Exhibition by Johana Trayanova
Curators: Radoslav Mehandzhiyski and Teodora Konstantinova
20.03 – 06.04.2025
Opening: 20.03, 6PM – 9PM
Artist Tour: 29.03. at 5PM
Finissage: 06.04 with a live musical improvisation by Das Doffelgänger from 5PM to 7PM
Little Bird Place Gallery
Little Bird Place Gallery has the pleasure of inviting you to the solo exhibition ORGANISM by Johana Trayanova.
“There cannot be a completely clean beginning. Just as there cannot be a completely independent end.
Organism is a metaphorical new species that traces everything passed on to us by our ancestors—the traits inherited from them, emotional imprints, unfulfilled dreams, traumas, and even, at times, the paths they have trodden, which we must traverse anew. In doing so, we face a choice: to follow the same route or to carve a new one where they did not dare to venture.
What does it mean to be shaped by the invisible unknown? Even without direct knowledge of our ancestors, their essence reverberates through our features, behaviors, dreams, and inner emotional landscapes. How do memories—even those left unspoken—reside and resonate within our bodies and minds?
In an abstract interplay of diverse plants and flowers, forms and colors, I, as an artist, probe the nature of our identity. It is not an individual construct, wholly pure or unencumbered. Nor is anything that befalls us an entirely new phenomenon, emerging for the first time. All of it has been lived before—in consciousness, in life—having coursed through the bodies of the ones who came before us. It returns to us, inviting us to relive it: their dreams, their fears, their battles. Will we yield to a dream and fulfill it this time, where someone before us lacked the courage? Will we veer onto a path not taken by our… grandmother? Mother?”
– Johana Trayanova
Each of us is woven from myriad threads of inheritance—genetic, psychological, cultural—some perceived, others entirely imperceptible. This phenomenon of inheriting physical, emotional, and behavioral traits establishes direct lines of connection, first and foremost, between ourselves and our ancestors. Yet, if we turn to theories like Carl Jung’s collective unconscious or Rupert Sheldrake’s morphic resonance, these archetypes may also find roots in the broader lineage of social communities or the history of humankind.
The intricate process that culminates in our very essence is vividly illustrated by Johana Trayanova through photographic series that, akin to a family tree, interlace the characteristics of “mother” and “father” to give rise to new forms—“children” born from the creative synthesis of what came before. The project’s lucid structure beckons us to explore this visual kinship in its unfolding sequence, while its narrative inevitably compels us to turn our gaze inward, toward ourselves.
– Radoslav Mehandzhiyski and Teodora Konstantinova
*The project is carried out with the financial support of the National Culture Fund under the “Creation” program.
About the artist:
Johana Trayanova is a visual artist working in alternative photography. Through the creation of abstract imagery and the manipulation of Polaroid photographs, she explores philosophical concepts and human conditions, drawing on the forms, colors, and movements of nature and its intricate details. Her exhibitions aim to create immersive audiovisual spaces that envelop the audience.
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