The projects were realized as part of the e-valuation 4.0 platform.
On June 17 at 6 p.m. in Sofia, parallel solo exhibitions by Raina Teneva and Aaron Roth will open at the Depoo Gallery, and by Vulko Chobanov, Marina Genova, and Tsvetomira Borisova at the Harta Gallery. The project by the Teneva & Roth duo, titled “Miss Democracy (Not Politics!)”, and the collaboration by Chobanov, Genova, and Borisova, titled “Drama Class”, will be on view through June 30. The projects are the result of their work as fellows on the “DA LAB” Foundation’s digital arts platform, e-valuation 4.0.
The curators of the upcoming exhibitions and mentors in the creative process are the three founders of “DA LAB”—Prof. Venenlin Shurelov, Dr. Galina Dimitrova-Dimova, and Antoni Raizhekov.
“Drama Class” is an exhibition structured as a fictional course on creating online content. A lecturer’s voice will guide visitors through a series of exercises borrowed from a master acting class: relaxation, breathing, speech, movement, sensory exercises, and so on.
Guided by the logic of the audio narrative, sculptural objects symbolize the characters—the “actors”—from the recorded lecture, during which each of them underwent their own possible metamorphosis. The exhibition features a special appearance by Dimitar Shopov.
The project “Miss Democracy” (not politics!) draws on the spirit of 1990s discos and offers a speculative narrative about a patriarchal upheaval. The interconnections between the material reality of the 1990s, the politically nascent society, and the position of women within it are the cornerstones upon which Raina Teneva and Aaron Roth’s installation is built.
The third e-valuation 4.0 fellow, Natalia Yordanova, will open her solo exhibition on July 4 at the Arosita Gallery in the capital.
e-valuation is a platform of the DA LAB Foundation for the development and support of Bulgarian artists working in the field of digital arts. The platform’s mission is to produce works by Bulgarian artists and present them on the professional stage. Its main goals are the professional development of artists and the promotion of contemporary art forms created using digital media and technologies.
On June 18, at the Goethe-Institut, “DA LAB” is organizing a seminar titled “Collaboration Between Science and Art,” in line with the foundation’s mission to develop the digital arts in Bulgaria and support young Bulgarian artists. The goal of the seminar is to familiarize Bulgarian artists with successful practices of collaboration with scientists and experts in the creation of interdisciplinary creative content, as well as to connect them with the international scene. The seminar includes a series of lectures and presentations by Austrian curator and researcher Claudia Schnug, as well as curators Andrei Tudoz & Sibina Suru from Romania, founders of the Marginal organization, and leading European institutions working in the field of collaboration between art and science, such as the Schloss Solitude Academy in Germany, the Schmiede Media Festival in Austria, the Ukrainian media art festival TETRAMATIKA, MADLab in Cyprus, and others.
The activities of the e-valuation 4.0 platform are carried out with the support of the National Culture Fund under the “Creation” program.
Artist Information:
Raina Teneva holds a master’s degree in media art from the University of Art and Design in Karlsruhe, Germany. In her work, she presents media narratives that take the form of installations, films, or performances. These narratives stem from artistic research into private and public archives, as well as found photographic and film material. In an era of post-truth, archival material offers a space for raising questions related to memory, the (de)construction of identity, and speculations about the future.
Aaron Roth was born in Los Angeles (1998) and currently lives and works in Sofia. In 2021, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting) from the Slade School of Fine Art in London. In 2022, together with Boyana Dzhikova and Vikenti Komitski, he co-founded the “Punta” Gallery in Sofia. He has held solo exhibitions in an abandoned supermarket near Stochna Station in Sofia, at “FLUCA,” the Austrian Cultural Pavilion, and at the “Sarieva” Gallery in Plovdiv. @chicho_ti_rondo
Natalia Yordanova is an interdisciplinary visual artist. Her education includes a master’s degree from the Sandberg Institute in the Netherlands (2020), a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (2018), a Bachelor of Photography from the National Academy of Theater and Film Arts in Bulgaria (2013), and an Erasmus exchange at CSM in London (2017). Her works have been shown in international exhibitions in the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Belgium, Germany, Egypt, and the United Kingdom. She has participated in artist residencies in Brussels, Belgium; Zeitz and Munich, Germany; and Cairo, Egypt.
Marina Genova, Tsvetomira Borisova, and Vulko Chobanov are visual artists who live and work in Sofia. They have participated in solo and group exhibitions in Bulgaria and abroad.