There’s a lot going on in Burgas. To begin with, it just won the bid to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2027 — making it one of the smallest cities ever to have had this honour! Nestled along the Black Sea Coast in Bulgaria, this city is also increasingly emerging as one of Europe’s emerging art destinations.
Leading the way is the Vaya Beach Resort. Surrounded by tiny, picturesque villages and best known for its eco-friendly splendour and boutique charm, the award-winning hotel these days holds a unique surprise—a collection of scintillating sculptures that would gladden the heart of any art lover. Instead of keeping you comfortably ensconced within its vast premises, the resort encourages us to step outside and take in not just the sweeping views of the Irakli Bay and golden sunsets, but also all the alluring art on display during the first edition of the Double Trouble Art Series, which has kept art-obsessed visitors returning all summer—and it’s still drawing crowds, according to curator Stephan Stoyanov.
A Bulgarian himself, Stoyanov is the man behind the Double Trouble Art Series, one of Vaya’s popular initiatives that brings art into unexpected places, in public yet often intimate settings. “The place where we first encounter a work of art can be just as important as the work itself in shaping our overall experience of it,” says Stoyanov, explaining that the Double Trouble Art Series was envisioned to challenge the traditional and often sterile notion of a white-cube gallery system and instead, take art out into nature where visitors can walk, linger, experience the weather and changing light conditions and spend a languid creative evening around it. “I am a big believer in the fact that art should sit within the ambit of the landscape. What you get, then, is an entirely new meaning for creating and viewing art,” Stoyanov observes.
Double Trouble Art Series is a long-term artistic project by Vaya Beach Resort, conceived to grow with each new edition, bringing together new artists, works and ideas. Its debut this summer laid the foundation for a months-long artistic programme, including a partnership with Artmark auction house. “The name Double Trouble was inspired by a painting of the same name by internationally exhibited artist Miryana Todorova, whose work is also featured in the series,” adds Stoyanov, whom Vaya invited to shape an initiative close to the resort’s heart. Over the decades, as he puts it, his own career has spanned multiple countries and collaborations with artists working outside conventional formats. He describes himself as “self-taught, and I always support self-taught artists,” and quipped at the opening recently, “I am trouble, and I look for trouble.” Those lines best encapsulate the curatorial vision of Stoyanov.
One of the works in the exhibition, The Crate Maze, belonged to the well-known Bahraini artist Shaikh Rashid Al Khalifa. The large, interactive sculpture arrived at Vaya Beach Resort directly after its presentation at Art Basel 2026. Based around the concept of how light interacts with its fine mesh metal body, The Crate Maze saw people engage with it, walking between and around its geometric abstraction. Double Trouble also brought together Archduchess Gabriela von Habsburg, Daniela Palimariu, MIKA SAV and Miryana Todorova – four very different artistic worlds meeting for the first time within a shared platform. While the Bulgarian artist MIKA SAV was already part of the first chapter of Double Trouble with works that would later find a natural continuation in her exhibition at Blu restaurant, Daniela Palimariu’s works reveal themselves gradually, drawing attention through their sensitivity to material, form and detail. “Removed from the traditional gallery setting, they lose none of their strength. Quite the opposite: they begin to interact with their surroundings in an entirely new way. That’s why I say art is best viewed in natural settings,” says Stoyanov, wishing he had hosted an exhibition entirely in conversation with nature a tad earlier in his career.
Meanwhile, the sculptures of Archduchess Gabriela von Habsburg explore the relationship between material, light and landscape. They change throughout the day, making it almost impossible to experience them the same way twice. There’s always something new to discover, insists the Luxembourg-born Habsburg, who once balanced her artistic practice with her diplomatic career. She has long been drawn to the timeless beauty of stainless steel—a material that remains remarkably strong and resilient while reflecting light with a delicate, almost poetic grace. As she explains, “Each curve and surface is intentional and alive, responding to the shifting light of the day. I love the idea that a steel sculpture is never truly static, it’s constantly evolving alongside its context.” She says that it was only after the opening that her steel works entered perhaps their most interesting phase. “The sculptures remained in place, and resort guests encountered them naturally, without necessarily arriving with the intention of seeing an exhibition. In this way, Double Trouble gradually became part of the local architecture and landscape,” she explains.
The presence of works by some of Bulgaria’s most significant artists adds another layer to the season’s artistic programme, avers Stoyanov, whose dream is to put Bulgarian art on the European map. The Double Trouble Art Series, he admits, is a small but decisive step in that direction. Stoyanov has worked in Burgas for decades — most recently organising a series of exhibitions by female artists — and he’s excited to see Burgas transforming into “a little jewel” under the leadership of its progressive mayor, Dimitar Nikolov. “Since Communist times, Bulgarian cities and small towns have had municipal galleries. It’s only a matter of time until the world discovers my little, great Bulgaria,” muses Stoyanov, who serves as the artistic director of Sofia Art Fair and has just been announced as the artistic director for the Prague Contemporary Art Fair, scheduled for next year.
Source: Khaleej Times
