art interventions, a participatory installation, a viral online video, and a large free-to-use collection of illustrations.

Urban Art Actions in Sofia

LIGHT: On the International Roma Day, we launched Light, a video installation which provokes people to think about Roma visibility, discrimination and lack of inclusion. We worked with prominent artist Venelin Shurelov, who used street lighting as a way to 'illuminate' the faces of a community whose dreams and plights remain invisible. The work aimed to 'shed light' on a marginalized community - as well as be a reminder to 'watch our steps, and who we step on'.
Photos: Mihail Novakov
THE OTHERS: This piece, focusing on refugee rights, combines elements from the artwork by famous Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (The Great Wave off Kanagawa, 1830) and photography by Paula Bronstein / Getty Images, to create parallels between the past and future. For this work, we collaborated with prominent artist Stanislav Belovski, who says "We're all in the same boat, under the same sky".
Photos: Mihail Novakov
CELEBRETE DIVERSITY: Our colorful and inspiring mural was created by Nikolay Petrov (GLOW), a well-known graffiti artist. GLOW sees society as a multi-colored composition made up of the different unique colors, shades and tones of each individual.
Photos: Mihail Novakov

Exhibition, SPRINTS, Video

SAYING IS DOING: In April 2021, we launched our exhibition SAYING IS DOING, dedicated to hate speech. It explored the connection between words and actions in a new series of works by distinguished artist Vitto Valentinov - inspired by English philosopher John Austin's "Saying something is doing something". The exhibition consisted of various objects which visitors could interact with to learn more about the effects of hate speech on individuals.
Photos: Mihail Novakov
Video and Photo: Mihail Novakov
SPRINTS ON HATE SPEECH: We completed our collection of illustrations on hate speech, created in the framework of SPRINTS - our creative bootcamp where visual artists have 48 hours to produce works on a specific topic. In 2021, ten new artists joined the group of twenty we worked with in 2020, resulting in a collection of nearly 90 original open-license artworks, free to use and adapt non-commercially. With the created artworks, in March 2021, we also launched a vast outdoor campaign in Bulgaria's largest cities that was viewed by more than 500 000 people.
Photos: Mihail Novakov
VIDEO: In 2021, our video - a social experiment on the topic of hate speech - continued to spark conversation and engagement, amassing over 500 000 views on social media.
Overall, our Love Speech campaign engaged over 1 million people, raising awareness of the far-reaching implications of hate speech for society.
fineacts.co/love-speech-campaign