The exhibition project consists of 5 works created in Bulgaria between 2018 and 2019, which
will have as their common line of research the definition of a “non-existent category” between
the feminine and the masculine bodies.
Female and male stereotypes are rooted in culture and common feeling, both among men
and women; many studies confirm that people see men and women as different in attitudes,
emotions, male behavior and female behavior.
Even our society start to promote not a stuffy definition of gender and equal opportunities without
gender discrimination, the stereotypes are obviously hard to die and basically
they are reassuring: we continue to like thinking that the world is predictable and consistent.
The exhibition project presentend at Vaska Emanuilova, Sofia City Art Gallery promote
the discovery of a non-existent category between man and woman thought this serie of sculptures and
installations; it's an exercise of thinking for all of us: considering common - male and female -
stereotypes as true and at the same time feel that I’m not exately part of that - and therefore
be part of a non-existent category.
In fact, each work presented here contains - within itself - the feminine and the masculine,
without compromises or prejudices.
Note of the artisti : Vaska Emanuilova (to whom a branch of the Sofia Municipal Gallery is dedicated)
was on of the main sculptur in Bulgaria during the 60s/70s
In her life, probably, she had already completed this thinking exercise in a selection
of sculptures made by her, which - hopefully - are part of the exhibition.
Mu exhibition project was born from the particular sculptural style of Vaska Emanuilova, in which
the “bodies”- fall into this non-existent category.
Statment solo exhibition Man, Woman and in-between
at Vaska Emanuilova Gallery - Sofia City Gallery
14.01.2020 / 14.02.2020
Every day all of us – whether man or woman – communicate.
We might establish a relationship of understanding and participation;
or we might remain silent,
intentionally omitting words in order to satisfy a more delicate or refined taste
(or even a duller and coarser taste).
I see an attractive and charming woman,
endowed with vivacity and brio, vigorous and exuberant;
she also has seductive mischief,
in which her sensitivity and morality come together in a fruitful concordance.
I see a man, trying to resolve his conflict between reason and feeling,
a conflict that has gone on since time immemorial;
lost, he feels a sense of inconclusiveness in him,
depriving the world of fundamental motivations
of living, of socializing, of dialogue.
Man and woman, the diversity of minds and faces,
both are a parallel of feeling and faculty.
Both of mixed temperament.
Valentina Sciarra