When I was applying in the University of applied arts in Vienna, they were not taking students in painting from Bulgaria. For a long time, I didn’t understand what are the reasons behind this decision. I needed to grow.

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Bulgaria is for a long time now not in a communist’s system, but we are still very much influenced by the old understandings. In art as much as the classical study gives us, as much as it takes. I am from a new generation of artists emerging from behind the Iron Curtain, confronting the controversial heritage of soviet taboos. Being from eastern Europe means belonging to curtain myth. And I still feel a categorisation of the artists depending on where they come from? There are still very strong mental borders.

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My art is about destroying the box we live in. To show the inner complexities of a modern society. The focus is on expression and identity. Through art I seek to express the conflict of the many emotions and struggles the modern society has to face. To project at once the combined experiences of joy, guilt and desire within human being. I focus on the diverging and conflicting emotions that I feel in trying to unfurl my true identity. My inner desires to freely and uninhibitedly celebrate my self on my terms conflicted with the pressures of conforming to the norms and rules of family, community and society.

 

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