site.btaMartina Vacheva Explores Transformation of Traditional Rituals in Exhibition in Sofia

Martina Vacheva explores the transformation of traditional rituals into a new cultural phenomenon in her exhibition Vlachugane (Dragging). It will open on March 8 at Sofia's Toplocentrala Gallery - Cube and can be viewed until April 7, the organizers say.

Vacheva has been preparing the exhibition for two years, examining the imaginative world of traditional rituals and their modern transformation. The works featured in the exhibition are conceived as a series through which the artist juxtaposes past and present, symbol and contemporary product, the organizers say. According to the team, some of the works will cast Bulgarian traditional rituals in a new light - accessible, but also lacking authenticity.

Vlachugane comes from the verb vlacha (to drag), traditionally associated with the initial violent act of conversion to Christianity and the subsequent washing, bathing, immersion against one's will.

Vacheva was born in Plovdiv (South Central Bulgaria) in 1988. She lives and works in her native city and in Brittany (Western France). She graduated from the National Academy of Art in Sofia, majoring in Illustration and Book and Print Graphics. In 2012, she took an illustration class with the artist ATAK (Georg Barber) at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Design and Fine Arts in Halle (Germany). Her works feature in the collections of Art Collection Telekom; the Metropolitan Museum Library, New York; Gaudenz B. Ruf, Zurich and Vienna; and Museum Folkwang, Essen.