Hello all,
For this time I will present you Veselin Mitev “Vesko” and Marija Koycheva, they live here in the village and they created the Amphitheater of Dolen. They received me in their house, they had lit the fire and then they offered me some fruits and wine. We had previously spoken about what were we supposed to talk about and then we sat next to the fire. First attempt of recording got interrupted by Maja, the dog, and we had to start again. We talked for half an hour and when I ended the recording, pressed stop and went to check it in my phone, there was nothing. Something occured, maybe I pressed the wrong key, there was not enough storage or maybe just the stories that were told and what was said there are to be kept there, next to the fire. So here I will relate you what I remember and what Veronika helped me to reconstruct. I hope I can capture the essence of the moment and that I will tell you their story in a reliable way.
It all started when Vesko bought the house 20 years ago, built with stones with an architecture very characteristic of the Adriatic region, that can also be found in some regions of Greece. The place was a barn that had never been habited, so there was not a lot of human traces in the place, nobody had been born and nobody had died there. Together with their two children, they are the first family living there in that place. It was built by a woman hundred years ago who has dreamed a house to be there, but it was used for animals and to store hay. Marija arrived later to his life and when she saw the house it looked like the one she had drewn when she was a child, a house with round corners.
What started as a Vesko’s dream by contemplating the landscape and how nature had designed the perfect spot for his project, became a reality when the amphitheater started taking shape, with the stage over the river, the seats built with stone having the capacity to receive many people and the warmth to host musicians and artists from many different parts of the world.
After many years of hard working with stone, wood and designing, the whole scenery was ready for the inauguration of the Transfiguration festival in 2015. This event hosted around 1500 people with musicians from different countries. Sadly this festival brought losses in terms of money and it meant the start of a new chapter in Vesko and Marija’s life, maybe honouring the name of the festival, meaning the transformation from one form to another. After that time, they have been organizing some other festivals with only hundreds of people so the size remains human and the logistics is less complicated. It can be very exhausting when lots of people come to your house for a festival, so now they do events in smaller size. For them, this journey is about life, arts and nature, therefore, the construction of the Amphitheater the organization of the events have became a social enjoyable experiment.
There are many foreigners and travelers who come to this place and to the different events that are happening here, that is why they so strongly linked with Portite, they support each other by working together and keeping developing their network. Also, local people are interested and getting involved in the construction of the place and participating in the different events they do. They have a very deep-rooted culture that has been preserved through the years so this mixing gives as result a very interesting combination, for example is remarkable that christians and muslims live together in harmony and respect.
Thanks to them and other friends, more people who came first to visit, to party or to participate in the festivals are buying houses in the town, so their network is growing and attracting more people that is eager to build this new community in the old town of Dolen, by creating a fantastic symbiosis between the traditions preserved by the locals who have always been here and the new ideas and fresh energy of the newcomers.
Regarding the construction and design of their house, they have had some freedom because they are outside of the limits of the old town. Usually, as Dolen is declared as an Architectural reserve, if people want to build or restore a house there, some guidelines need to be followed: the walls have to be in stone and covered by cob (a mixture of clay, straw, sand and water), the roof needs to be made of a special stone and finally, the external facade should be white. For Vesko it is very important to excel in his work and that can be seen in his designs, his house and in his finishings.
As some other activities and after Marija started to explore how to do their own cosmetics and oinctments to alliviate pain and to take care of themselves, people showed interest so they started to show them how to do their own products in some workshops related with plants, herbs and nstural ingredients, like fabrication of teas, natural caring products for the skin, soaps and more.
Marija and Vesko are very hard workers, and all their effort is seen in their house and their family as it requires a lot of attention and care as well as the wood atelier that he has in the lower level of the house. They have different professions but here in Dolen they dedicate their lifes to art and the connection with nature and invest a lot of energy and time in the construction of this community.
Vesko is a musician too and for him music is above everything, it is the most important thing because it is invisible. Nobody can see it or touch it but it is always there. He told us that for him it is usual to give interviews about music and about that world, but this time it was a bit different, it was a conversation about their life that invited them to make a retrospective about their past and to look again to the steps they have taken, where they are in their lifes now and what are the next steps to follow and the upcoming projects.
We invite you to visit Dolen and experience all these stories by yourselves. You can follow the news about the amphitheater in their Facebook page for the upcoming events next season here: https://www.facebook.com/amphitheaterDolen1/
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed their story and until next time!
Un abrazo,
Juliana
