Artist: Aleksandra Chaushova
Exhibition title: The Vigilant Writers
Curated by: Dessislava Dimova
Venues: Swimming Pool, Sofia, Bulgaria
Date: April 4 – May 9, 2024
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy by the artist and Swimming Pool
“Every historical representation seems to be determined by ideology. But ideology is elusive. It cannot be declared false, cannot be called a lie, because no one would support a lie. But it also cannot be said that ideology represents the truth. So perhaps ideology is a certain contamination of reality with fiction. As Terry Eagleton says: “…it might be more appropriate to assume that ideological discourse presents some connection between empirical claims and what can be called a ‘worldview’, with the latter having precedence over the former… Perhaps the closest analogy is with a literary work.” I am interested in this fluid boundary between reality and fiction of ideology.” Aleksandra Chaushova
History is a narrative, and storytellers are often unreliable. Writers can be creators, agents of secret services, recruited citizens – agents. They all write stories and history. In the exhibition “The Vigilant Writers,” Aleksandra Chaushova blends works from several of her series, each with its own stories and protagonists, into a generalized image – that of the vigilant but unreliable writer. He is middle-aged, from different eras, simultaneously executioner and victim, and writes history as it is created, or creates it as he writes it, infecting reality with fiction.
Aleksandra Chaushova was born in Sofia in 1985 and lives in Brussels. She graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Sofia and teaches drawing at La Cambre, Brussels. Aleksandra is as brilliant a draftsman as she is аn accomplished storyteller and writer, searching for her heroes in history and archives, only to send them into the future. She is represented by the Nosbaum Reding Gallery, Brussels and Luxembourg.
With the support of Bulgarian Arts and Culture Foundation.
With the financial support of the National Culture Fund.
