There are spaces that remain only in memory. There are spaces that come to be from recollections alone. Standing in front of the photographic image, we are faced with a dilemma - to either reminisce about the bygone or even forgotten sense of a place, an event, a person, or be urged by intuition to imagine the story behind the space, the time, the other. Photography exposes the architecture of memory. It illuminates residential blocks, courtyards, writings on the wall, random figures on the playground of the everyday. Like architecture which contains human destinies, photography is simultaneously a shared space and a place for a personal narrative. Once developed, the mnemonic space creates its own laws within the visual space. The recalled memory inevitably negotiates the territory of its own present.
The exhibition A Lucid Space took place between 21-28.06.22 at Espace Port A, Sofia. It consisted of 6 large-scale photographic works printed on self-adhesive polyester, 2 smaller ones on cotton poplin, a single-channel Super 8 video installation, and a self-bound vellum zine.
-
The exhibition was curated by Hristo Kaloyanov and realised with the financial support of the National Culture Fund, Bulgaria.
Elena Chergilanova is a visual artist and freelance graphic designer. Her artistic projects touch on the subjects of space and place, the transience of experience and incomplete certainty. She showcased her BA thesis “Off-Spaces and Non-Places” during a graphic design residency at Sarieva Hub, Plovdiv, participated in the opening “Temporary Crisis” during Sofia Underground, and had her first solo show “The Evidence” at Æther, Sofia. In the meantime she is also working in the art department of the production service company Solent Film.
A Lucid Space is her second solo exhibition.
Constantly surprising myself.
Design that is content.
Learning to be inspired and motivated by my fellow classmates' original ideas and execution, instead of comparing and criticising myself.
My peers.
Procrastinating.
Take as many courses from other programs and hands-on workshops as you can.
For the challenge.
Writing papers and fitting into boxes.
With a roadtrip from Berlin to the Black Sea coast.