Krasimira Butseva

4UZHBINA 

(2018 - Ongoing)

4UZHBINA is a photographic installation, created collaboratively by the artists Krasimira Butseva and Lina Ivanova for Brighton Photo Fringe 2018. The word ‘4uzhbina’ describes a non-existent place, an illusory location, which cannot be found on any map, nevertheless it could be accessed by anybody. It is simply an invention of the tongue, existing only in the spoken and written Bulgarian language. The term contains simultaneously the essence of a no-man’s land and la dolce vita.

Using moving image and appropriating found photography and materials, this work entangles personal and fictional histories. The short film Europa consists of a memory of the day which Bulgaria was accepted in the European Union and a performance of repetitive rituals and readings. The found family archive originating from Kent plays with the connotation and denotation, shaping a completely new narrative out of the photographs. 4UZHBINA explores the way in which politics inform nations and form identities, along with the correlation between native roots and cultural routes.