Biography
Nevena Ekimova is born and based in Gabrovo, Bulgaria. She studied art in Norway and Iceland and received her BFA at the Gothenburg Art Academy in Sweden. Her solo exhibitions are The Landlord (2018) and Three Times Insides (2021). Among her group exhibitions are Where is the sculpture? (2020) and Everything is Alright (with us) (2020) at Credo Bonum gallery; BAZA nominees exhibition (2019) at Sofia City Gallery; Art Start: Tomorrow Never dies (2019) at Goethe Institut. Nevena's works are both visual and tactile. Тhey often have a poetic and/or performative element and involve active participation by the audience. She is the creator of the Mirror room and the children's room Garden Town at the Museum of humor and satire in Gabrovo.
About
I work conceptually in the sense that media and material depend on the idea of each new project. I spend a lot of time on a work. For me, mastery is not in achieving the perfect technique, but in perseverance itself, in surrendering to the subject you are studying. The material has a lot of potential to surprise us with disobedience. Learning is important to me, so I am constantly challenging myself to try new techniques and ways of thinking.
The political dimension is always present in my work, sometimes hidden, sometimes explicit. Most often it is suggested by the use of second-hand materials. My most overt political action so far has been my final academic project, when I did not use money for 9 months; I unsubscribed for a while from the economic system. This, of course, was greatly facilitated by the fact that I was in Sweden, a country of oversaturation and an overabundance of everything.
I love mathematics, so it is often present as geometry in sculptures, as well as conceptually in text or as part of the idea itself. I am interested in psychology and philosophy and often take advantage of the emotional dissection offered by performance and poetry.
Gallery
Nevena Ekimova
Untitled, 2020.
Installation
Details
- Photographer: Rosina Pencheva
- Material: матрак, чаршаф, лампа
- Width: 1.60 m Height: 2.00 m Depth: 0.20 m
- Description: Under a certain viewing angle, the words "Better sorry than safe" become visible on the mattress. The effect is achieved by using a fabric shaving machine on a well-used bedsheet.
The work is part of a larger installation, "She Loves Farewells", dedicated to passion.
Nevena Ekimova
Furry Wall, 2020.
Painting
Details
- Photographer: Rosina Pencheva
- Width: 2.50 m Height: 3.25 m Depth: 0.40 m
- Description: The wall is made for a simple and obvious purpose - touching.
Nevena Ekimova
Wood Wedding, 2020.
Installation
Details
- Photographer: Rosina Pencheva
- Material: wood, textile, embroidery, pyrography
- Description: A wood wedding is the fifth anniversary of a couple's wedding. The work offers a documentary take on the everyday life of a five-year-old Bulgarian family. Couples with and without children will recognize motives from the power dynamics between the sexes in a relationship shaped by its time and place - Bulgaria between patriarchal tradition and feminism.
The work is financed by the Bulgarian Fund for Women. - References: https://bgfundforwomen.org/en/
Nevena Ekimova
The Ascension of Tom, 2020.
Installation
Details
- Photographer: Rosina Pencheva
- Material: furry toy, curtain, sprouts, candles
- Width: 0.70 m Height: 1.00 m Depth: 1.00 m
- Description: Overgrown with white long hair, Tom is levitating about half a meter over the floor, with sprouts growing out of his chest.
he work is part of a larger installation entitled "She Loves Farewells". It is dedicated to love (in the sense of passion/obsession) and its power to destroy old paradigms and conjure new life forms into being.
Nevena Ekimova
A Love Story in Two Parts, 2019.
Installation
Details
- Photographer: Rosina Pencheva
- Material: paper, cardboard, plywood
- Description: The work consists of a sculpture on the floor and a participatory installation on the wall.
The part entitled "Death" is a felled sycamore tree made of paper, about 5m tall, with age rings visible on both trunk and stump. The innermost layer of bark which shows mostly on the branches is made of technical, mathematical and other scientific book pages. There are lots of paper planes lying around, made of the same type of paper.
The part entitled "Sex" consists of three signs and three work tables. Viewers are instructed and given the materials to make and conduct experiments with a Möbius strip, discovering some of its unique properties: it only has one side and one edge, and division along the center line results in one instead of two strips.