Mago et Mago: beauty with something to say

Mago et Mago is an atelier for events, sets and decoration,

founded by singer and songwriter Tsvetelina Lazova, known as Leena, and Yuliyana Georgieva, a lawyer with a creative life in styling and set design. Friendship and a shared aesthetic bring them together. They make spaces feel purposeful, drawing their elements into a whole through an almost invisible thread. We met after their first original event, The Guest, to discuss inspiration, making things and the need for closeness in contemporary life.

How did Mago et Mago begin? How did you meet, decide to work on events and find the name?

Tsvetelina: Yuli and I became close years ago and often worked on things together. She helped style my videos and photographs, and we devised settings for product shoots. Gradually, we realised that we had a natural creative conversation. Working together, ideas built on one another without much effort. About a year before this interview, that became Mago et Mago.

The name came from a sweet, unexpected place.

My goddaughter called mango “mago”, and the joke became Mago et Mago. We then looked into meanings in other languages and found associations we loved: magician or wizard in Spanish and Italian, and Mago, a great mother figure in Korean mythology.

Yuliyana: We both wanted more creativity in our lives and something we could build together. Events were familiar territory for me, but the prospect of making atmospheres people could enter and experience together brought us into partnership.

You describe Mago et Mago as a Set & Event Atelier. Alongside client work, you have created The Guest, bringing together art, conversation and food. Where did the idea come from?

Tsvetelina: We want to develop our own formats as well as design spaces for clients, giving ourselves room to explore without predetermined limits.

The Guest began with wanting to host dinners and work with different cooks,

bringing interesting conversations into an unusually designed space. The title also suited our first venue, DOM: a guest in a home. We wanted more than people gathering around a table. We wanted to engage all the senses. That is why we included a live performance on one of my favourite instruments, the harp. Our guest musician was Floralyn, a university friend, a wonderfully warm person and a true professional.

Your installation was at the centre of the evening. What did you want people to feel?

Yuliyana: The date, the spring equinox, shaped the idea. We saw it as a moment of renewal and a new beginning. The installation grew from that feeling: we wanted guests to enter an atmosphere resembling a cocoon.

Tsvetelina: A place that gently enveloped you, like waking while still held inside a cocoon. Soft light, tactile fabrics and shelter from the cold outside invited people to slow down and be present. Light and Elina Ivanova’s 3D mapping were essential. Yuli and I both shed a tear when she illuminated DOM. We also want to thank the partners who made it possible: Mesoestetic, Bioprograma, Tatratea, Vidas, Hands&Friends, Pernod Ricard, Meda boutique dairy, Vazduh bakery, Ravdin dairy, Sezon, Microgreens Bulgaria, and the Smart Organic and Zelen shops.

The Conversation Menu offered three courses of food for thought. How do you make a menu like that, and what does it serve beyond the food?

Yuliyana: The idea came from Lena Malinova at Haus Social Studio, where it had been used on a smaller scale. We wanted to work with her because it could help turn the table into a meeting place for strangers.

Our food for the soul was again shaped by the spring equinox,

with four themes: balance, transition, new beginnings and light. Guests first considered the questions inwardly, then turned their attention towards the wider community. We wanted them to think about how the small steps they use in their own lives might inform their relationships with others, and how they could help one another. Guest chefs Hristiyana Dimitrova and Elena Pekin, magicians in their own right, took care of the food for the body.

You are bringing back the table as a place for conversation. Why do we need this kind of experience?

Tsvetelina: We all know how much time we spend looking at screens, especially the small one that so smoothly draws us away from our surroundings. I increasingly hear friends say they lack the energy to go out, that being with people exhausts them. Yet that used to be what restored us and made us feel connected. I believe events built around art and meaningful conversation can bring people together and make room for sharing, vulnerability and a real encounter between strangers.

Yuliyana: I feel that the table has lost some of its role. You can see it in how we arrange our homes. Once, the table was the centre; now we often organise a room around a screen. Technology promises connection, but it can also leave us isolated. The wider conversation about loneliness makes that tension difficult to ignore.

One purpose of The Guest was to revive a familiar tradition:

dialogue, including between people who do not already know one another. The exchange of ideas in a shared space runs from the ancient agora through philosophical and intellectual circles much closer to our own time. Talking in person, and finding the courage to speak despite feeling vulnerable, can create intimacy. From that come ideas, but also the feeling of belonging to a community.

Is there room for genuine closeness today, or must we deliberately return to it?

Tsvetelina: Lately, even my strong optimism has sometimes given way to darker thoughts. But I still believe deeply that closeness exists and that people will keep wanting it. That does not remove the need to choose it: to make time for one another, for conversations and meetings that do not happen through screens. That is what we hope a Mago et Mago experience can offer. Put the phone aside and be here, in the space, the conversation, the shared meal. Those moments remind us that we still need one another.

Yuliyana: Making room for closeness has probably always been difficult. Connection with ourselves, with others and with the world takes continual effort, despite habitual behaviour, restless thoughts and easy ways of numbing ourselves. A particular problem now is that huge companies trade in our attention and time. But we can still choose where to direct them. The Guest is partly an attempt to step away from an algorithm’s prescribed route and follow the natural rhythm of human conversation.

How can we bring beauty into everyday life?

Tsvetelina: Do at least one thing for yourself and your surroundings that feels good, however busy you are. I need that advice too, because I neglect it under pressure. A perfect day would begin early, with time for coffee and a book, noticing the morning light at home, listening to music while getting ready, walking outside, seeing someone close, making a proper dinner and watching a good film or series before bed. Caring for myself, other people and my surroundings nourishes my senses.

Yuliyana: By choosing where to place our attention, which is easier to say than do. Beauty is everywhere. We need to tune our senses to notice it.

Tsveti, what connects this work with music? Yuli, where does it meet your legal career?

Tsvetelina: People often ask, understandably. Music remains central to my life; at the time of this conversation, I was preparing my EP Sequence 03. Mago et Mago is another way to express my creativity. The two can help each other through set design for shoots and videos, or staging for my performances.

Yuliyana: Law and this kind of work may seem completely different. But creativity has always needed an outlet in my life, and I have found different ways to give it one. I find it in law too. Law is not dry material to me. It is human stories full of nuance, difficulty and obstacles. A creative approach helps me understand the detail and find the right strategy.

Where do you find inspiration?

Tsvetelina: Everywhere. A chance conversation, clouds, a dream. Recently, I was inspired by the pattern left in my coffee after stirring it.

Yuliyana: Often in my imagination, but nature has always been the main source. I have loved plants and animals since childhood and wanted to learn about them. I try to work with environmental care in mind. Many events I have organised have supported a cause, often connected to conservation, including Istinski Med’s Adopt a Hive, Gorata.bg and the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds.

What comes after The Guest? New formats, or more intimate experiences along similar lines?

Tsvetelina: Expect the unexpected. We keep having new ideas, so you never know. You may spot us around the city as part of something larger.

We certainly want The Guest to continue.

Yuliyana: We hope it will be the first in a series of intimate experiences, and would like to take the idea beyond Bulgaria. There are a few possibilities to explore. We may also develop entirely different concepts. Life and the wonderful disorder of creativity are ahead of us.

Natural Spark: jewellery with a spring in its step

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