Biography
Alla Georgieva was born 1957 in Kharkov, Ukraine, USSR. Live and work in Bulgaria. Graduated from the Academy of Art and Design in Kharkov. Alla work in painting, drawing, installation, photography, objects, videos, performance and cartoons / with Chavdar Georgiev/. “She is one of the initiators and founders of the first Bulgarian group of women artists “8th of March”, which attempts through its exhibitions to provoke discussions on gender and feminist questions. In her photo-installations, video and objects, the artist mixes visual elements typical of the “new” Balkan sub cultural movements and the aestheticism and elitism of high-level art. She uses the language of advertising, often draws on grotesque, the farce and the parody to dissect the everyday absurdity in the contemporary Bulgarian society in transition” /Iliyana Nedkova, n.paradoxa,#19,2007/
In recent years, her interest is in research of historical and ideological clichés of political debunking myths and stereotypes of mainstream thinking.
Her work are presented in galleries and events such as:
The Life is a bed of roses, Structura gallery,Sofia /2018/; XXIII International Biennial of Humour and Satire in Art, Gabrovo,Bulgaria , Special Award for contemporary art /2017/; Amor, OI Futuro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil /2016/;Gender-Check / Feminity and Masculinity in Easter European Art, National Gallery of Art Zaheta, Warsaw, Poland; BIENNALE: 2 of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki; "Land of Promise", part of REMAP: KM shared for the 2nd Athens Biennale, "Current Bulgarian scene," Ludwig Museum in Koblenz; "Wasteland", gallery Hattyuhaz, Peja, Hungary; "Hack.Fem.East", Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien, Berlin; "Wild Girls", gallery EXIT ART, New York; Play Sofia, Kunsthalle, Vienna; Cosmopolis / 1, Microcosmos X Macrocosmos ", State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki; "Privatizirungen" / The Post-Communist Condition, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; "The Sphinx will Devour You", Gallery Karsi Sanat, Istanbul; "Blood & Honey / Future's in Balkans",, Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg, Vienna; "Bound / Less / Borders", Museum of the History of Yugoslavia, Belgrade; "Bulgaria, NY", "Elizabeth foundation", New York.
In 2011 she realized curatorial project "Re-production" in Sofia Arsenal Museum of Contemporary Art.
In 2011 she realized / with Nadezha Dzakova/ curatorial project "Re-production" in Sofia Arsenal Museum of Contemporary Art.
Alla Georgieva’s works are part of collections such as:
Moderna Galeria /MG+MSUM/ Slovenia;National Art Gallery, Sofia;European Investment Bank; Sofia City Art Gallery, Bulgaria ; Bulgarian Consulate, Dundee; Stills, Edinburgh, Scotland; House of Humour and Satire, Gabrovo, Bulgaria;Petko Churchuliev Art Gallery, Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria.
Gallery
Alla Georgieva
My mom dresses/ Alla Vitta vs. Jan van Eyck, 2018.
Painting
Details
- Material: oil on canvas
- Width: 100.00 cm Height: 155.00 cm Depth: cm
- Description: Алла Георгиева започва работата си върху проекта „Животът е песен“ през 2012 г. Пътят до приключването му и решението да бъде споделен е дълъг, защото преминава през емоциите на най-дълбоките и лични драми.
Изложбата – живопис, обекти, фотографии и рисунки, бродирани на ръка (с конец и коса), разказва за страданието, раздялата, болката и любовта. Миналото нахлува с цялата си мощ през сбогуването с майката, което е и своеобразно сбогуване с важна част от живота. Настоящето поднася своите изненади, като подлага авторката на същите изпитания, отнели живота на най-близкия ѝ човек, като че ли да подчертае съдбовната обвързаност на двама души по напълно несправедлив начин – през обричащата болест.
Черните мисли и страхът от болестта, смъртта и раздялата – неразделна част от живота на всеки, Алла Георгиева „облича“ в ярки дрехи. Това не само са роклите на майката, свързани с детството и личния спомен, но и знак за това, че независимо от всичко животът продължава. Когато разбира, че ще оцелее, авторката решава да подписва работите си с псевдонима Alla Vitta.
Болестта като „внезапна спирка по пътя“ изправя човек срещу собствените му слабости и страхове. В случая мислите за смъртта са свързани и с тъгата по раздялата със света на изкуството. Не случайно няколко композиции са посветени на любими художници.
Много често творбите на Алла Георгиева споделят лични преживявания и опит. Собственият ѝ образ се появява непрекъснато като своеобразен гарант за истинността на историите и достоверността на преживяното. Изложбата е автопортрет на живота на авторката, но и портрет на тревогите и отношенията, които владеят всеки един от нас./ текст: куратор на изложбата Мария Василева/ - Copyright: Alla Georgieva
- References: http://structura.gallery/bg/exhibitions/alla-georgieva-life-is-a-symphony/
http://allageorgieva.blogspot.com/2018/10/alla-vitta-vs-jan-van-eyck-2013.html
Alla Georgieva
Happy Birthday to You!, 2003.
Installation
Details
- Material: posters: Ink Jet print on paper; cakes with marzipan and fondant decoration
- Width: 35.00 cm Height: 35.00 cm Depth: 20.00 cm
- Description: Installation from 6 posters, digital print, 100 x 70 cm each, 3 cakes, 30 x 40 x 25cm; 35 x 35 x 20 cm; 40 x 25 x 25 cm, 3 tables.
What is necessary for a birthday? A cake and a present.
What to pick out for a present? Six posters urge to buy beautiful new toys for children. Six boys from 5 to 15 years old advertise six different trademarks of fire weapons.
“Happy birthday to you!”, “Especially for you!” and “Good luck to you!” are optimistic messages written on the cakes often with foolish and naïve scenario of sugar glaze and marzipan. The happy scenarios are replaced with plots of violence with “bad end” and confused scenarios from the real life.
“Come in the future!” This was the motto of the presentation in bulgarian media of the latest model of the shot gun “Walter R-22 ” /2003/. Come in the bright future, where the fire weapon is a good that is for a common consumption! The fire weapon becomes more and more thorough. The process of killing becomes more and more precise. The process of killing is modernized, there are invented new modifications assuring maximal convenience and effectiveness.
“We are sure that the armed citizen is a free citizen!” -the popular expression on various weapons sites.
“With a good word and a gun is possible to achieve more, then only with a good word” (as per a Bulgarian site for weapons).
As a good with popularity and good that is very demanded, the fire weapon needs a good advertisement. The series of posters are unified with to logo “Power & Play”, which is an induced original logo of the contemporary toys with a military thematic for children.
The phenomenon of the new time are the children –killers. Under the pressure of the cult to the violence in the contemporary movie and video industry, abandoned in the loneliness of the uncontrolled Internet world, the children build an own world of heroes and victims. In this world the fire weapon is only one beautiful, accessible and failure-free toy. With a pull of the trigger all the problems are resolved. - Copyright: Alla Georgieva
- References: http://allageorgieva.blogspot.com/2012/04/2003-2005-happy-birthday-to-you.html
https://www.kw-berlin.de/privatisierungen-zeitgenoessische-kunst-aus-osteuropa/
Alla Georgieva
Bulgarian Souvenirs, 2007.
Photography
Details
- Material: 3D lenticulare print
- Width: 80.50 cm Height: 106.00 cm Depth: cm
- Description: This photography is part of a long-term project "Bulgarian souvenirs" 2006-2010, which represents an installation comprising a series of 9 color photographs, pigment print on paper ;1 photography 3D print; bed with counterpane and pillow with pillowcase; handmade object “breastplate” with coins; video animation 1 min. loop
I present series of photographies imitating the stile of the vehicle advertisements traditional for every country through the pictures of beautiful girls dressed in national costumes and beautiful scenery used as background, distributed mainly as postcards, calendars, advertisement tourist leaflets or billboards. The beauty of women has always been a commercial product – either legal (in the form of the consumer advertising) or illegal – as a product for direct sexual consumption.Thousand women from Eastern Europe are prostitutes in the western European countries. Half a million are in the hands of criminal business. The profits from this business amount to 15 billion dollars. I present the series of nine posters of beautiful girls dressed in national costumes. The young women are photographed in poses often found in the erotic magazines. Their clothes undergo dramatic intervention - cutting in different “strategic” places and combination with special erotic underwear.
By this project I would like to attract the attention to the issue of the integration of the economically undeveloped countries from the former socialist block to the “rich Europe”. This type of involuntary “integration” carried out by mafia structures is done through the violation of the national dignity and its turning into “a piquant exotic” spice to advertisement of women, offered as a sexual satisfaction product. http://allageorgieva.blogspot.bg/2012/04/2006-2008-bulgarian-souvenirs.html
“Bulgaria’s unique traditional culture has long been one of the country’s biggest selling points for tourists. Georgieva’s work-cum-ad appears to put tourists off with its annoyingly repetitive and non-slick composition. Especially those who are looking to acquire a cheap place under the Bulgarian sun with a wife of a souvenir attached to it. Circuitously, Georgieva’s BG Souvenirs is a comment on tourism – one of the largest growth areas in the Bulgarian economy in the last decade, set to become the most prominent sector of the economy in the years to come. A key feature of selling Bulgaria as a tourist destination has been its unique night-time culture, its Yanas and Gerganas. Tourist policy and literature focuses on Bulgarian dance, music, conviviality and conversation. This focus, along with the rise of the Bulgarian theme pub, has led to a ‘commodification’ of Bulgarian identity and culture. It has an impact on the perceptions of Bulgarian people in general, but artistic activities are also affected by having to be reproduced to satisfy the tourist market. Georgieva’s choice of form and content seems just short of abhorring this market.
The carnavalesque atmosphere evokes an ethnographic scene worthy of the canvases of Ivan Mrkvička – the Czech Bulgarian realist painter who captured the everyday lives and loves of the country in late 19th early 20th Century. BG Souvenirs is also a poignant marker of some of the issues of today. Its origin is clouded in a social engagement project.
“Alla Georgieva: Between Difference and Understanding” ,Iliyana Nedkova, n.Paradoxa, In / difference,volume19 2007 - Copyright: Alla Georgieva
Alla Georgieva
New Hedonism-I, 2004.
Photography
Details
- Material: digital print on canvas, golden wood frame
- Width: 142.00 cm Height: 172.00 cm Depth: cm
- Description: This work makes an attempt to investigate the connections between the natural mother instincts and the model of behavior dictated by contemporary consumerist society. Is there a contradiction between the egocentric dictates of society and the dictates of nature? How does the consumerist model , with its ideas for permanent satisfaction of needs ”HERE & NOW!”, cult of the perfect body, dictates of fashion, striving for professional realization, the dictates of material independence collaborate with or confront the mother instincts that demand unavoidable sacrifices?
New hedonism-is it possible to satisfy intellectual, social, material and natural needs at same time? To what extent does the right and pleasure of belonging to yourself, to be the beginning and the end of existence raise a feeling of guilt? Does the satisfied maternal instinct replace the unrealized personality?
Is the image of the mother winning or loosing for the New Generation of Women? - Copyright: Alla Georgieva
Alla Georgieva
Alla's Secret-II / Collection 2000, 2000.
Photography
Details
- Material: digital print on paper
- Width: 100.00 cm Height: 130.00 cm Depth: cm
- Property of: Alla Georgieva
- Description: My works are inspired by the world of advertisement. I investigate the contrast between advertising strategies and the real life. In series of three posters I present my paranoid existence, borrowing tools for influence from advertisement, which itself uses the fashionable strategy of imitating the “real life”. The title of the work is a paraphrase of the name of the worldwide famous underwear company “Victoria’s Secret”. I advertise underwear and at the same time I “advertise” my own life. In the three posters I am cooking three traditional Bulgarian dishes in my house. I use the popular logos from different famous advertisements for underwear.
- Copyright: Alla Georgieva