Works by Albena Baeva include interactive design, experimental video, performance and theatrical productions. She obtained two MA's (Restoration and Digital Art) at the National Academy of Art in Sofia, during which she specialized in the technologies of art from the 12th to the 21st century. She has been awarded the Essl international award for contemporary art and the VIG (Vienna Insurance Group) Special Invitation. Baeva is the founder of the Runabout project, a platform for interdisciplinary performance, and of the studio for interactive design Reaktiv.

She had artist residencies in the Netherlands, Greece and the USA. Her works were presented in the Essl Museum - Contemporary Art, Austria (2011), EMMA, Finland (2013) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Serbia (2016). In the last year her work was exhibited in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Serbia, Ukraine and USA.

Contact
Email: albena.baeva@gmail.com

Albena Baeva
Photo: Ivo Hristov (Kuker)

The Sheep, the Snake, the Bitch and Their Pig
Credo Bonum gallery, Sofia
12.10. - 5.11.2017
 
The Sheep, the Snake, the Bitch and Their Pig is a solo show by Albena Baeva that explores the everyday sexism found in discussions in various online platforms.

The basis for the works in the exhibition refers to animals such as pussy, cow or pig, vocabulary used in order to reject, devalue and insult women. Baeva's sculptures bring these words to life in the form of new hybrid creatures, chthonic goddesses and monsters that come from the dawn of our being to remind us of the need to confront the problems of our times. They form a visual reference to the texts of the writer Donna Haraway. Baeva created these mythological beings using 3D models from online collections of open source models, which were then recombined and recreated through 3D printing technologies and later cast in concrete.

These hybrid goddesses face the interactive installation "The Civyls" (a play on the words Sibyl and "civility"). In it, a many-headed prophet spouts sexist comments found in articles about women's rights. The installation engages the viewer in a dialogue in a way that we have come to know from Baeva's previous works such as Only The Two of Us (a tribute to Dimitar Voev) (2015), Archaeologies, Vaska Emanouilova Gallery (2014) and The Last Benjamin, nominated for the Baza Award (2014). The mythology of the exhibition is further explored in a series of collages which comment on topical social problems in Belgrade, Sofia, Lozenets and Phoenix.

The Sheep, the Snake, the Bitch and Their Pig is realized with support of the Gaudenz B. Ruf Award, Credo Bonum Gallery, CEC Artslink, ASU Art museum and Studio Art.E.