:: SHOP-ART ::

"SHOP-ART. Women at(on) the market" is the latest exhibition of the only one Bulgarian female group "The 8-th of March" and friends. It has been planned, prepared and realized in the shops and pedestrian zones at one of the liveliest places in the center of Sofia- the underpass "Saint Sofia". That was an exhibition-action that has had its beginning long before the actual exposition of the works and has continued long time thereafter. At the foundation of this process was communication - together with the owners of the shops, who had to be persuaded to let us on their territory and with the passers-by provoked to alter their everyday rhythm. The accumulated impressions and experience filled out not only our idea of the woman as a "buying machine" and of the woman as merchandise, but also opened a vast space for discussions referring to the meaning of the function of contemporary art.
The installations, performances, objects, posters and video creations confirmed the impression for the multisided character of the female art in Bulgaria. It does not have clearly defined borders, and the things that make it different are the irony and self-irony, the humor and the tease, or in other words, everything that discharges the notion feminism of its negative accumulation and makes it attractive and lively.

Adelina Popnedeleva "Consume up your dreams"
performance; two cakes, cardboard plates, plastic forks

To live with dreams in a made-up world or cut and consume them and accept reality? To cure the symptoms or the causes? Responsibility of choice? Choice of responsibility? The result: "Let's have something sweet for the soul" has turned into "since there is no bread, let's eat cakes".

Alla Georgieva "New fragrance"
installation, performance; two posters (laser printer), phials with CS-GAS

The widely advertised perfumes with tender and tempting names /"Dolce Vita"/ provoked me to create my own ads for "new fragrances" - containing neuro-paralitic gas and made for self-defence in case of possible attack. I suggest that the "new fragrances" be sold in luxurious boutiques and that their purchase become an inseparable part of the ritual feminine shopping round. The phial containing CS-GAS is a perfect and indispensable gift for every modern woman!

Boriana Dragoeva "Vibro-Elephant"
3D animation, 7 min., advertising poster 100/70 cm, digital print

Vibro-Fant- the new toy in the "TV-Shop" style is a robot-vibrator, telling dirty jokes to its female consumers. It is a contemporary electronic fetish, a reflection of the Neo-Freudist theories, a symbol that could be used only as an instrument for physical satisfaction or perverse dreams, connected with the image of the "The Elephant Man" in the movie by David Lynch. The toy's metal body represents a mysterious mask that hides behind itself the "dream", and, at the same time carves the way to the mass consumer- from the romantic prince with a mask to the toy with a motor.

Daniela Kostova "Dany"
poster, 50 x 70 cm; action, varying dimensions

Making literal the words "the woman as merchandise for consumption" and using the exhibition's context, the underpass and "the people" passing through it, I worked out a poster in accordance with the aesthetics of the pop-folk, featuring a woman wishing to sell herself in ONE way. And for the time being, this is the most popular way. We live in BG. We all sell whatever we can. The reaction was immediate…

Daniela Sergieva "Ownership"
articles bought by the author from shops, labels

The work consists of things bought by me and left in the shops with ownership labels. In this way, the taste of the artist is displayed on one side and, on the other -the ritual of the sale-purchase in the functioning shops is doubted.

Nadejda Oleg Liahova "Music box"
installation; a premise with dimensions 160 x 180 x 240 cm, sound insulated glass screen, accordion, chair, a singing woman

To all who will never hear her song.

Tanya Abadjieva "Elizabeth Arden. 5th Avenue"
video

advertisement-commodity-impulse for purchasing-female desire-male
/sexual desire as a desire for possession/
address: the consumer society

Sylvia Lazarova "Sofia, Faith, Hope, Love"
poster, printer, 170 x 120cm

My work has been provoked by the curator's choice of place.
The inspiration is related to the statue of St. Sofia that can be seen through the glass dome of the underpass and is an allusion of her three children (from the icon bearing the same name - "Faith, Hope and Love"), in this case these are three gypsy girls. The aim of my work is an intervention directed towards ethnic tolerance and multiculture.