On December 15, the Amorpha Youth Foundation will open the exhibition ‘A Room of One’s Own: Visible Worlds’ – photography and poetry by Preslava Videnova created across various places in Varna. The exhibition is the final event of the pilot edition of the foundation’s programme ‘A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN – the literary world’. ‘A Room of One’s Own’ launched four literary residencies for Bulgarian writers each of which included a series of literary writing workshops for young people at the space of the foundation as well as at 6 secondary schools in Vanra. Preslava Videnova was the host writer of the programme.

The photographs and accompanying poetic texts present the urban and personal searches and finds of poet Preslava Videnova. They cover the dynamic creative period from her student years spent in Varna to her most recent returns to the city, tracing the trajectories between internal and external spaces that shaped the young writer’s personality and creative work.

Opening on December 15, 2023, Friday, from 18:00 to 20:00 at “Amorpha” – a space for culture and learning in Varna at 10 “Dragan Tsankov” Street. Runs until December 21, every day except Sunday from 15:00-19:00.
Event page on Facebook and Instagram.

Poet Preslava Videnova, author of the presented digital photographs and poetic texts, on the theme of the exhibition:

„Въртя се из коридорите на изоставени здания, въобразени като преходни домове, с чиито реални параметри съм отбелязала граничността на лични психофизически състояния и жизнени фази. Установявам се в помещенията, които ми служат като убежища за преработване на несъзнателни наслагвания, като транспортни депа на мнемонични артефакти. Статичността на обектите разтегля процесите на тлен и гниене в стотината милисекунди, необходими за щракването на кадрите. Обектите са статични, но средата им е нестерилна. Въпреки неподвижността на предметите в нея, естествената динамика на външните процеси нахлува инвазивно през зеещите рани на пространствата и ги инфектира. Така те придобиват нови характеристики и условна хронология.

В тези стаи съм се вселявала, когато тревогата на клаустрофобичната градска машина е превземала творческата ми автономност. Когато съм била обсебена от каканиженето на страничните шумове и съм имала силна потребност от собствена стая, в която да остана насаме с думите си.  Връщам се към тези свои домове през интернализираните негативи на техните специфични идентичности, съставени от населващите ги процеси и обитатели.“

The exhibition presents unpublished texts of the writer.

Изтъняват зъбците на речните миди,
ходилата нагазват в тинята.
Колелото върти грънеца на коритото
и предъвква безформена глина.
Глухонеми пасажи с кобалтови люспи
скриват дъното с трепкащи ризници.
Върхове на тръстики се надигат и спускат
в плитчината прозрачни месини.
Да изпишем лица с калиграфа
на лилиите,
да обвием с крака стеблата им.
Ще израстват връз нас, докато ни съшият
в уродлив недоносен зачатък. | Preslava Videnova, 2016

Preslava Videnova was born in 1996. She graduated from the First Language High School in Varna. She has lived briefly in Greece, the Netherlands and Germany. Since 2018, she has been studying Art and Culture at Maastricht University. In 2022 she was accepted as a student in Cultural Studies at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”.

She is the laureate of the thirty-seventh edition of the Veselin Hanchev poetry contest (2020). Her debut collection of poems “Permanent Exhibition” (Publishing House ‘Janette 45’, 2021) is on the shortlist of nominations for the “Pero” literary awards in the “Poetry” category (2022) as well as among the first runners-up for the “Pamet” award for 2021. She was awarded the “Ivan Nikolov” special debut award. Poems by Preslava Videnova are included in the anthology “Poetry Against the War” (published by Scribens, 2022). She has published in various electronic and printed publications, including “Crossroads”, “Diascope Comics”, “Stranitsa”, “The Woman Today”, “Zero32”, “Sovremennik”.
Her poems have been translated into Spanish, French and Russian.

Preslava Videnova was a mentor to young cultural managers in training in the “Literature” module of the “Amorpha Academy for Creators of Cultural Life” 2022.

“A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN – the literary world of young people” is a series of literary residencies with creative writing workshops attended by writers Alexander Hristov (Veliko Tarnovo), Antonia Apostolova (Burgas), Ivan Dimitrov (Sofia) and Maria Getova (Ruse). Host writer of the residents is poet Preslava Videnova. The pilot programme by Amorpha Youth Foundation was implemented with the financial support of the Culture Fund of the Municipality of Varna, Directorate “Culture and Spiritual Development”.