ME, YOU AND THEM – NO ONE IS SECURE
Zeniths Gallery(former SIBANK Gallery)
2 Slavyanska Str, Sofia
presents
ME, YOU AND THEM – NO ONE IS SECURE
Borjana Ventzislavova
Curator: Galina Dimitrova
12-28 February 2009
Opening: 11 February 2009, Wednesday, 18:30h
What would it be if you suddenly lost everything you had and all you are left with is a bag in your hand? What would it be to start your life anew in a foreign, unfamiliar land?
The The show - including photographs, audio piece and object - introduces the visitors to situations and people, who had been forced to flee from their homes and seek asylum. The photographs show representatives of the contemporary society, put in a similar situation – with no way out. In the staged photographs the roles of the characters have been switched – people from the prosperous society are presented as refugees. The audio tells fragments from people's stories who used to have a wealthy life but in a certain moment they were forced to leave their home and go through different obstacles in order to survive and keep on living.
The second photographs series „A Day After“ shows scenes from deserted and empty places and allude to the destruction and annihilation of our highly developed world. The combination of documentary and fiction comes to remind us of the problems of migration with which deals Borjana Ventzislavova’s project, sequel of the video installation We Shall Overswim shown in Gallery Academy, Sofia in January 2009.
Hurrying through their everyday life, many people remain dispassionate towards these problems, thinking „this is happening to someone else and doesn't affect me“. Living in an environment they are familiar with, among their loved ones, and focus on their own problems, they presume that this can't happen to them. But is it really so? What if this happens to you, if one day you wake up having lost everything you've had or you have to leave the conveniences and comfort you are used to, the things you love, your shiny car, the roof above your head – everything you think gives you a sense of security; and you are forced to flee into the unknown, into the nothingness. It is exactly the question that Borjana Ventzislavova's project raises and through which she seeks the audience's empathy, because no one should think is safe from finding themselves in a situation like that.
Galina Dimitrova
Artist bio
Borjana Ventzislavova was born in 1976 in Sofia, BG. Graduated Visual Media Art / Digital Art at the University for Applied Arts in Vienna in 2005. Works in the field of photography, installation, media art and film/video. The main thematics in her projects are identity, marginalisation, migration, co-existence and relationships in the everyday life. Works in collaboration with dezentrale medien and nebudu group. Her projects are shown in solo and group exhibitions in international art scene, as well as in a number of media and film festivals. Lives and works in Sofia and Vienna.
The exhibition at Zeniths Gallery is held with the support of:
Austrian Embassy - Sofia, BMUKK - Austria and C'M'S Reich-Rohrwig Hainz
and with the kind assistance of:
Doverie United Holding (Anna Pavlova), Mladen Penev and Svetlana Kuyumdzhieva
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Credits:
Me, You and Them – No One is Secure
installation (photographs, audio, object)
Photography: Borjana Ventzislavova
Assistance, lighting: Mladen Penev
with the participation of (photographs and audio): Iordan Harizanov, Blagovesta Bakardjieva and Marcel Neundorfer, Dessislava Goudjunova and Alexandra Harizanova, Maximilian Pramatarov, Rayko Raynoff, Alexander Peev, Ivan Moudov, Alban Muja, Tzviatko Sabev, Valentin Penev, Georgi Dermendjiev, Diana Stoianova, Borjana Ventzislavova, Ambrol Iglenikov, aunty&uncle, Carlos Toledo, Diana Stoyanova, Mladen Penev, Petja Dimitrova, Valentin Penev
Special thanks to Geoff Berner for granting permission to use the song "Traveller's Curse" from the album “Whiskey Rabbi”