Swimming Pool is delighted to invite you to a conversation with artist Zhana Ivanova to take place this Friday at 18h. This conversation is the first one of a series of events – discussions, workshops, exhibitions and publications – with focus on performance in contemporary art aiming at creating a discursive context in Sofia.
Zhana Ivanova’s practice involves rearranging and reconfiguring daily patterns and structures to which we have grown accustomed. She often uses performance in order to artificially induce situations where meaning, convention, and power relations fluctuate. Her constructions are formal and rule-governed; within them she insistently exposes the ambiguity of her own rules.
Zhana will introduce some aspects of her practice, in particular the use of script in a selection of her works.
Zhana Ivanova was born in Russe, Bulgaria in 1977. As a child she immigrated with her mother to England, where she lived until moving to Amsterdam in 2004. She studied Russian language and literature at Queen Mary University College in London. She worked as a translator for several years, followed by a decision to pursue her interest in art and performance full time. In 2009 she graduated from DasArts in Amsterdam and in 2013 she completed a residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam.
Recent presentations include a.o. Kunsthalle Basel (2018), De Appel, Amsterdam (2018), Fondation D’Enterprise Ricard, Paris (2017), Playground Festival, Leuven (2017), Kunsthalle Basel (2016), Mendes Wood DM, Sao Paulo (2016), Ellen De Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam (2016), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015), David Roberts Art Foundation, London (2015), Kunsthalle Basel (2015), Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2014), Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam (2013).
Ivanova’s “Ongoing Retrospective” – a cumulative exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel, is periodically presented in chapters since 2015.
