Solo Exhibition – Performance
Biliana Voutchkova
/March 17 – 21, 2021/
Vernissage: 2021-03-17 /Wednesday/ 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM
March 18 and 19 – 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM
March 20 and 21 – 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
“Under the Veil of Consciousness” is a five-day solo exhibition-performance by Biliana Voutchkova, specially created for the space of ONE Gallery. The exposition includes partially composed, partially improvised music, performed live in symbiosis with various accompanying means of expression—objects, video/audio installations, and collages—used as “scores” for the overall composition. The main focus of the exhibition is the interaction between Biliana and the viewers, with her hands serving as the connecting link. She not only involves the attendees in the creation of the live score but also uses her hands as a means of exploring her own “Self.” The theme of memory and recollections unites the installations with personal significance for the artist, while the simplicity of the materials (stone, glass, metal, fabric) and their messages provoke a deeper reading of the way we perceive art.
“My aim is to create a space where we can forget our rushing thoughts and enter a different sensory state of receptivity—this is the heart of the exhibition.”
Biliana Voutchkova
Under the Veil of Consciousness
broken car radio, iPad, and sound media / 07:13 min / 2020
for the impossible dream in the infinity of possibilities
for life and beyond life
for the brief moment of pure bliss and the long chain of losses
for heart to heart and their ability to keep trust in something greater
Sound for the installation:
Confessions of the Hands
video installation / 31:00 min / 2020
the first connection with the outside world, predominantly intuitive relationships, the body’s most familiar memoirs, the lifelines that change with us through the years, through their ceaseless complex choreography leading to ever deeper levels of exploration
Choice to be Elsewhere
site-specific long-duration installation-live performance, real-time improvisation, connoting the presence of the audience / 2020 version
(2018 first performance)
There will be violin, voice, performance, silence,
fragments of memory, new encounters, sudden connection
There will be unexpected forgotten ways of communication,
abstract tender connections, familiar shared sensations
There will be images, surprise, resonance and echo,
openness, choice to be elsewhere
Altar – Atlas
black and white photo collage on a background of concert posters / 2020
here are the memories, the gratitude, the appreciation for the two hands that have been making music for more than 40 years, here is the thread connecting the past, the present, and the future
13 Stones I, II, III
stones in glass boxes with water, six-channel sound installation / 07:00 / 2020
touch, softness under cover, condensed power,
gathered solar warmth and inner peace, sound of a memory of closeness
About the artist:
Biliana Voutchkova is a dynamic and profound interdisciplinary contemporary artist with a strong unconventional language. Through the prism of hearing, her early training in classical music, and 25 years of development as a complete contemporary artist-performer, she explores states of spontaneity and intuitive resonance embodied in her multifaceted activity. Her work covers the widest possible range of expressive means such as sound, vision, movement and includes long-duration and multidisciplinary formats, concerts, performances, compositions, and installations focused on sound space.
Based between Berlin and her rural residence on the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria, she works as a soloist and with renowned ensembles such as United Berlin, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Splitter Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Vouchkova / Thieke duo, and others. Among her recent and current projects are solo tours in France, Colombia, Chile, USA, Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, her first solo exhibition-performance at ONE Gallery / Sofia, the development of new non-standard formats presented live and on various digital platforms (ESS Chicago / Option series, Kaleidophon Festival, Moers Festival), the release of a new solo album by the London label Takuroku, the premieres of “Amati Lenta” (with Olivia Block) and “Golden Illusions” at the One Dance Week festival in Plovdiv 2019. Biliana is the founder and curator of the DARA String Festival and a recipient of numerous prestigious awards and grants—from the Berlin Senate, INM / Berlin, Musikfonds, Trust for Mutual Understanding / New York, and others.
The exhibition was realized with the support of the “Creative Initiatives” program of the National Culture Fund, with gratitude
