“Balance” is Mariana Vassileva’s first solo exhibition in Bulgaria. The artist has been living and working in Berlin for more than 20 years. This retrospective exhibition presents some of her most prominent works that have been specially selected for the space of the Sofia City Art Gallery.
Many of Mariana Vassileva’s art works reflect the two stages of her life related to living in two different countries, as well as to the acquisition of a foreign language and the adjustment to new cultural and social environment. The artist never severed her from her native country. This state of parallel existence provokesthe creation of unusual images and strong emotions. Childhood flashbacks come back to the artist’s new surroundings. Mariana’s rigorous observation of life is accompanied by a romantic nostalgia for the past, resulting in artworks full of poetic sensitivity. Her art not only mirrors her own experiences and inner conflicts, but is also tied to social & political issues, as well as to philosophical questions.
She uses common tools of expression in an inimitable way. Vassileva is a poet and a fighter at the same time. It is this idiosyncratic combination of the two clashing approaches that configures the final shape of her art.
Mariana Vassileva uses various means of expression to present her ideas. In this exhibition many sculptures, objects, installations, and videos, which were created over the past ten year, are being presented.
* * *
Mariana Vassielva was born in 1964 in the town of Antonovo, Bulgaria. She received her schooling in the town of Strazhitsa. Over the period 1994-2000 she studied at the Berlin University of the Arts. She has lived and worked in Berlin ever since. Her work belongs to the genres of video, sculpture, drawing, and installation. She has had numerous solo exhibitions in Berlin, Essen, Augsburg, Auckland, Lyon, Sydney, Palma, Toronto, Bremen, San Juan, Montreal. She has participated in the biennial exhibitions in Busan, Moscow, Varna, Shumen, Sydney and Poznan, as well as in dozens of group exhibitions held around the world.