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2002 - "The
Girls and The Sea" at Bulart Gallery,
city of Varna, curator Maria Vassileva.
The exhibition 'The Girls and the Sea' presented at the Bulart
Gallery is a part of the August in Art Festival, which is held
each year in the city of Varna. Our idea is connected to the
particular place and time - the peak of the tourist season in
the largest Bulgarian city along the Black Sea coast. The principle
of running the festival is interlinked with its theme, which
this year is 'Conflicts/Dialogues'. |
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2000-2001
- "Changing
of Places", international women exchange project and exhibition
at ATA Center for Contemporary Art, Sofia,
curator Maria Vassileva,
participants: Adelina Popnedeleva, Alla Georgieva, Dimitrina
Sevova, Nadezhda Oleg Liahova, Tania Abadjieva, Susan Perin
(Switzerland), Sabine Baumann (Switzerland), Katarina Matiasek
(Austria), Ana Stoikovic (Macedonia), Marilena Preda-Sanc (Romania);
sponsored by Pro Helvetia
Idea: The project "Changing of Places" gets
it's inspiration from the artist's wish to "look through
the eyes of the other", to project works of art on different
political, economic and social environment in order to be visible
to what extend processes in art fall under the influence of
these conditions. 10 women artists participate in this project:
5 from Bulgaria, 2 from Switzerland, 1 from Macedonia, 1 from
Rumania, 1 from Austria. The idea is for the period of 10 days
each of the participants to change her personal identity as
she occupies position of the "other" in her studio,
home, country, and world. The produced work of art has to reflect
this "moving" with all consequences of it. We pose
the following questions through this project: Do all women artists
speak the same artistic language? In what way does social reality
influence on the creative process? To what extends is a creative
person free? Can she disregard specific conditions? In what
way does contemporary aesthetics fall under the influence of
ideology, religion, politics? Are there any distinctions in
existence of the contemporary woman as an artist in different
countries? Do we live in one Europe or in many Europes? Can
we use the language of art to approach the desired common European
home? We should remind here the words of Simon de Bovoar that
the feminine is nor a nature, neither a character, but a condition,
found by the civilizations on the ground of some psychological
facts. At the end of this artistic collaboration a big show
will take place at the Sofia City Art Gallery. |
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2001, June
- "SHOP-ART.
Women on the market", underpass "Saint
Sofia", Sofia, curator Maria Vassileva, participants Adelina
Popnedeleva, Alla Georgieva, Boriana Dragoeva, Daniela Kostova,
Daniela Sergieva, Nadejda Oleg Liahova, Nadia Genova, Silvia
Lazarova, Tania Abadjieva; sponsored by KulturKontakt
Idea: The project is designed for public spaces and is
addressed to the regular shop-visitors and passengers. The desire
of the artists is to leave the galleries and ordinary exhibition
spaces and to produce art works for popular places all around
the city: streets, restaurants, boutiques, bars, Internet-cafes,
billboards, etc. The idea of the project "SHOP-ART. Women
on the market" deals with three different association:
woman as an active shopper; Bulgarian woman who normally takes
care for the whole family and with her image which is "stick"
to the image of a person, carrying heavy shopping bags; woman
as a bargain good and object of desire and commerce. The title
of the show also expresses the belief of the members of the
"8-th of March" group in the New Feminism, that put
the end of the hard patriarchal propaganda and uses more flexible
strategies as humor, love and irony.
Getting out of the gallery is connected to artist's desire not
only to speak on important topics from the life to a so called
gallery or art-public but also to reach a complete new public
- as a surprise (the right "consumer"). The project
expresses the desire of the members of the group for active
penetration into the social space. Using the visual language
they hope to provoke a public debate. This is also the first
big project in Sofia that took place in public spaces. |
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| 2000, November
- "Bulgaria, NY: Bulgarian
and American Women Artists Collaborate",
Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, curators Irina
Danilova and Regina Khidekl, participants Adelina Popnedeleva,
Alla Georgieva, Dimitrina Sevova, Elena Panaiotova, Monika Romenska,
Nadejda Oleg Liahova, Tania Abadjieva, Irina Danilova, Sue Muskat,
Birgitta Lund, Michele Beck, Akiko Ichikawa, Suzy Sureck, Thelma
Mathias. |
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2000, July
- "Subjets and
Shadows", ATA Center for Contemporary
Art, Sofia, curator Maria Vassileva, participants: Adelina Popnedeleva,
Alla Georgieva, Boriana Dragoeva, Daniela Kostova, Dimitrina
Sevova, Elena Panaiotova, Monika Romenska, Nadejda Oleg Liahova,
Nadia Genova, Silvia Lazarova, Tania Abadjieva
Idea: The woman as a shadow of man is a stereotype idea,
which even now a days has not lost its actuality. The feeling
of "secondariness" is deeply imbedded in a great number
of women and in many cases exactly this feeling predetermines
the condescending attitude on behalf of the other sex. The woman
is not only treated a s a shadow, but she herself plays this
role. The understanding that women's mission is entirely to
support man's ego still casts a shadow on women's attempts at
self-realization. The visualization of the individual feelings
about this problem of different women-artists brings to the
surface "in black and white" some symptoms, still
remaining undesignated, at least in our country. |
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2000, March
- "Mirror, Mirror…",
City Art Gallery, Russe, Bulgaria, curator Maria Vassileva,
participants: Adelina Popnedeleva, Alla Georgieva, Boriana Gragoeva,
Daniela Sergieva, Dimitrina Sevova, Elena Panaiotova, Monika
Romenska, Nadejda Oleg Liahova, Nadia Genova, Silvia Lazarova,
Tania Abadjieva
Idea: The title of the exhibition "Mirror, mirror..."
was used to imply ironic connotations. It makes a direct reference
to the stereotype perception of women as capricious and superficial.
Without denying their vanity, the authors look at their own
image and make the visitor see it - look deeper, beyond the
flashy and transient value of the reflection in the mirror.
Women produce their own images. They explore, analyze, or just
hint that is visible on the surface is not all there is to it.
With their innate sensitivity and ability to use self-irony,
the artists look at themselves or the viewer willing to make
the dialogue more open and equally based. In this case, narcissism
has a positive effect. It summarizes the process of the self-identity
search, veiled in prejudices and norms. Historically, women
have always been regarded as the "minor" sex, as the
object of male desires. It is not a chance coincidence that
many contemporary women-artists independently choose the woman
as the subject of their work. Thus, making her presence and
experience legal, they add their voice in support of harmonious
relations. |
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| 1999 -
"Dressing/Undressing",
Center for contemporary art "Bania Starinna", Plovdiv,
Bulgaria, curator Maria Vassileva, participants: Adelina Popnedeleva,
Alla Georgieva, Boriana Dragoeva, Dimitrina Sevova, Iliana Nedkova,
Mariela Gemisheva |
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1997 -
"Erato's Version",
Shipka 6 Gallery, Sofia, curators: Maria Vassileva and Iara
Boubnova, participants: Adelina Popnedeleva, Alla Georgieva,
Albena Mishailova (Bulgaria/Switzerland), Anjela Minkova, Margarita
Radeva (Bulgaria/Greece), Dimitrina Sevova, Elena Panaiotova,
Jana Behar, Mariela Gemisheva, Mishaela Padeva, Monika Romenska,
Monika Fisher (Switzerland), Neli Gavrilova, Nina Kovacheva
(Bulgaria/France), Odilia Iankova, Silva Bachvarova, Slava Nakovska,
Silvia Boyadjieva, Tania Abadjieva, Iavora Petrova
Idea: Carnal love or erotic, is an ever present subject
matter in the history of art. In contemporary Bulgarian art
as well there have been made numerous attempts to formulate
erotic visually through the language of art. Unfortunately,
most of the artists who have participated in such exhibitions
are male. Obviously the cliche that it is only man that experiences
love in an erotic way is quite persistent. The most recent show
to manifest its erotic character ("Erotic Art", March
1996, Seasons Gallery, Sofia), triggered a well-founded dissatisfaction
among some female artists. They expressed their desire to make
an exhibition of their own where they could demonstrate the
attitudes towards erotic that are typical for the younger generation
of female artists in Bulgaria. Thus an "initiating committee"
invited us to curate their desire/idea into an art exhibition.
There is a taboo over the use of erotic subject matter by women.
This theme is under an unspoken ban in Bulgaria where the self-identification
of women is present mainly in theoretical texts. The goal of
the exhibition is to present the point of view of the "partner"-
her feelings, sensations, aspirations and attitudes, as well
as, her weaknesses. The exhibition would be the first attempt
to "voice out" the erotic theme in a visual text from
the point of view of female artists in Bulgaria. |
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| Conferences:
2001- "Meeting Places", international conference
(Bulgaria, Switzerland, Romania, Macedonia), ATA center of
contemporary art
1997- "The Women Language in Today's Art", Shipka
6 Gallery, Sofia |
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| Catalogues:
1997 - "Erato's Version", Soros Center for the Arts
1999 - "Obsession", Pro Helvetia
2000 - "Subjets and Shadows", ATA Center for the
Arts
2000 - "The 8-th of March Group", CD-ROM
2001 - "Shop-Art", Vulkan Press
2001 - "Changing of Places", ATA Center for the
Arts |
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