site.btaKrasimira Butseva Explores Memory of Political Violence in Exhibition "Cartography of Absences"

The exhibition “Cartography of Absences” by Krasimira Butseva is part of the BAZA Award for contemporary art, received by the artist in 2022. It presents a multidisciplinary visual reflection on the inherited absences and gaps in memory linked to Bulgaria's recent history of political violence. The project includes photography, video, and photobooks, developed through archival research conducted over the past decade. The exhibition opens Friday at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Sofia (ICA-Sofia), the organizers said on Facebook.

The collection is based on archival research from the last ten years. Two of the featured photographs capture a moment on Persin Island, the site of the former Belene forced labor camp.

Butseva's exhibition continues to raise questions about the ways in which the traumatic past is preserved, transmitted and experienced in the present. The project explores how memory is transmitted and transformed across generations and how art can serve as a means of preserving, making sense of and resisting forgetting, the ICA-Sofia team adds.

Krasimira Butseva is a visual artist who lives between Sofia and London. She is a lecturer on the BA Photography programme at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.