“Self-portrait”
by Mariela Gemisheva
“Self-portrait”, the last project of the celebrated Bulgarian fashion designer Mariela Gemisheva presents a cycle of photographs documenting the radical transformation from white to black. The artist is positioning herself “on the other side” by taking the role of a model and posing for the camera of Alexander Nishkov, the fashion photographer. For the eye of the camera she is tearing apart the ephemeral veils of the wedding dress, this conventional symbol of innocence, tradition and the ritual of routine, in order to cloth herself in her own individuality – a black robe bearing the “Mariela Gemisheva” design label.
The two groups of photographs, the white and the black, are the result of a performance, which is located in the realm shared by the genres of documentary, studio and fashion photography. Undressing and dressing, just like in a palimpsest - the writing of a new text over an already existing one, are not treated as a mundane act of covering and uncovering. These signify the search and the discovery of the self, the emerging of the Female-Subject full of strength, armed with self-confidence and inner stability. Her body can not be subjugated or exploited, transformed or improved, because it is the embodiment of reality.
Mariela Gemisheva once again (after the photo cycle «Out of Myself», 2002), is using visual cliché typical for the current language of fashion representation. Within this familiar context the artist is striving to combine analytical conceptualism and radical aesthetics.
Iara Boubnova
Curator of the project
