BG · EN
We.
We are Boris and Michaela.
We have worked together for more than ten years. We both graduated in Scenography from the National Academy of Arts. We founded Sapromat in 2019, as a continuation of our shared interest in space and in the collaborative process in the visual arts.
Michaela Dobreva and Boris Dalchev
THE COLLECTIVE
Set design, installation,
visual performance
Founded 2019 · Sofia
Sapromat is a creative collective of the set designers Michaela Dobreva and Boris Dalchev. They work with a site-specific approach — every piece begins from a particular place and settles into the architecture and the surroundings in which it is shown, rather than concealing them.
The beginning beyond the theatre stage is the exhibition Unapparent (2019) at the UniArt Gallery of the New Bulgarian University. Since then the collective has developed installations, visual performances and immersive productions: 0 (zero) (2019), Phantasm (2020), Invisible Cities (2021), Tales of the Bizarre (2022), The Other Dream (2023) and Inter-block Wanderings (2023–2024).
Phantasm and Invisible Cities have been nominated for the Ikar Awards of the Union of Bulgarian Actors.
Michaela Dobreva
Set designer · co-founder
Michaela Dobreva teaches computer animation in the Scenography department of the National Academy of Arts and is a doctoral candidate in Digital Arts. She holds a master’s degree in Scenography and has worked on more than 20 theatre and dance productions. Her main interests lie in interactive and site-specific art. She has taught computer animation and drafting software for five years in the Scenography department of the Academy. Together with Boris Dalchev she founded the Sapromat association. She is a curator of the festival 180 Degrees — Laboratory for Innovative Art. In 2025 she became vice-chair of the Association of Scenographers in Bulgaria. Together with Boris Dalchev she received the Ikar Award 2026 for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at the National Theatre.
Boris Dalchev
Set designer · co-founder
Boris Dalchev is a set and costume designer with more than 45 productions and performances behind him. He has worked in theatres in Sofia and across the country, and has shown drawings and illustrations in solo and group exhibitions. Together with Michaela Dobreva he founded the Sapromat association; together they have realised several performances and taken part in exhibitions with installations. Dalchev has twice been nominated for set design at the national Ikar Awards, and in 2024 he won an Ikar with Kancho Kasabov (costumes) for their work on The Hague, directed by Galin Stoev. His joint work with Michaela Dobreva has also been nominated at the national Ikar Awards, both in Set Design and in Contemporary Dance and Performance. He holds a certificate of merit from the Ministry of Culture for his contribution to Bulgarian culture (2021). Together with Michaela Dobreva he received the Ikar Award 2026 for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at the National Theatre. Boris Dalchev defended a doctorate in the Scenography department of the National Academy of Arts, where he is currently a chief assistant professor.
PRESS
Articles, interviews and
announcements about Sapromat
(most of them in Bulgarian)
Sapromat Association — profile
Open Art Files
Michaela Dobreva and Boris Dalchev of Sapromat: We have ideas for theatre outside the theatre
Jasmin.bg, Marina Delivlaeva, 22 November 2020
The Other Dream: Anatomy of the Human Mind
GoGuide.bg, 11 July 2023
The Other Dream — visual performance
Toplocentrala RCCA, programme, July 2023
In Inter-block Wanderings, in the Sofia neighbourhood of Kyulutsite
Bulgarian National Radio, Radio Sofia, 12 July 2024
Inter-block Wanderings — project
Nine Elephants
SAPROMAT 