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Zornitsa Stoyanova /exhibition/
11 May-09 June 2023
Toplocentrala Gallery - Cube
Opening
11.05.2023., 18:00 hour
Zornitsa Stoyanova /exhibition/
Digital photography, VR film, installations, international art films, events and performances
Program:
May 12, 2023, 6 pm - performance "Altered States: a performance conversation" with Zornitsa Stoyanova and Megan Bridge
9 June, 2023, 6 pm - performance and meeting with Zornitsa Stoyanova and Sofie Verraest.
Zornitsa Stoyanova is a choreographer and curator, often involved in sound and video design. In 2006 she graduated from Bennington College, after which she moved to live in Philadelphia, USA, where she produces and presents performances and video works under the name BodyMeld/BodyMeld. Since 2020 she has been living in Sofia and continues to manage BodyMeld's projects in the USA, developing the company's activities on home soil.
The current exhibition is her first solo exhibition project in Bulgaria and is built around the concept of the perception of the female body. It is a platform where photographs, art films and installations are displayed. Many of Stoyanova's films are part of her stage works from her 18 years as a choreographer in the USA. In this case, a selection of international art films curated by Stoyanova, featuring the female body in its various facets, is also shown as part of the exhibition. The selection includes films from Bulgaria, Germany, Brazil, USA, Italy, France and Finland, as well as a VR film from New Zealand.
Various performances and events will be presented during the exhibition, in which Stoyanova partners with Megan Bridge (USA) and Sofie Verraest (Belgium).
Ever since the Venus of Wilendore, the female body has been perceived as an object. With the first film made in 1878 (The Horse In Motion) human bodies began to take on a more real dimension, but alas they still present a simple image of the human experience. In the 21st century, now every child is newly perceived as a digital image - moving pictures dancing in TikTok or faces cleverly made up as uniform beauties. Perceptions of the female body in digital media are unfortunately too uniform, flat and limited. Sensuality and sensuality is always presented before the sexuality of the male gaze, and the female body is either heterosexual or not present at all. In the 21st century, the female digital image is seduction and sex appeal, without much opportunity to distinguish oneself from other copies of the same make-up lesson. The woman in the digital box of our phones and monitors is dancing, but never thinking, multi-dimensional or sensual beyond ideas of ultra-hetero sex appeal.
“My choreographic and visual artwork revolves around the politics of the female body. In my visual art, I use the female body as an abstract object revealing ideas of strength in sensuality and emotionality. As a mother and a returned US immigrant, I hold a plethora of identities that shape the content of all my artistic inquiries.”
The exhibition was created by BodyMeld in partnership with Toplocentrala Gallery - Cube.
*All events with guest artists from abroad will be in English.
Zornitsa Stoyanova /exhibition/
Autor/s Zornitsa Stoyanova