This happened in the project "Bridge between the Worlds", realized jointly between the artist Pavel Mitkov and the Association of disadvantaged children.
The art has become a bridge between the participants - sighted, blind and hearing impaired to show that there are no boundaries.
The project broke all the accepted concepts, frameworks and gave emotion to the blind children who worked together with the artist Pavel Mitkov for more than 2 hours at the National Center for the Rehabilitation of the Blind in Plovdiv.
The project "The Bridge between the Senses" and the idea for it was born after the exhibition of Pavel Mitkov, in which he shows 13 paintings created without the participation of sight. Then this so-called experiment of the artist was highly appreciated abroad because of his innovativeness and the feeling that the paintings created in complete darkness exude.
This gives the inspiration for the project to have its continuation and benefit the visually impaired. Eli Todorova from ARDUS - Association of Parents of Hearing Impaired Children embrace the idea and together with Pavel Mitkov implement it under the motto “Bridge between the senses”.
Pavel Mitkov told about his participation in the project:
These types of paintings are created only with the sensations, movements and emotions that you put into the canvas, without knowing what colors you use and what happens in the drawing process, and only work with the sensations. The thought in these paintings is completely absent. You don't think how it works, what to adjust, how to be, where to be. The strong point is that it is simply primal, poured out, given, and to a great extent a sense of participation in some divine creation, because you yourself participate much less, not seeing. That is why we decided to organize this drawing for the visually impaired children to see how they would perceive the drawing through their highly developed remaining senses. We gave the name "Bridge between the senses" because the project involved children with hearing impairment, who also painted with their eyes closed, but then told the blind people what they had painted. Thus, the eyes of hearing impaired people served as the eyes of visually impaired people, and the eyes of blind people were the ears of hearing impaired people - a kind of Bridge between the senses.
The experience is so powerful that it creates a special atmosphere of empathy and exchange. What is visible to all is the tremendous energy in children that stands hidden and waiting to be released and fulfilled. And what better means than the art that breaks the canvas.
Pavel Mitkov also shared:
The whole point of art is to put a huge amount of energy into it, and these people owned it and the paintings turned out to be incredibly impactful and powerful. The project Bridge between the senses is also a kind of bridge between the souls, because the senses are the sensors of the soul.
