ERUPTING
EXHIBITION PART OF CUTTING ART PROJECT
COMMISSIONED WORK
“Releasing one's grip on everything is a profound challenge. It's a struggle that intensifies in the face of the most agonizing experiences—those whose origins often remain elusive. When we do discern the roots of our suffering yet find ourselves unable to swiftly uproot them, we become engulfed in a darkness imbued with fury. This anger is but a natural response, guiding our inner selves through these trying moments.
It unfolds like a dance—an intricate choreography performed from within—a paradoxical interplay of a warrior's tenacity, nervous energy, impetuosity, and elegant poise. This performance takes place within the confined space of our emotional realm. Whenever our soul assumes command, transformations echo through our universe: shifts in the external world, in the realm surrounding us, and within the depths of our being.”
“Because pain is more painful, if silent„ Giovanni Pascoli - Nuovi Poemetti (1909) - from "Il prigioniero"
Contemporary society, bold and unpredictable, heralding significant and rapid changes, advocating for fortuitous goals and unexpected luxurious sufferings, increasingly and swiftly becomes saturated with nefarious feelings that converge into what we all know as a sense of disorientation or the experience of emptiness, one of the constitutive stages of collective life. The consequence of all this is undoubtedly the pathologization of anger, an excessive and sudden feeling characterized by overwhelming anguish, pressing and irreducible, a mere signal that something is not going in the right direction. - DOMENICO de Chirico
direction.
PROJECT TEAM:
Produced by Fondazione IL Bottone
Art Director Lorenzo Ilari
Choreography Kosta Karakashyan
Dancers Karakashyan & Artists Iskra Dukova Iskra Daskalova Neli Georgieva Kalin Zhelev
Location & Space Nostos
Curator Domenico De Chirico
Music Sebra Cruz Bolina Records Cerrado Studio
Cinematography and Edit Teodora Dzherekarova
Video Concept Development Rayana Nenova
Commission: Fondazione II bottone
Project Role: VIDEO ART WORK AND PHOTOGRAPHY
STRUCTURA GALLERY
COMMISSIONED WORK
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT #4: VENETA ANDROVA. THE SECRET LIFE OF MUSHROOMS (VIDEO) - 21.12.2023 - 10.01.2024
In the project “The Secret Life of Mushrooms (VIDEO)”, Veneta Androva and Tsvetomila Mihailova direct their attention towards disinformation and deep fakes – prevalent attributes of today’s media landscape. Stemming from two different fields – Veneta in visual art and Tsvetomila in computational linguistics, in the context of “Thought Experiment” project, they remotely collaborate using the Python programming language, focusing on distinct models for identifying computer-generated content, and thereby, combating mass disinformation.
curated by Aksiniya Peycheva
Commission: Structura Gallery
Project Role: Art Manager, Video Creator and Photographer
STRUCTURA GALLERY
COMMISSIONED WORK
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT #3: NIKOLA GROZDANOV. INTERFERENCES - 29.11.2023 - 16.12.2023
The exhibition “Interferences” by Nikola Grozdanov creates a space of conditional perceptions. Referring to the thought experiment “Mary’s Room”, the author explores the correspondence between the functionality of the human consciousness and the reality in which it supposedly exists. The experiment describes Mary, a scientist, who lives in an all-black-and-white world. In this world, she has wide access to the descriptions of the different colors, but she has no way of perceiving them with her eyes. Mary has learned all there is to learn about the color, but she has never seen them. The central question in the experiment is whether Mary would gain new knowledge when she steps outside her colorless world. The experiment aims to counter physicalism—the view that the universe, including all that is mental, is entirely physical.
curated by Aksiniya Peycheva
Commission: Structura Gallery
Project Role: Art Manager, Video Creator and Photographer
STRUCTURA GALLERY
COMMISSIONED WORK
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT #2: NADEZHDA OLEG LYAHOVA. WATERFALL - 28.09.2023 - 28.10.2023
In the exhibition “Waterfall”, Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova interweaves in an almost poetic narrative the search for answers that excite her, which in a sense affect every artist – how does one get to the essence of the creative impulse? Present a priori in the human consciousness, it is inexplicable, but at the same time she recognizes it as an extremely compelling feature of hers that deserves to be explored further.
curated by Aksiniya Peycheva
Commission: Structura Gallery
Project Role: Art Manager, Video Creator and Photographer
STRUCTURA GALLERY
COMMISSIONED WORK
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT #1: LUCHEZAR BOYADJIEV. PUBLIC SPACE, PRIVATE SIZE - 22.06.2023 - 25.07.2023
Thought Experiment is a curatorial project which consists of conducting a series of informal conversations in which an artist talks to an expert in a given scientific field. The term “thought experiment” describes an experiment that tests the validity of a theory in search for a concrete (or in this case possibly abstract) answer, ultimately meant to be “dressed” in visual form at an exhibition. This creates a kind of an information flow that could influence (or not) the subsequent creation of an artistic product, or if the artwork is already produced, to help rethinking its purpose. The conversations take place following certain rules, which are completely conditional, having the sole purpose to put both parties in a state in which an exchange between them could be achieved – exchange of ideas, concepts, and lines of thought. In the context of the exhibition Public Space, Private Size Luchezar Boyadjiev spoke with the philosopher Margret Grebowicz.
curated by Aksiniya Peycheva
Commission: Structura Gallery
Project Role: Art Manager, Video Creator and Photographer
MUSIC ART TABOR
SOCIAL PROJECT
Music Art Tabor is an initiative adapting Roma communities in Bulgaria to the dynamics of contemporary artistic life.
The project was dressed in a travelling festival format to be able to adapt to various locations and circumstances.
2 locations in Sofia, 2 locations in Lom, 1 location in village Osikovitca, 1 location in village Draginovo (Velingrad), 1 location in village Gradetc (Kotel).
This project for me at beginning existed as a new challenge as it is the first festival format I have done in my work as a photographer,
however in its later stage it became the catalysator for creativity, exploration of the unknown and the rise of some very profound questions with visual results.
It would be hard to describe the emotions, the relationships, the places and the interactions that took place in all locations because the number of happenings won't fit in this short description. At a later stage I will publish a story about some of the travels. This is the first social project I get engaged in and I hope it won't be the last because it was freeing for me to be able to have the freedom in my own expression and at the same time convey what others express and create.
Co-creating experience with plenty of colors, moods, faces, heat and so much more.
Here in the galleries of the project webpage you can see a larger selection of images from the time of the festival, Music Art Tabor.
Organizer: Association IME
Partners: NOPA :: Water Tower Festival :: EEA Grands
Project Role: Documentary Photographer
SOFIA ART PROJECTS VOL. II
RUINS AND EMPIRES
October 21st - October 30th,@ Largoto, Sofia.
Billy Mateeva, Henrike Naumann, Martian Tabakov,
Nora Al-Badri, Oriol Vilanova, Renzo Martens, CATPC, Stefan Prohorov, Zuzanna Czebatul
Curated by: Vera Mlechevska, Vessela Nozharova, Dessislava Dimova, Stefka Tsaneva
Project Role: Photographer
SOFIA ART PROJECTS VOl. I
INTIMACY AND SPECTACLE IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
June 10th - June 20th,@ Largoto, Sofia.
First edition of #SofiaArtProjects "Intimacy and spectacle in the age of social media".
Artworks by over 20 artists from Bulgaria, USA, Switzerland, Ukraine and the Czech Republic will be exhibited in the underpasses at Largoto in Sofia as well as in a special online program. More info coming soon!
As part of the organization of the project, I got to work with various artists from abroad, local authorities and non profit orgs.
A short documentary film was made relate to the Korean dance style K-Pop.
Choreographer: Viktor Ruban
Visual identity: Paul Voggenreiter
Partners: Bulgarian Ministry of Culture, City of Sofia, U.S. Embassy Sofia
Project Role: Assistant Project and Artist Activities
THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART - SOFIA
Photography for The Institute of Contemporary Art – Sofia, Bulgaria
Publications:
Exhibitions part of the year around project by the ICA:
*A YEAR WORTH OF SLIGHT INCONSISTENCIES’ / SUPERPOSITION 2: ENTANGLEMENT „CATALOGUE“ LAUNCH
Project Role: Photographer
1883 MAGAZINE ALMA
Photographer: Yoshita Kono
Artist: ALMA
Location: London, Uk
Japanese photographer, shooting celebrity portraiture that have been used across a number of campaigns as well as international publications, individual brands by capturing their creative concept with my evocative flair.
https://www.yoshitakakono.com/celebrity
https://caren.co.uk/news/end-of-the-world-for-1883-magazine/
Project Role: Assistant Photographer
GARY ASPEN FOR ADIDAS
Experimental Commercial Campaign for Gazelle Adidas Edition
Location: London, Uk
Creative Director - Rubina Marchiori
Director of Photography - Jan Vrhovnik (janvrhovnik.co.uk)
Produced by - OWN Productions (ownproductions.co.uk)
Music Composer - Tonmil Music
Campaign Photographer - Eric Marillier
1st AC - Kash Khan
OWN PRODUCTIONS ][ Gary Aspen for Adidas
Project Role: Production Assistant