Elitza Koeva
PROJECTS
Divinity Tree
OMAPA
Speculum
Vanishing Soundscapes
Object to be Destroyed
Invisible Chair
Einstein’s {T}Ears
Daedalus {Perdix}
Trojan : the Matrixial
OMAPA
Time-based media I 2021
The project addresses Bulgarian social imaginary in the transitional period after the disintegration of the Soviet Union (1989~2000s) and the way this process continues to resonate with contemporary consciousness. It tackles the role of ideology and infrastructure as manifested in material constructions and how they actively co-create social identity, subjectivity, and imaginary but also become sites of subversion.
The project speaks to the deteriorating state of socialist public monuments in Bulgaria, discarded as useless and forgotten with a loud public outcry requesting their demolition.
Nevertheless, these sites act as placeholders for increasingly diminishing public space and manage to inscribe themselves into the social imaginary. The historical memory has been purposefully neglected and suppressed, engendering collective trauma that needs to be addressed and healed. Meanwhile, there is a profound disconnect between the social imaginary of the contemporary youth and that of the previous generations, precisely due to this ‘memory loss.’ I am exploring the topic through the lens of Bratska Mogila (Plovdiv, 1974). A burgeoning youth has recognized the monument as their own, overwriting its cultural and social symbolism.