In September 2017 Bulgarian group of artists part of Water tower art fest participated at Nakanojo Biennale in its own pavilion under the theme of “Distant relatives” at old Daisan school in the area of Nakanojo, Shima Onsen. We shared the venue with other international groups of artists from Thailand and Poland. The events lead to this presentation are strongly connected with the 10 year of history of Water tower art fest in Sofia , where we hosted many artists at abandoned spaces among which a Japanese artists: Takako Yamaguchi who is also a co – curator of the Bulgarian Pavilion, Yoriko Newmor, Kyoko Fujiwara and Harumi Shimazu as well as at previous editions Hitomi Kammai, Madoka Chiba, Yuri Miaychi, Mariko Hori and contemporary calligrapher Hiroshi Ueta. Over the years the good communication between Bulgaria and Japan was obvious and not necessarily completely understandable or logical – bearing in mind our different cultural backgrounds, geographical distance or economic or political situations. But nevertheless the mutual respect and sympathy was evident, therefore we decided to title the Bulgarian Pavilion ‘ Distant relatives”- where the non logical closeness and sharing is more of an issue than the actual dividing components in our friendship. My work was placed at a school room, where the space was divided by the video installation and some site specific interaction with the actual space via drawings and light shadows. The video was part of a performance made during WTAR 2017 at train depot Poduene under the title ” Predisposition limited by circumstances”. I decided to show this work as a multilayered installation, showing the path of an idea despite how willing the person is is still limited by the earthly circumstances and sometimes even more, but what you do is try to spread the beautiful light as far as possible trough what you do with the hope you will brighten areas where there was no light until then. As long as your predisposition is a factor by default. The whole experience had a life changing effect on all of us and I hope that it won’t be the last one. More photos here
