Biography
Born in Sofia and based in Helsinki, Leda Vaneva holds MA degrees in Photography (2012, National Academy of Arts, Sofia) and New Media (2018, Aalto University, Helsinki). In 2008 she studied Fine Arts at Universitat de Barcelona.
She has been part of exhibitions in various venues in Bulgaria, Finland, Spain, Austria, Germany, South Korea. Her solo shows are: Thin White Lines – Lapinlahti gallery, Helsinki (2018), re-re-re configuration – Th3rd Space, Helsinki (2018), Centre Shift – Vaska Emanuilova gallery, Sofia (2015), The More, The More – The Fridge, Sofia (2014).
She got nominated for Baza Award in 2014 and 2017. In 2016 she was awarded the Georges Papazoff Award for contemporary video and in 2013 she won the Essl Art Award.
About
My fascinations lie in the processes which govern and limit our perceptions. Some of the main objectives of my work are to discover alternative ways of experiencing, to visualise the invisible. I often find insights in science. My pieces generally revolve around themes like materiality, agency/control, the connection of the digital and physical realm, hybridity.
My work is often image-based, taking the relationship of the whole and its components as a structure. It's built from smaller blocks which act together, either in a modular fashion, or simply as a series. In my recent works I have been exploring not only what reality is, but also what it potentially could be, and how it could be shaped.
– Leda Vaneva
Gallery
Leda Vaneva
Life Lines #2018, 2019.
Photography
Details
- Material: lenticular print
- Width: 180.00 cm Height: 120.00 cm Depth: cm
- Property of: Leda Vaneva
- Description: Life Lines is a visual “diary” series. #2018 is the beginning and consists of all images, taken with a smartphone camera in 2018. The photos are dissolved in lines of the colours which they contained.
I rarely check my old photos, yet I keep producing loads of new ones. Contours seem to lose significance. What do I even remember afterwards? The work is a demolition of the concrete, where context gets lost and only colour remains. That makes the images universal, free from a specific situation, pure emotion. Or is it? Are the colours themselves enough of sensorial stimuli to able to generate an experience? - Copyright: Leda Vaneva
- References: https://ledavaneva.com/LifeLines.html
Leda Vaneva
Complementarity, 2019.
Video
Details
- Material: HD video, 2 channels, 9:40 min, sound
- Property of: Leda Vaneva
- Description: The principle of complementarity comes from quantum mechanics and describes the inability of certain pairs of objects’ properties to be seen simultaneously. This idea shows how physical reality is built of partly unpredictable elements, which cannot be known in their entirety.
Complementarity embraces this uncertainty and celebrates the intrinsic duality of the world. - Copyright: video: Leda Vaneva
sound: Moby - References: https://ledavaneva.com/Complementarity.html
Leda Vaneva
Blackouts, 2019.
Photography
Details
- Material: Digital print
- Sizes: Varying size
- Property of: Leda Vaneva
- Description: For most of us, all life happens “in front of our eyes”. Most of the information comes through visual perception. There are, however, many moments when we blink. They are in fact so frequent that our eyes are closed for roughly 10% of our waking hours. We are used to thinking that it’s because our eyes need proper hydration, but research shows that those moments are not random at all. What blinking is used for is not completely certain, but it definitely is a different realm of the mind. The human brain has no sensors for time. Time is a construct. our experience of time is created from how things change in our visual perception. How these “blackouts” of blinking shape our world?
Blackouts is a series of photographic prints. They are snapshots taken by the artist’s phone camera accidentally and discovered afterwards. They are completely independent events, out of the person’s control. Blackouts depicts intimacy through the absence of figuration, as well as those moments of time, which are unaccounted for. - Copyright: Leda Vaneva
- References: https://ledavaneva.com/Blackouts.html
Leda Vaneva
Thin White Lines, 2018.
Sculpture
Details
- Photographer: Galya Yotova
- Material: 3D PLA drawing
- Width: 45.00 cm Height: 45.00 cm Depth: 45.00 cm
- Sizes: Approx. size
- Property of: Leda Vaneva
- Description: A series about movement and transition. Started as a drawing made up of thin black lines, the work traces the transformation of ideas | forms | energy through space. Repetition and randomisation are the main tools used. Thin White Lines explores the elements of formation, following nature’s ways to structuring matter.
- Copyright: Leda Vaneva
- References: https://ledavaneva.com/ThinWhiteLines.html