Konstanin Konstantinov (Bulgaria) – painting
www.konstantinkonstantinov.com
Konstanin Konstantinov was born and raised in Plovdiv, Bulgaria – an ancient city, one full of Roman ruins, museums, art, and houses of famous locals.
His childhood is closely related to the Old City of Plovdiv – An original living museum, an architectural phenomenon with many of the houses of those times, turned into museums, galleries hosting various art exhibitions, festivals and biennials, and even tourist dormitories.
Wael Darwish (Egypt) – painting
„In the past few years I have been much concerned with the changing perceptions and the state of continuous social metamorphosis that Egypt, as an African, Arab and Middle East country that was colonized and liberated, has witnessed in the last three decades.
In my mixed media projects, I try to probe several phenomenon that constitute for me some permanent obsessions, like subjugation, liberty, constraints of time, its relevance to the subject matter employed, elements of migration, gender, identity, among other themes that attract several Egyptian artists of my generation.
I am a painter, video and installation artist. In my painting I am obsessed by the human movement and their quest for freedom, while in my mixed media works and installation, I apply assemblages to create sculptural states that transcend simple two-dimensional art forms; through the studied and experimental use of collage I combine color, calligraphy, textile, and various textural media to explore issues of gender, independence, freedom, space and passage of time.
My painting projects in the past few years were inspired by American Color Field painting and French Lyrical Abstraction, where large “fields” of flat solid color colonize harmoniously large areas of the canvas to create a homogenous surface of flat picture plane, stressing on the overall consistency of form over the brush movement and brushstrokes. Contrary to standard Color Field and Lyrical Abstraction and i have successfully combined abstraction styles and painterly techniques with elements of figuration and cognitive representation.
In my 2010 works, I’m uses my cumulative experience as a painter as well as an interdisciplinary artist to create canvases that uses photography as a base for his brush, eliminating along the way backgrounds. In my process, creates, and narrates, an alternative reality for the figures that filled the planes of the initial photograph. The streets of Cairo act as a location much representative of contemporary Middle Eastern urban cities; ordinary citizens dwell the streets and alleys alongside soldiers and traffic policemen. Every photographed or painted individual play a different role while interacting with each other in a universe that is almost hyper real.
Slav Nedev (Bulgaria) – Painting
Slav Nedev was born in Sofia. Member of the Union of Bulgarian Artists, section Painting, co-president of World Art Games Bulgaria.
Since 1992 he has solo and group exhibitions in Bulgaria and abroad (Croatia, Holland, Denmark, Slovakia, USA). In 2011 he won a scholarship for specialization in Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus in Schwandorf, Germany, in 2009 – UBA scholarship for specialization in the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris.
Michael Hahn – MOCH (U.S.) – painting
MOCH is from Minneapolis, MN. Currently living in Brooklyn, NY.
„Life is ignorant. The fear of death is upon us. We are held to succumb to despair. The artist can find no meaning in life, yet can refresh a horrid day. Irony is the light of darkness. The Elite Misfit to the hidden power of emotional literacy. I choose to utilize my thoughts on canvas to help create the experience of life that I prefer. Embracing it empowers my emotional intelligence to live above and beyond anguish.“
Gustavo Plascencia (U.S.) – visual arts
Gustavo Plascencia was raised in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila. Plascencia attended the Escuela de Artes Plasticas Ruben Herrera in Saltillo, Coahuila, before immigrating to the U.S. He received his Master in Fine Arts at the University of Colorado in Boulder in Photography and Media Arts and his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Arlington.
The constructive nature of identity, the conflict that individuals face constructing their identities, and the duality of private and public lives are the main elements in my creative artwork. Many of the stories depicted in my work are metaphors of family secrets, personal struggles, and shared experiences – both in public and private places. The alternative presentation for photography such as mixed media, photo-constructions and installation allow me to piece together fading memories or stories and reconstruct them and fill in the gaps by adding new elements, meaning, or knowledge to a fading and incomplete memory. I often present narratives in the form of tableaux reminiscent of altarpieces exploring the intersections of the human body and landscape and how the individual’s identity reacts or is affected by the landscape/place itself. Where the body represents a place to be inhabited and the place itself is considered an extension of the body.
All of the images in my work talk of the duality – and sometimes conflict – between domesticity and utilitarianism, personal and communal, self and society. By rearranging and reconstructing stories, landscapes or memories; I explore ideas of home, self, gender, domesticity, and personal histories.
Aya Imamura (Japan) – photography
„My work “SCOPOPHILIA” is a semi-three-dimensional work, using original silkscreen techniques, which consists in a combination of photographs of bodies of symbolic use and Japanese decorative patterns and Western religious icons. I am considering to develop the production and the representation of the images, and the idea behind the immanent mechanism of photography and decoration of work. This work consists of a combination of photographs of bodies used symbolic ally and Western religious icons, “the image of truth” patterns from the St. Veronica’s Veil. On the opposite side of the stack, decorative printed patterns offer visual pleasure akin “the image of truth” patterns from the St. Veronica’s Veil. A glimpse of these images can be caught within the deformed ink layers. Hence the work is titled SCOPOPHILIA, from Latin “love of looking”, is deriving pleasure from looking.
Presently, I am trying to address the issue of contemporary “reality” by questioning the so-called “transparency” of photographs which show the viewer a “complete” reality. To develop a photograph consists of working with light and shadow, something which can be interpreted as a “virtual image”. It can be considered as capturing the surface of a “virtual image”. But we do not doubt the virtual images in front of us, but accept these as “reality”. Although to me it seems as if the symbols are labeling reality. Through revealing only slices of photographs I am interested in showing the symbolic nature through photographs.“
Ellie Ivanova (Bulgaria/U.S.) – photography
http://www.ellieivanovaphotography.com/
Ellie Ivanova is originally from Bulgaria and after living in Latin America, she is currently based in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX. With a background in literary research, her photographic interest is the human experience. She works in both black & white film and digital formats, exploring the themes of dreams, memories and self-fashioning of identity through images capable of transcending language barriers.
Along with several ongoing long-term photography projects, Ellie leads the Third Eye Workshops, photography workshops for kids in Roma/Gypsy communities in Bulgaria and (in the future) Romania. Their goal is to empower children from marginalized minorities by giving them the tools of self expression and to make their point of view known to society in general.
William Bilwa Costa (U.S.) – music
http://perpetualmvmtsnd.org/bilwa/
William Bilwa Costa is a sound artist, electro-acoustic musician, composer and improviser. He has worked with movement artist Emily Sweeney as perpetual movement sound since 2006. He currently works internationally; generating research, lab, and performance projects, actively cultivating opportunities for artists to work together on new interdisciplinary explorations. Collaboration with other musicians, dancers, and artists and use of improvisation are central to his practice.Bilwa works in both the performing and visual arts contexts.
His electro-acoustic music and sound art often involve live feed, field recordings, sine tones, samples from previous improvisations and projects, and audio frequency feedback—sonic relics through which he pulls elements of specific spaces, times, and interactions into his work. He is interested in sensory perception and subjectivity, and his work documents those acts of decipherment. He often uses multiple speakers placed throughout a space, generating a moving, sensory environment rich in ambient and spatial sound.
Tamara Erde (Israel/France) – short movies
Tamara Erde is a films director and artist, living and working in Paris.
Tamara was born in Tel-Aviv on 1982. Tamara received a B.A in Art Direction and video from Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem, and later on, studied cinema and New Media in Le Fresnoy, France.
Tamara creates in various mediums- documentary and fiction films, performances and video installations, and is produced in Paris and around Europe. Her work was presented both in many film festivals (Clermont Ferrand, Angelica Spring festival NY, Jerusalem int. Film festival and on) as well as in Gallery spaces and theatrical venues (Montpellier dance festival, The playhouse theatre in Nottingham, The fringe festival in Stockholm etc) .
In addition, Tamara frequently participates in residency programs and international artists projects,in: New-York, Denmark, England, Spain, south Corea, and more.
Tamara often deals in her work with political and social issues, focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Her works mixes her personal and imaginary reflections, with a documentary approach accompanied by profound researches on the selected themes, both in the visual media, and in the physical theatrical one.
