Bora Petkova

Biography

Bora Petkova was born 1979 in Varna, Bulgaria. At present (2018) she lives and works in Sofia, Bulgaria. She graduated from the Fine Arts department at the National Art Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria with MA in Sculpture.


About

Bora Petkova has a presence predominently on the Bulgarian art scene and in recent years her participation in group exhibitions has been tangibly selected and her own performances are rare and mostly related to museum institutions. Among her solo exhibitions are: 'Metamorphosis', National Museum of Natural History, Sofia, 2015; 'Breathing Space', National Literary Museum, P.K. Yavorov House Museum, Sofia, 2012; 'Practices in Public Environment', HR-Stamenov / Bora Petkova, Regional Historical Museum, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 2009; 'Somewhere Else', Credo Bonum Gallery, Sofia, 2009; 'To Full Evaporation', Raiko Alexiev Gallery, Sofia, 2008; 'Temporary Status Quo', Georgi Velchev House Museum, Varna, Bulgaria, 2008; 'Exhibition in Process. You Are Invited To Come Again!', Vaska Emanouilova Gallery, Sofia, 2008.

Currently in 2018 Bora Petkova is working on the long-term project 'Flotation Sessions' (2017-ongoing), initiated in Graz, Austria, in partnership with the Museum of Perception (Museum Der Wahrnehmung, MUWA), Graz. The project is an artistic study of the hallucinatory - visual material obtained during flotation sessions in an isolation tank with water solution of magnesium salt and contains a series of drawings and objects created after the sessions.
- Bora Petkova


Gallery

Bora Petkova

Light Spot, 2010.

Installation

Details

  • Photographer: Bora Petkova
  • Material: 11 spot lights 20 Watt each, cable electricity supply, 2 wooden frames with text in Turkish and English languages
  • Sizes: Not specified dimensions

  • Property of: The Author
  • Description: Installation view: 2nd International Antakya Biennial, Kurshunlu Han, Antakya. Turkey

    'Light Spot' is a site specific light installation reflecting the correlation between the personal positioning and a given environment. “Light Spot” is realised in Biella and Sanremo in Italy (see portfolio pg. 93 to 106) and Antakya in Turkey (see portfolio pg. 107 to 113). The work deals with the themes of memory, accumulation, presence, oblivion, extinction, transformation, adaptability, loss, melancholy. At both three realisations space, time and individual are experienced, investigated, artistically and archaeologically 'excavated' and finally the findings are pointed by light.
  • Copyright: The Author
  • References: https://www.art-agenda.com/shows/the-2nd-international-antakya-biennial/

Bora Petkova

To Full Evaporation, 2008.

Installation

Details

  • Photographer: Bora Petkova
  • Material: 42 units 3 / 90 / 90 cm each: steel 2mm, flat black polymer finishing, water
  • Sizes: Variable dimensions

  • Property of: The Author
  • Description: Installation view: 'To Full Evaporation', Bora Petkova, 2008, Rayko Alexiev Gallery, Sofia. Bulgaria

    The installation “To Full Evaporation” consists of 42 steel black units filled with water. During the period of the exhibition the water evaporates leaving colored in white residue on the bottom of the elements. These deposits are delicate, yet visible lines unique for each unit, drawing repeatedly the outlines of the shrinking water areas (see portfolio pg. 144 to 148).

    The change of the physical state of the matter, caused by certain conditions, is seen as an invisible dimension of the work. Physical process of transformation is identified as a changing with time space dimension, completing the other linear two. The visitors are at the same time Spectators and Participants, facing the two different ways to approach the work: as a grid or as an object. Changing position, ones perception drift from a macro gazing to micro examinations of the different elements and evaporation fields. As the conditions such as temperature, air flow, light and slight change in the floor gradient vary in the hall, the evaporation advances with a different speed and leaves unique deposit drawings on the bottom of the elements. Consequently another change in the perceptions starts when one enters the grid of units: the multiplied object becomes an unique one.

    The dimensions of the installation are determined by the linear dimensions of the space and the physical state of the matter in time. While the ground perimeter of the installation is defined by the dimensions of the gallery floor, the height is not the one of the elements. The height of the installation during the evaporation is the full height of the gallery: 6, 70 m (or even above), as the process of evaporation is subsequent from the climate conditions in the space. The outcome is a varying third dimension which is a process in time and space, an invisible processing dimension, visually demonstrated and sealed in the other two liner two with the appearance of the white residues on the bottom of the elements. Due to the grid-set arrangement of units, the installation becomes accessible for movement, similar to urban Infrastructure exploration. Entering the linear dimensions of the grid, the visitor physically enters the invisible third dimension of height, which is the processing in time evaporation.

    The installation was transformed and exhibited later with the title 'ARCHIVE / To Full Evaporation', (Bora Petkova, 2010) in the frame of the exhibition 'The Bold & The Beautiful' (curated by Svetlana Kuyumdzhieva, 2010, Rayko Alexiev Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria). The second presentation of the work showed 8 of the 43 units aged after a 2 years storage period as a series of pictures with dust and rust deposit patterns unique for each one which cover the white traces of the evaporated water (see portfolio pg. 149 to 151).
  • Copyright: The Author

Bora Petkova

Drawing after a video still ('Own space outdoor # 4', Bora Petkova, 2012), 2014.

Drawing

Details

  • Photographer: Simeon Stoilov
  • Material: Graphite and charcoal on paper 50% cotton
  • Width: 55.70 cm    Height: 99.00 cm    Depth: cm   

  • Property of: The Author
  • Description: 'Own Space Outdoor' is an ongoing project started in Germany in 2011 and continued in Bulgaria. It consists of a photographic investigation and series of videos that explore the types and ways in which man dwells and transforms the public and personal environment located exterior of his/her home. By organizing and marking these spaces with his/her belongings man expands the personal territory in the transitional zone between the house and the surrounding environment.

    In this investigation and particularly in the photographic part of it, private and public spaces have been documented, divided in several main categories as follows: the parking place, the courtyard (garden, park), the entrance, the terrace. Examining these locations, how the space is organised, what “tells” the composition of objects it contains and what is the relationship with the environment: opened and fluid or enclosed and separated even encapsulated, I managed to unfold the “language” of sets of objects, so they started to “speak” for their owners and how they communicate with society.

    In the video section have been documented my personal interventions in public and private spaces, in which I act by privatizing them temporary, changing or retaining their main function.
  • Copyright: The Author
  • References: https://vimeo.com/57069033

Bora Petkova

Drawing after a photograph (‘Stop being a tourist. Start a revolution. Start feeling at home.’, Bora Petkova, 2011), 2015.

Drawing

Details

  • Photographer: Simeon Stoilov
  • Material: Graphite on paper 50% cotton
  • Width: 64.00 cm    Height: 96.00 cm    Depth: cm   

  • Property of: The Author
  • Description: The drawing is based on a photograph, part of the work ‘Stop being a tourist. Start a revolution. Start feeling at home.’ (Bora Petkova, 2011). The work contains a series of photographs (photographer: HR-Stamenov) of artistic actions in urban environment (Berlin, Germany), video, found objects and а photograph of a billboard slogan (see portfolio pg. 80 to 86 and pg. 38 to 47). To the photorealistic image of a part of an existing urban landscape in which the artistic action was carried out, an intervention was made in the drawing: the body which in reality used the support of an onsite construction in the balancing of its water position, is depicted separately from its support, as if levitating in space. The provocation, blurring its unequivocal perception as a possible real situation, a trick, an illusion, mystery or a symbol, is devoid of all daring or arrogance; on the contrary, the painful realism of the objects in the drawing carries the subtraction, the silence, patience and the endurance that were necessary in the realisation of the artistic actions themselves.
  • Copyright: The Author
  • References: http://www.nmnhs.com/15022401-news_bg.html

Bora Petkova

Partial installation view from the ‘Metamorphosis’ exhibition (Bora Petkova, 2015, National Museum of Natural History, Sofia, Bulgaria), 2015.

Site-specific

Details

  • Photographer: HR-Stamenov
  • Material: Mixed media

  • Property of: The Author
  • Description: (see portfolio pg. 32 to 47)
  • Copyright: The Author

Bora Petkova

Risk Capital, 2012.

Site-specific

Details

  • Photographer: Bora Petkova
  • Material: HD Video, PAL, 16:9, 00:03:29, with original audio; two original safes; two pairs original keys; two frames (25,3 / 25,3 / 4,5 cm) each

  • Property of: The Author
  • Description: 'Risk Capital' is a site specific work, a central point of which is the idea of regulating the relationship between Artist and Institution and in particular the Bank institution.
    The nature of matter the Artist and the Bank deal with, is defiantly different at first glance. My goal in this collaboration was to find the right language of communication and its documentation by which the artistic ideas and tools and the principles of corporate bank culture of UniCredit Bulbank, to work for the promotion and development of the identity and achievements of both sides, creating new real values.
    'Risk Capital' is a term from the field of finance. The reason to use it as a title of my work is to create a situation in which the definition of the interface between the two professional fields, to reach the “critical shortage" (see portfolio pg. 70 to 73).

    Installation view: 'Bank of the Future', Carte Blanche # 1, UniCredit Studio, Sofia. Bulgaria
    Realised with the support of UniCredit Studio, Sofia
  • Copyright: The Author
  • References: https://vimeo.com/45009287

Bora Petkova

Partial installation view from the 'Breathing Space' exhibition (Bora Petkova, 2012, Peyo K. Yavorov House Museum, National Museum of Literature, Sofia, Bulgaria), 2012.

Site-specific

Details

  • Photographer: Simeon Stoilov
  • Material: HD Video, PAL, 16:9, 00:14:32, with original audio; found object; intervention on window; audio installation on door

  • Property of: The Author
  • Description: 'Breathing Space' is a site specific work staged at Peyo K. Yavorov House Museum in Sofia (part from the National Museum of Literature) as a temporary artistic intervention in the permanent exposition of the museum, with the special participation of HR-Stamenov and his work 'Ambiguous Activities'. It explores the relationship between the life and work of the Bulgarian poet P. K. Yavorov and the features of the house museum with the means of site-specific interventions, video and audio installations.
    At the context of the life and work of P.K.Yavorov, 'Breathing Space' comes to consider the idea of Death as a short pause separating but also making the leap between two eternities: the notion for Eternity from the poetry of P.K.Yavorov and the eternity of his poetry.
    The project is implemented with respect to the museum activities as a whole, the importance of the building as a culture monument and the authenticity of the permanent exposition (see portfolio pg. 52 to 60).

    Installation view: 'Breathing Space', With the special participation of HR-Stamenov, Peyo K. Yavorov House Museum, National Museum of Literature, Sofia. Bulgaria
    Supported by Gaudenz B. Ruf Award
  • Copyright: The Author
  • References: https://vimeo.com/55888525