The NATFA’s DOCTUS - The Unbearable Lightness of Freedom, exploring new, creative, and non-traditional methodological approaches to research in the field of arts.The artistic researchers are discussing the connection between decadence and freedom, as aesthetic conditions, political gestures, and methodological provocations.
Keynote speaker is Liza (Elizaveta) Boeva, an associate professor in the cinema & TV department at New Bulgarian University and host of a specialized art programme on Bulgarian National Television. She has graduated at Saint Petersburg State University with a degree in History of Arts and from NATFA with a degree in Film and TV Directing. In 2011, Elizaveta Boeva defended a doctoral thesis on Beatniks and Hippies in America, 1947–1972 at New Bulgarian University. She had published two monographs with research on Shakespeare and Kafka. Her research interests are now focused on the history of fine arts. Dr Boeva widely uses various artistic methods in her research. She is a screenwriter and director of several documentary films.
The participants are brainstorming, analyzing, discussing, and provoking each other’s ideas and insights about different approaches to understanding, feeling, keeping, experiencing, and fighting for freedom.
These Doctus sessions are part of DOCUS Series 2026
WIRE DOCTUS 2026 is an international seminar series inviting PhD candidates to reimagine decadence as a vibrant force for critique and creativity. The programme explores themes such as aesthetic excess, sensuality, transgression, fluid gender, ambiguity, fantasy, and desire — across film, media arts, and artistic research.
▶Session 1 | Lisbon: Cinema and Decadence: The New Relevance of an Old Topic — 13–14 April 2026 at Lusófona University
▶Session 2 | Online: The Unbearable Lightness of Freedom — 4 May 2026 (hosted by NATFA Sofia)
▶Session 3 | Vilnius: The Decadent Gaze as Method in Artistic Research — 26–27 May 2026 at LMTA Vilnius
