A sound composition for Altered Voices.
Found sounds, original samples, voice, field recordings.

A project by Michaela Lakova, Voin de Voin, Dimitar Galileev and Cédric Van Parys.

“Altered Voices” is a group show which revolves around the theme of damnatio memoriae – the ultimate act of “forgetting” in relation to collective memory. The artists in this exhibition explore instances of personal and historical memory through a diverse range of media that includes installations, video, sculpture, soundscapes, photographs and performance.

Damnatio memoriae – a Latin phrase which means "condemnation of memory" – is a practice of erasing from public record the memory of a person who committed dishonor to the state. It was best known during the Roman empire and it was associated with ancient rulers who called for the erasure of their predecessors from the historical record.

Then in ancient Egypt – the female ruler with male features Queen Hatshepsut was erased from the public record and the archives and artifacts of Nubian culture which have been systematically obliterated.

Inspired by a recent trip to Egypt, this body of works offer an entry to the practice of memory oscillating between past and present, memory and oblivion. Evocative questions arise: what can we learn from those ancient practices of erasure and the ultimate act of ‘forgetting’ and how could these rather specific (hi)stories resonate in society now?; how can this act of destruction of depictions also be seen as an act of rewriting history?

In times of social and political turbulence, propaganda, social media disinformation, cancel culture, a place – a “shelter” for concentration, contemplation and (uneasy) listening is needed more than ever.

Collective experiences of remembering, defining consciousness and rituals are implied in our work as necessary tools for transgressing the passages of accumulated toxicity, both internal and external, we invite you to take a trip; revisited and shared voyage into the juxtaposition of fractured layers of history and personal inscription into the present.

Altered Voices

Music and sound design for an award-winning project commissioned by Microsoft Bulgaria. 

Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS5uquvgKIs

A fashion video that tells the story of the technology world, which is more and more connected to our individual styling and self-presentation. This self-exploration of the artist describes unexpected cross-points and fields of self-formation in both directions (from fashion to technology and vice versa). 

Inspired by the key features of the new Windows 8.1 - personalization & fun - Games of Personality 8.1 is a self-portrait and a portrait at the same time of our modern world. 

Concept, design & art director: Bojan Petrushevski, 
Director of photography: Ivan Murdzhev, 
Original music & sound design: Dimitar Galileev, 
Editing & post production: Hristo Yorgov, 
Project assistant: Kristina Lalchev

The project is a part of the campaign "Windows 8.1 - it's personal".

Games of Personality 8.1

A sound piece for a video narrating the story behind Beata Parvoulova's debut collection bEATA SOFIA. 

Constructed almost entirely of found sounds and a soundscape of the deserted space, enriched by the strong social impact of an abandoned industry which made way for an invasion of contemporary art a decade later. Inspired by classics of two different eras and directions - from Luigi Russolo's futurism to Tchaikovsky's romanticism - the piece illustrates the inner conflict and a need for self-expression which, although insecurely, dissipate into a harmony of the absolute self, just like  R. D. Laing's experiments.

Video at https://vimeo.com/96493329

The collection is  based on 10 of Kingsley Hall - home of a large, live-in community of trained psychiatrists, helpers and people with varying psychoses in Bromley-by-Bow, London - main characters and their inner struggle to find the right path. What we tend to do is categories and define people by their maddest edge, but simply we all are in grey area, in a world that does not like grey areas, but this is where you find the full palette, humanity and where you find the truth.

„Madness is often the result of struggle to disengage from a role imposed by other people. It is sometimes nothing more than a desperate bid for liberty.“

Dr. Joseph H. Berke

bEATA SOFIA

Sound Capture 2

"On Air" is an audio-visual installation that celebrates the urban city environments; dedicated to Hoornbrekersstraat street in Rotterdam.
A site-specific work made for Hoboken's Apocalypse festival, the artists place the exhibition space itself in the centre of the installation, reflecting both on its physical and atmospheric features. 
Taking inspiration from the architecture and the ambiance of the street the artists use audio-visual elements to accentuate and amplify the peculiarities of the exhibition space flowing into an ever-changing city. Sound and image occupy the space,  engaging them in a conversation with one another creating an environment lauding the urban essence.

veelilag