Biography
Svetlana Mircheva graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Sofia. She took Olafur Eliasson’s class in IUAV, Venice. In 2004 was awarded the International Media Art Award of ZKM, Karlsruhe, for her project Mistakes. After a decade of art directing and graphic work in big advertising agencies as Ogilvy, Demner, Merlichek&Bergmann and Capital Light Magazine, she concentrated in contemporary art. In 2010 she was among the nominees for the BAZA Award and in 2012 was the Bulgarian nomination for Henkel Art Award for East European Art. Mircheva was one of the curators of Sofia Design Week 2012. In 2015 she was presented in Focus Bulgaria at Vienna Contemporary.
Her solo exhibitions are “Random Show”, Vaska Emanouilova, Sofia (2011); “Possible Exhibitions”, Nurture Art, New York (2012); “103 Mistakes”, Un Cabinet D’Amateur, Sofia (2012); “Images of the Word”, Un Cabinet D’Amateur, Sofia (2014); “Sounds of Sea, Heart and Sun”, Contemporary Space, Varna (2018).
Her works have been exhibited in Radar, Venice; Temporary Contemporary, London; Viper, Kunsthalle, Basel; ZKM, Karlsruhe; Stuttgart; Studio Voltaire, London; BAZA Award; WUK, Vienna; MMOMA, Moscow; ISCP, New York; Periscope, Salzburg; Interstate Projects, New York; Vienna Contemporary; Saatchi Education Center, London; Sofia Arsenal-Museum for Contemporary Art; National Academy of Art, Sofia; KulturKontakt, Vienna; Here and everywhere, Plovdiv; Goethe Institute, Sofia; Sofia City Art Gallery; Structura Gallery, Sofia; European Parlament, Brussels; Archives, Strasbourg; Æther, 0gms, Sofia; Elizabeth Kostova Foundation-New York, Sofia.
Svetlana Mircheva’s work is in the collection of National Art Gallery, Sofia.
About
Mircheva’s works are based upon chance meetings with things and words.
From rebus to cosmic constellations, to twisted slogans and computer explorations, a short sampling of possible intrusions of the visual arts in the infinite world of language.
- Olivier Boissiere, 2014
Mircheva’s main interest is in the grey zones between reality and imagination.
Imaginary narratives play an important role throughout Mircheva’s work. A combination of the artist’s and the viewer’s imaginations is required to connect the dots in her otherwise patchy repertoire of glitches, found objects, imperfections and twilight zones.
- Marco Anitonini, 2012
The artist most often creates works that propose different forms of presentation of the specific features and, most commonly, the mistakes in the use and operation of various technologies. The author seems to be constantly wishing to shake our trust in the accuracy, clarity, and reality of our perceptions of the world that are formed by contemporary digital culture. For that purpose, she often uses the tools of design. Her works include objects, prints, models, short videos, photography, in all of which there is keen interest to the graphic symbol and the characteristics of the image.
- Vladiya Mihaylova, 2011
Gallery
Svetlana Mircheva
Love&Peace Puzzle, 2016.
Sculpture
Details
- Photographer: Svetlana Mircheva
- Material: plexiglass
- Width: 27.00 cm Height: 27.00 cm Depth: 27.00 cm
- Property of: Svetlana Mircheva
- Description: Victory sign, sign for peace and love, hippie symbol, sign for blessing and somewhere even an offense sign. They are all coming together in this fragile 3D puzzle peacefully and lovely.
- Copyright: Svetlana Mircheva
- References: http://svetlanamircheva.com/
Svetlana Mircheva
Possible Exhibitions, series, 2012.
Sculpture
Details
- Photographer: Kalin Ivanov
- Material: plexiglas, pvc, glass, wood, rope, textile, stones
- Width: 53.00 cm Height: 30.00 cm Depth: 15.00 cm
- Sizes: edition 3+AP; Nurture Art, New York
- Property of: Svetlana Mircheva
- Description: “For “Possible Exhibitions” series, Mircheva strays from technology and automation to present a series of diminutive, some quite simple, other slightly inscrutable dioramas from an ongoing collection of imaginary gallery-size installations. With their quiet and unassuming presence, the models lead both artist and viewer to imagine an infinity of possible scenarios, suspended between past, present and future. Possible Exhibitions showcases Mircheva's signature sleek, highly-professionalized daydreaming at its most powerful. With this exhibition we are ready to transform our gallery in a temporary zone open to imagination, projection and reflection.”
Marco Antonini
Nurture Art, New York - Copyright: Svetlana Mircheva
- References: http://svetlanamircheva.com/
http://nurtureart.org/program/svetlana-mircheva-possible-exhibitions/
Svetlana Mircheva
Parallel Sounds, part of soundscapes series, 2017.
Installation
Details
- Photographer: Hristomir Svoboda
- Material: acrylglass, light, sound
- Width: 280.00 cm Height: 370.00 cm Depth: 60.00 cm
- Sizes: edition 3+AP
- Property of: Svetlana Mircheva
- Description: Vienna Soundscapes.
Vienna seen and heard as grass near water, bird at the city end, hippo roaring, train departing. Translated into light objects in space, sounds go back unrecognizable, composed in smashing rhythm. Facing the colorful shining parallels and sunken into sound, the viewer is free to enter his landscapes of mind.
The work is developed during KulturKontakt Austria AIR 2017. - Copyright: Idea and installation: Svetlana Mircheva
Sound recording: Svetlana Mircheva
Sound composing: Angel Simitchiev - References: http://svetlanamircheva.com/
http://www.contemporaryspace.bg/exhibitions/3663/
Svetlana Mircheva
Ads for happy days, series, 2014.
Sculpture
Details
- Photographer: Tihomir Rachev
- Material: laser cut plexiglass
- Sizes: 81 cm x 176 cm; 85 cm x 46 cm; edition 3+AP
- Property of: Svetlana Mircheva
- Description: Twisted slogans. Series of compositions in Latin and Glagolitic.
"You've got questions, we've got mountain"
"Speak the Word Strongly", Glagolitic - Copyright: Svetlana Mircheva
- References: http://svetlanamircheva.com/
http://uncabinetdamateur.bg/exhibitions/past/item/134-images-of-the-word
Svetlana Mircheva
103 Mistakes, 2012.
Installation
Details
- Photographer: Tihomir Rachev
- Material: 103 color inkjet prints on photo paper
- Width: 50.00 cm Height: 40.00 cm Depth: cm
- Sizes: edition 3+AP, Un Cabinet D'Amateur / Olivier Boissiere Gallery, Sofia
- Property of: Svetlana Mircheva
- Description: “103 Mistakes” are 103 different error visualizations of one and the same corrupted graphic file - digital drawing of two legs.
“Mistakes”, first presented in 2004 at ZKM in Karlsruhe, documented randomly generated screen-crashes. Triggered by faulty graphic files on Mircheva’s old computer, the screen-grabs presented in Mistakes are totally out of the artist’s control and yet resemble beautifully woven 8-bit tapestries suggestive of both Modernist and Vernacular art. Computers are for Mircheva living beings, bent into total submission and therefore incline to unexpected forms of rebellion. Every screen grab in Mistakes is a window open into the subconscious of a supposedly passive instrument. These fascinatingly fragmented images suggest the presence a creative potential, a glimpse offered by a supposed “malfunction” that the artist sees as a positive, creative moment.”
Marco Antonini - Copyright: Svetlana Mircheva
- References: http://svetlanamircheva.com/
http://uncabinetdamateur.bg/exhibitions/past/item/9-103-mistakes