For Rituals and Visuals: A Myth Under My Skin
Juclyn and I met while I was on a residency at the Artscape Gibraltar Center of the Arts, at Toronto Islands in July 2022. A week was enough to realise that we have a similar vision in how we perceive human relationships and the stories that underline them. We are both seduced by multilayered imagery, where the mythical and archetypal lurk through our everyday life.
With this project we will be pulling strings from various directions going back to the roots of our families. We expect to follow beautiful and sometimes upsetting memories of people crossing continents to survive and build a new life. I am truly excited by the stories of our families and their origin.
Importantly, we want to explore the crossing points of our work and to develop a collaboration piece. It is challenging and rewarding to see how we will use our imagination to build on narratives from different cultures. We aim to learn more about the places we travel to and how local legends, rituals and traditions relate to others.
The title “For Rituals and Visuals: A Myth under my Skin” best describes the core of our project. These are short phrases taken from two poems by Jaclyn Puidik. Through this project we expect to meet other women creators, who are long standing, resilient, and who stick to their values as the most important tool for their survival.
Our first meeting is for a week in Gascoigne, France, this July. It is vital for us to test our collaborative ideas initially and to plan main activities for the next year. We will be thrilled if they include new women participants from Mexico and USA who in their work link the mythical with the contemporary, using techniques of weaving and images of endangered species. Importantly this project will enable me to expand my creative vision further, sharing my experience with communities and thus encouraging creativity, optimism and well being.
In April I was delighted to be supported by the White Pube Creative Grants and this grant is bringing me closer to the funding target to realise this first meeting with Jaclyn in July. However, I still have some way to go to make this trip a reality.
I would be very grateful if you would like to support me in these early stages of a whole new project. In exchange, all supporters will be invited to a 30 minute group session online which will focus on engaging with your imagination through Mindfulness.
Your contribution will make the most difference before the end of June 2023. I would be happy to discuss the project further, so please get in touch if you would like to find out more.
Thank you!
Ivilina Kouneva 