Art Gallery Serdica presents “The small exhibits behind the RED CURTAIN” photography and digital collage by Izabela Manolova

Period: 3 February -5 March 2021.
Opening day: 3 February (Wednesday) 2021 from 17:00 to 20:00 o’clock

            Art Gallery Serdica presents Izabela Manolova and her photos in “The small exhibits BEHIND THE RED CURTAIN”. The exposition shall be held from 3 February to 5 February 2021 in the art space of the Women’s Market in compliance with all anti-epidemic measures. The opening day is 3 February 2021 from 17:00 to 20:00 o’clock.

            This is not exactly a photo exhibit, Izabela Manolova says, emphasizing that something else is also hidden in her monochrome photos with her art. “Something that hides behind the corner of each consciousness. Something that’s always there, only we’re not sure how exactly it looks. These are more than pictures. They are souls. Souls, frozen in the moment of creation. If we look deep enough at some moment we may see ourselves – the prism will break in two and everything will turn into an infinity. Pieces of souls, scattered throughout the universe.”

            “The small exhibits BEHIND THE RED CURTAIN” are the evolution of the author’s project “Behind the Red Curtain”. Photos and digital collages will be presented, taken and created during the last two years. Through the digital collage techniques the apprehension of the backstage photography acquires new images, new contents. Everything begins looking like itself, everything returns to its own beginning.

            The “Backstage Photography” school, which founder is the American portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz, is known for its approach of embodying the artist’s personality into her/his scenic image. Based on this approach the monochrome photography succeeds to reproduce and embody everything that’s happening behind the scenes – the process of implementation and structuring of a spectacle into the art in front of them – i.e. the beholder’s visual point of view.

            “The truth is in the eye of the beholder”. Precisely this quote is the magic key to the viewing of the photographic images, presented in monochromy to the beholder, creating the sense of closeness to the backstage process. The methodology and technique for the creation of this type of digital collage are based on the Thatcher effect or Thatcher illusion, or “Eyesmouth-Wrongway” – a phenomenon, at which it becomes more difficult for the changes in the features of a “wrong-way” face to be noticed, although the identical changes are obvious in the “right-way” face. The technique is named after the deceased British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, on whose photo the effect was demonstrated for the first time.

            The affect was first created in 1980 by Peter Thomson, professor of psychology in the University of York. The illusion creates an approach, through which we are able to look into the visible in a new manner. The technique, developed via the monochrome photography, allows us to view the image through a prism, similar to ours. A parallel reality, existing somewhere there – in the mind and consciousness of each one of us.

For the author

Izabela Manolova is born in the city of Varna in1996. She graduates from the National Academy of Arts with Bachelor’s Degree on major “Woodcarving”, studying from 2015 – 2019. The training and her participation in the in the Bulgarian Days of Woodworking, Usta Darin Center, Tryavna, have an impact on her art. She studies the art of painting in Granada, Spain (2017-2018), and currently is enrolled in the Master’s program “Scenography for cinema and TV” in the National Academy of Arts, major “Scenography”. She has four one-man exhibits, as well as participations in group exhibits, symposiums, movie festivals and other projects. She’s a team coordinator of International Portrait Film Festival.

Izabela Manolova receives a grant scholarship from the National Academy of Arts in 2019 and 2020 for achievements in the sphere of the artistic and creative activity. She is the second-place winner at the National Photography Competition for Student’s Photography to the National Students’ Home in 2019.