Search Artists
Search Disciplines
Search
Places
Image
Tsarino
Tsarino
Images
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Description
After its gradual depopulation in the late 1970s, Tsarino disappeared from official maps. In recent years, this small village in the Eastern Rhodopes has been undergoing a gradual revival and has become a site for contemporary art in a rural setting amidst nature.
Run by artists and volunteers, the Tsarino Foundation has been organising residencies, exhibitions, and other cultural activities in and around the village for over a decade. The foundation serves as a platform for exchange between the local community, the regional art scene, and the international contemporary art field, while actively restoring and maintaining Tsarino through the renovation of buildings and infrastructure. Great care is taken to remain faithful to the village’s original character and traditions, both in restoration work and in the design of new structures.
Tsarino is an evolving and dynamic place. Although largely abandoned for more than forty years, it continues to transform — shaped by the foundation’s activities, the renewed involvement of the local community, and by nature itself, which steadily reclaims the land.
Residencies in Tsarino offer artists, writers, and researchers the opportunity to live and work in an abandoned village setting, immersed in nature. Secluded in its own valley and shaped by distinct seasons, the village changes noticeably throughout the year. Staying here provides an authentic experience of the local rural culture and opportunities to interact with the surrounding community.
Spending time in Tsarino often means adjusting one’s ways of living and working in response to its changing conditions and daily realities. For the foundation, hosting residencies and living and working alongside artists and volunteers has proven to be a joyful and stimulating way to explore what Tsarino is — and what it might become — both as a place and an idea.
Tsarino AiR Group Residency 2026
Over four weeks, the village will become a living laboratory. Up to ten participants will be invited to explore Tsarino through its landscape and its role within the surrounding local community, using both as sources of inspiration and material to develop new work. One will find mossy stone walls, abandoned ruins and relics of the communist era, forests and fields, memories and stories, old and new spring-fed chesmas (drinking fountains), foragers and visiting neighbours, owls and tortoises, and countless cow paths leading one to unexpected places.
Outcome
Throughout the residency, participants will have the opportunity to develop their project(s) with the foundation’s guidance and support as needed. The residency concludes with a public event where participants share their outcomes with the local community — this may take the form of an exhibition, performance, intervention, or presentation.
There is also an opportunity to use the Razklon Gallery — a 1m³ exhibition space constructed along the dirt road leading from Chorbadzhiysko to Tsarino — as part of a collaborative project among participants. This may extend beyond the gallery into the surrounding landscape for those interested in working together. For more information about the Razklon Gallery, see https://www.tsarino.org/razklon-about
Accommodation Information
Each participant is accommodated in a private bedroom in a traditional, hand-built Rhodopean house.
A dedicated cooking team prepares three communal meals per day. Residency participants take part in a shared cooking and cleaning schedule. Meals are prepared in a communal, roofed outdoor kitchen located near the houses, which can also be used as a space for working or relaxing. Cooking is generally done on a wood-fired stove or over an open fire; each house is additionally equipped with a gas burner for making tea or coffee.
Sanitary facilities are located outdoors and include composting toilets and wood-fired showers. Drinking water is available from a spring close to the village and is accessible on tap.
Clean sheets, towels, pillows, and blankets are provided.
Please note that the programme and its facilities are developing gradually. Accommodation and amenities are therefore basic but functional, and participants should be prepared for simple living conditions.
Studio Information
The participants’ private rooms also function as individual studio spaces. In addition, each house includes a shared communal area that can be used by the participants staying there.
Depending on group size and availability, some houses may have an additional room that can be used as extra working space. Further working space may be available to meet individual needs: participants are invited to make use of foundation-owned abandoned structures in the village of Tsarino, as well as the surrounding fields and forests.
They encourage participants to discuss their working needs with the team in advance or upon arrival. While facilities are modest and vary from house to house, we will do our best to find a solution that fits the requirements of each project.
Each house is equipped with a basic set of hand tools. Battery-powered tools and gardening equipment are available on request.
A solar-powered charging station is available for charging phones, laptops, and other small devices, as well as power tools and appliances up to 500 watts. Please note that electricity is generally limited and dependent on weather conditions. A generator is available for emergencies. Devices can also be charged in Chorbadzhiysko.
Technical Information
During your stay, the foundation will be available to assist you with technical support, organising materials, and Bulgarian communication. The foundation can provide around eight hours of support per week. Additionally, they are always on hand to answer your questions or provide advice.
Location
The formerly abandoned village of Tsarino (see: https://www.tsarino.org/about-tsarino) is a small settlement in the Bulgarian Rhodope Mountains, close to the Greek border. The village was gradually abandoned in the late 1970s due to a combination of factors, including its remote and isolated location and large-scale pine planting that enclosed the village and reduced surrounding herding grounds for livestock.
Over time, most inhabitants relocated to Chorbadzhiysko, a nearby town centred around agriculture, particularly the cultivation of peppers and tobacco. Tsarino — known as Asyurt prior to a regional name-changing campaign — belongs to a community of Muslim Bulgarians and is located in Kardzhali Province, a region with a majority Muslim population consisting mainly of ethnic Turks and Muslim Bulgarians.
Although no longer permanently inhabited, Tsarino remains significant to local communities. Its mosque and graveyard are still maintained and used, and some families continue to visit their former homes, harvest fruit, or graze cattle in the village. Animals move freely through the area and often shelter in empty houses.
In recent years, interest in Tsarino has grown. Former inhabitants and their descendants have initiated small-scale restoration efforts, including repairing houses and improving access roads.