In her exhibition “Changes”, Tsvetomira Borisova deals with the decision to leave.
The project starts in 2021, starting with a series of 5 ceramics of female athletes. Accustomed to watching sports bodies in concentration and movement, the artist’s work provides us with another perspective – in the exhibition they are devoted to rest. Having regained their softness, the contestants stretch, relaxing tense muscle groups, stand in anticipation or simply get bored. Released from the obligation of the optimal performance of the body during training, Tsvetomira’s figures seem to fantasize other scenarios.. What is going on in their fragile minds?
The exhibition points to that moment in which the idea of giving up is formed – in fact, sport is used here as a recognizable metaphor for any kind of human activity associated with discipline and systematic effort “for the sake of” (“I must improve myself, therefore I have to avoid my happiness now…”). Tsvetomira brings to the front one of the pathologies in our modern society – the pressure to succeed (and the fear not to) is practically integrated into the culture of individualism. Through her artistic language, she examines the devastating power of the decision to cease, but also its ability of renewal.
Little by little, the ceramics build a world around them situated somewhere in the inner peace of the hero of the exhibition. In the space of the gallery, the atmosphere of an abandoned sports hall is “enacted”. Its parameters are marked by two scorched Swedish training walls, suffering from the ravaging effort of endless training, as well as several team T-shirts, as if discarded after being worn. The artist uses the Japanese woodworking technique of yakisugi to burnish the fixtures. Cremated, they acquire new strength and resilience and in this sense serve as a proposal for a not-so-lost future. On the other hand, the long-awaited victory is present through its totems – the prize bowls. After abandoning the ideal, however, they begin a process of decay and decomposition – returning back to nature, the territory of the subconscious. We notice the human body only in the form of small ceramic figures, manifestations of the spirit, memories of the athlete’s daily life.
The exhibition “Changes” is both an artifact of that moment of preparation for leaving the heart and a look at it through the prism of the present. It traces the culmination of the painful personal and psychological stage of giving up and the subsequent release – tension and relaxation.
Tsvetomira Borisova was born in 1991 in Sofia, where she lives and works. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in “Plastic Arts – Ceramics” at the New Bulgarian University. Among her solo exhibitions are “Cool S” at Sarieva / Gallery, Plovdiv and “Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss” at Punta Gallery, Sofia.
The event is organized with the financial support of the National Culture Fund.
With the support of Club Mate.
