We continue our introduction of the artists in “Brieftopia: Art Between Crisis and Imagination” with the Bulgarian artist Boryana Petkova.
Boryana Petkova (b. 1985, Sofia) is a visual and performance artist whose intense, emotionally charged practice draws on personal experience to explore the complexity of human existence.
Deeply autobiographical and embodied, her work confronts themes such as vulnerability, memory, and resilience.
Her works have been presented at Arsenal – Museum of Contemporary Art, Sofia; Drawing Lab, Paris; the International Museum of Modest Arts in Sète; Frac Picardie, Amiens; the Drawing Biennial in Rimini; and KAI10 Arthena Foundation, Düsseldorf, among others. She has performed at AWARE, Paris; the BUNA Forum, Varna; and Residency Unlimited, New York.
Humour is a key tool and form of resistance in the exhibition, alongside imagination.
Petkova’s installation and live performance “Smile!” affirm laughter as such an instrument, in which female laughter—brief, stifled, uncontrollable—is used as acoustic material to reveal the moral and social control exerted over the body.
The project is realised with financial support from procedure BG-RRP-11.021, New Generation of Local Cultural Policies for Large Municipalities, Investment Development of Cultural and Creative Sectors, Component Social Inclusion, National Recovery and Resilience Plan.