ONE DAY PACKAGE FOR TWO
During the artist residency "Baba Residency" in Gorno Peshtene village in Bulgaria, I immersed myself in the process of collecting memories in the form of tiny drawings and handwritten notes. This collection of 300 cards with different size, color, and texture, became a visual diary—projecting my personal experiences and emotions into images.
I blended into the rhythm of everyday village life, escaping my own reality. Having never lived in a bulgarian village before, (only visited as a tourist) the two weeks I spent in Baba Mitka’s home gave me a completely different understanding of life. This immersion in daily rituals, conversations, and shared meals reshaped my perception of simplicity, resilience, and human connection.
The act of documenting was driven by an inner urgency to preserve fleeting moments. By transforming emotionally charged impressions into narratives, I created an archive that bridges personal memory with cultural storytelling.
In the former health centre in Gorno Peshtene, now an abandoned space, I was placing slow and methodically each paper from the white wall into an archival folder from the time when the health center was still working.
At the end of the performance, the room was left empty—just me and the duct tape traces on the wall, a reminder that everything in life is transitional. The absence of spectators reinforced the intimacy of the act, transforming the space itself into a space of memory and loss.
This work explores themes of ephemerality, preservation, and the silent imprint of human presence. It questions how spaces absorb memories, how personal narratives shape our perception of history, and how, despite our attempts to archive experiences, everything eventually fades—leaving only echoes.
Performance and drawings: Iva Ivanova
11-26.06.2022
Gorno Peshtene Village, Bulgaria
Thank you to the villagers of Gorno Peshtene, who were open to my project, especially to Baba Mitka, who welcomed me into her home for two weeks.
