Exhibitions

The Woman with the Brown Hair or me and my informant

The Woman with the Brown Hair or me and my informant

From December 6, 2024 to February 16, 2025, the UniArt Gallery at New Bulgarian University will present the exhibition "The Woman with auburn hair, me and my informer" by the visual artist Hristina Tasheva. The exhibition focuses on the personal and professional path of Tasheva, who left Bulgaria in 2001 in search of new personal and professional opportunities and settled in the Netherlands.

The story presented is told through photography and text, and the author uses these elements to focus attention on the possibility of building an identity based on similarities rather than differences. The Woman with the Brown Hair or me and my informant project is part of her broader exploration of migration and social roles, as well as the political and cultural overlays that shape not only individuals but also societal perceptions.

"My initial interest in migration was developed in my artistic work after long-lasting experience and observations as an Eastern European migrant in Western Europe. I have established a position as a citizen that I express in my artistic work and oppose the constant attempts of the media and politicians to build and consolidate a negative image of immigrants as poor and uncivilized people who will do anything for money: become criminals or prostitutes or take over the jobs of the local people by working for low pay. Immigrants have the ‘wrong’ behaviour, the ‘wrong’ beliefs, and the ‘wrong’ outlook, which often turns them into ‘terrorists’. These clichés are creating a lot of tension in the local population and at the same time, marginalize and objectify the 232 million people that belong to the migrant group.

Through my strongly subjective and personal artistic work, I aim to humanize the image of the immigrant, to provide a contrast to the one presented in cold numbers and figures by the media. By doing so, I intend to bring a nuance to the debate on migration that has been ongoing for decades and to reach a wide audience.

The instructive nature of my story lies in its aim to build a new identity based on similarities and not on differences, where people first all approach each other as humans and afterwards discover the beauty of their differences with love."

 

Hristina Tasheva is the author of award-winning projects and books, participating in international exhibitions in the USA and Europe, and her photobook "The Woman with the Brown Hair or me and my informant" has been nominated for various prestigious awards. In addition, Tasheva has been funded with the prestigious Mondriaan Fund Fellowship for Established Artists in the Netherlands.

In the framework of the exhibition, Hristina Tasheva will share her experience with young artists and students from New Bulgarian University, who will have the opportunity to meet a contemporary artist who has managed to achieve professional realization abroad.

The project is curated by Katerina Gadzeva, art historian and lecturer at New Bulgarian University, with many years of experience in the history and theory of photography.

The exhibition is realized with the financial support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Sofia and the Centre for Bulgarian-European Cultural Dialogues.