Vasilena Gankovska was born 1978 in Troyan.

After graduating from the National Art Academy Sofia 2001 she continued her art studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Currently lives and works in Vienna and Sofia.

The urban space, the architectural structures and their interrelations are part of Gankovska’s visual research. By using different media like painting, drawing or the typical for the street art stencils, the artist represents structures, places and objects related to the everyday life, the leisure industry or the representative architecture and its symbols.

Selected projects

2014What a Palm Tree Can Tell, Hilger Next, Vienna

2013Cash, Cans & Candy a street art project, Hilger Next, Vienna

2013Disturbances in the Structure, Center for Contemporary Art-Ancient Bath Plovdiv

2013Fragile Piece of Art, artistic interventions and performances, Sofia, Paris, Vienna (2008 – 2013)

2012Vasilena Gankovska feat. PERFEKT WORLD, Hilger Contemporary, Vienna

2012The Keyhole of Mr. Wittgenstein, Bulgarian Cultural Center Haus Wittgenstein, Vienna

2012Changing Perceptions, EBRD, London

Contact

Email: vasilena.gankovska@gmail.com

Website: www.vasilenagankovska.wordpress.com

Vasilena Gankovska

(Vienna, 2013, project Cash, Cans & Candy)

Photo: Katrin-Sophie Dworczak

Visual Strategies. Urban Space reformulated

Publication, 180 p., soft cover, 2014

with text contributions in Bulgarian, English and German

The departure point for this ambitious long-term book project is my interest in the transformations of the urban space that started at the beginning of the 1990s.

The main focus lies on the former Eastern Block and Bulgaria in particular. Furthermore I am interested in the development of the European cities conditioned by the neoliberal political and economic system under the aspects of the information society. An important part in this process of redefinition and commercialization is the increase of the image flow in the urban space on the one hand and the artistic and media image production on the other. The visual interface of the cities turned into a huge projection screen for advertising, corporative representations but also into a stage for a variety of artistic practices and interventions such as art in the public space and different street art genres.

How do we read the signs and the images that we happen to stumble upon walking through the city? What are the tools that artists and urban activists use in order to share their messages, ideas and the images they create?