Scrap is part of Boryana Pandova’s project series “Objects of the Inattention”.

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Objects of the inattention are elements of our surroundings which pass us by due to their being random, broken, or conceived of as unworthy of our attention. The things which we do not think about. They have all merged into a common background upon which the important parts of everyday life are projected. But approaching the individual elements of this “white noise” with a camera lens gives them the opportunity to begin speaking to us.

 

The colourful blossoms which fall out of city trees and bushes and the everyday home objects we discard become the main protagonists of this project—gathered from the grimy corners of the city in order to give rise to a game of Question Versus Question among the artists participating in the project.

 

It all starts with a few blossoms and pods dropped on the street, rolling through the seasons, left to wither and in turn create new life. The photographic transfers in question begin with the capture of these moments of the circle of life by Boryana’s camera.

 

The photo is transferred onto a wooden panel, and out of it the shapes of the inflorescences it contains sprout out of Maria and Ivaylo’s grotesque-functional dialect and ricochet off the pieced-together transfer panels. The image shatters and builds on itself, and the lines of artistic cooperation multiply away into infinity.

 

Every element of the exhibition is characterised by these transformations from one state to another and, just like in nature, the “starting” information is changed, lost, and rediscovered in the many cycles of interaction undergone by its constituent elements. Also just like nature is the manner in which the original images shatter into pieces, their shells melt away in the authors’ thought process and then grow into new forms and a new vision. Because “garbage” is not a valid category in nature, everything within it simply transitions from one state to another. Garbage is a human invention, and is certainly one of our most expansive concepts, if not our most glamorous.

 

This project is taking place in a year in which every climate report boldly and unmistakably concludes that we have long surpassed the threshold of temperature increase which can sustain our current lifestyles, that our climate measures are a cheap simulacrum of what is actually required in order to deal with the crisis, and that all of this means that we are irresponsibly dragging the whole planet down with us in the anthropocalypse we have created.

 

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About the authors:

 

Boryana Pandova (born 1979) is a visual artist who was born and works in Sofia.

 

Her education passes through the theatre, through which she discovers her passion for photography and video. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and Practical Photography from the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts “Krastyo Sarafov” and a Master’s degree in Photography from the National Academy of Art.

 

The visual signature of her works retains a sense of play and live experience characteristic of performing arts.

 

borianapandova.com

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Maria Paunova (born in 1979) and Ivaylo Mitev (born in 1979) are painters. Both of them have degrees in scenography from New Bulgarian University. They are heavily involved in running PUNKT workshop, the name that they’ve taken on professionally since 2010.

 

Their work is diverse, encompassing everything ranging from artistic furniture to beautiful lamps, fun children’s toys, furnishing homes and offices and costume and set design.

 

Their main material of choice is abandoned furniture, whose parts they combine in unexpected ways with literally anything they find in front of their eyes, so long as the material is natural. This is a big challenge not only because mending old wood requires serious treatment in order to look good, but also because of the thrill of the creative process.

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punktworkshop.com

 

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The project is supported by:

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National Culture Fund

Camera electronica

PUNKT Workshop

 

Partners:

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Vizh! Magazine

The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee

Na po Vino

Lettersoup