Sexy on the Outside, Rotting From Within
2022; Punta Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria
Desislava Terzieva is an artist-nomad in constant motion, searching for paths and connections in the untrodden corners of contemporary culture, uncovering patterns and taking trophies.
Between the States and the Balkans, the artist maneuvers through worlds of trash and glitz, transporting artifacts from "somewhere else." But is there really an "elsewhere" in the globalized world? Since we shop the same, dress the same, and eat the same wherever we are, an international standard for the good life seems to exist. But poverty remains different in its own way.
The images of abandoned homes and junk cars are tied to the history of Detroit, the artist's home town along her constant migration. The center of the American automobile industry, Detroit is woven into the notion of the "American Dream," defined as "a house with a white picket fence and a two-car garage." However, photographs of decay reveal the equation of a center that has lost everything, now trying to regain its economic ascendancy.
The consequences of the failure of the American dream are relevant on a global scale - waking up to an alarm, a dry mouth, no keys.
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A shopping trolley full of plastic bags, a tower of Babel, is placed at the centre of the exhibition, next to the gallery ceiling.
An international attribute of the homeless man, the cart becomes a kind of substitute for their home.
A portable outdoor home, in this case, the plastic bag carries the artist's story - travelling between two continents, Desislava carries her paraphernalia with her, across water, autobahns and asphalt. Thus, she is always in close proximity to her roots - the belongings of her body and time, preserving, unlocking in fact, freedom.
On the strand of an autobiographical chronicle and critique of the social system in a post-history world, Desislava unfolds a world of contemporary ruins. Inevitably, we think of what lies beyond.
