The exhibition А Matter of Image explores the theme of image reproduction and its life after the original. In our daily lives, we are oversaturated with visual content—both online and in urban environments. Each of these images travels a path from its creation to the places where it later resides, inevitably undergoing transformation. This process is of utmost importance for the final result and the audience.
Curators and founders of the platform TI-RE, Andrea Popyordanova, Viktoriya Staykova, and Mila Yaneva-Tabakova, invite nine young Bulgarian artists working in the fields of illustration, typography, and photography to create works specifically for the project. These works focus on the life of an image in various print media and its transformation through them. Each artist brings their own unique perspective on the topic and approach to creating the original image. The exhibition design and visual layout are by Georgi Sharov.
Within the exhibition, the selected designers examine the idea of the image's life, observing the results of its transformations and the authenticity of the copy as part of the contemporary designer's process. Starting from an original, the artists go through a series of experiments with different printing techniques, such as offset, digital, screen, and risograph printing, as well as vinyl and xerox, to see how far the "reincarnations" of the initial image can go.
А Matter of Image highlights the different ways we perceive the images around us, depending on how they are reproduced (printed on paper or in the digital space) and where we see them. Understanding both the technological processes and the artistic decisions, as well as the potential mistakes through a series of experiments with digital and print media, is valuable not only for those working in the field but for anyone observing the visual environment around us.
"By tracing the life of an image through various print and digital technologies through which it reaches the audience, the selected artists are invited to experiment with the reproduction process. The various (de)effects resulting from experimenting with the specifics of the original and its reproduction aim to provoke the audience into reconsidering print technology as an expressive medium in its own right. In close collaboration with the new generation of Bulgarian graphic designers and illustrators, we explore the impact an image can have when it takes on an atypical material form, distinguishing it from its prototype, and create new works that provide insight into contemporary Bulgarian design." – TI-RE collective.
