NEW MYTHOLOGY

2000-01

Digital prints in lightboxes

“This project deals with the widely spread in the Balkan region cultural phenomenon of the "pop-folk". Portraits of famous pop-folk stars in Bulgaria are deliberately shot and designed as "reproductions" of well-known and exploited cultural facts - a popular Bulgarian fairy-tale (the one about the three brothers and the golden apple), a movie ("Wild at Heart" of David Lynch) or a kitchy Japanese stereo post card, etc..

The point is that it is not a simple reproduction but rather a witty reconstruction, ironizing the large diapason of nuances - from sentimentalism to vulgarity - which usually accompanies the phenomenon of "pop-folk". It is rather a post modern flirt with the pre-exploited images of pop-folk’s "new mythology", inevitably surrounding us in our daily routine, watching us from the cabins of the city transport drivers or from the walls of cafeterias… It is a sophisticated way by means of artistic expression to comment on the dilemma if it is better to try to understand a certain phenomenon or to reject it without even knowing where it originates from.”

Nelly Rousseva