Magdalena Petrova (b. 1995 Sofia) is a performance and multimedia artist based in Rotterdam. Her practice explores the shapeshifting qualities of the Self through ritual invention. Drawing from her animistic heritage and the complexities of her Post-Soviet upbringing, she seeks ways to ritualize man's optimism above fear. Embracing vulnerability and discomfort, Magdalena invites her audience to engage in immersive and interactive experiences and trigger the exact conversations that are often swept under the rug. As someone who consistently struggled with expressing themselves verbally, the necessity to find alternative ways of conversing has become a big part of her artistic practice. In these attempts to translate herself, Magdalena uses ancestral tools to create new meanings.
Washing off my demons as the sea had washed off this jellyfish on my frisbee - This work was created in 2022 for the 5th edition of Sofia Art Week and performed in Doza Gallery, Sofia.
The performance is a ritual that investigates grieving for a past self as a milestone deserving of a rite of passage. The process of mourning as healing, while navigating the chain reactions of trauma and emotional wounds of what we've left behind.
This work follows a non-linear narrative of conversations between the artist’s past selves. The audience is welcomed to accompany the her into her internal world, straight into a gentle battlefield, where she faces old demons and familiar faces.
Second performer:
Anthony Lalev
Music:
Production & engineering -
Christian Kostov "FAL$E"
Additional production work:
Gargata & Ivo Radev
Eat Other 2022 - Eat Other is a performance piece in collaboration with Ratri Notosudirdjo created and performed throughout 2022, part of VLIEGMODUS at Ijzerblok Studios, Rotterdam, METANOIA at POING and other events.
The work explores sisterhood, the transition from girlhood to womanhood, monstrosity and shifting shapes.
METANOIA - METANOIA is a multidisciplinary exhibition, curated and produced by Magdalena Petrova that took place last May, 2022 in POING, Rotterdam. The exhibition intertwined fashion, performance art, music and visual art.
The event's aim was to bring together and celebrate Rotterdam-based artists and explore the intersection between club culture and art.
Participating artists were DRAGADINA, Jip van der Hek, Rico Dyks, Maja Simisic, Ratri Notosudirdjo, Nikos, K.O., c00, DJ Shahmaran and Magdalena Petrova.
Would you SWIM in y o g h u r t? - ‘Would you SWIM in y o g h u r t’ is a performance that follows the narrative of a Bulgarian poem. The choreography and soundscape draw a line between the symbols, cultural customs, and characters rooted in Bulgarian folklore. This work opens a dialogue on subjects surrounding grief and addiction through exploring this experimental theatre and movement piece as a portal to different mental spaces such as procrastination, fragmentation, confusion, delusion, but also serenity, purity, and playfulness.
VRATITSI/ВРАТИЦИ 2021 - VRATITSI is a participatory installation/ ritual built upon symbols of Bulgarian folklore, rites of passage and non-verbal communication. This piece aims to create a chain of conversations using clay as a mediating platform. Together we explore haptic communication, which is a branch that studies non-verbal communication through touch. This work is interested in centring haptic perception, specifically by using hands as the main tools for seeing and conversing. Touch is playfully explored as a transmitter of thought and emotions.
No-w-here Woman - Nowhere Woman is a video art piece inspired by a poem written by R. Notosudirdjo. It is an exploration of how continuous acceleration of speed in moving image can distort the visual and audio. The piece was shown as an installation on a loop at FBAUP in 2019.
Barefoot on the pavement 2019 - Barefoot on the pavement is a sculpture piece which explores our relationship with our body. More specifically the parts of it, we never really liked and felt insecure about. In this process of recreating a part of the body, new relationships are built an new insights gained on how to appreciate the body.
12 Dirty Days 2019 - 12 Dirty Days is a performance piece performed during the Winter Solstice in 2019. Driven by ideas and rituals from Bulgarian pagan folklore, this work uses a very old ritual as the skeleton from which it was further developed. "The Cleansing" is practiced on the 19th of December, usually by the oldest woman in the household. From left (chaos) to the right (cosmic order).This act of sweeping the living space is equal to obtaining a new perception of it. It is believed it is also a spirit cleansing activity.
KLETKA 2019 - 'I reshape and extend to prevent my decay". KLETKA (cage) is a performative ritual that investigates nuances of what comfort can become in connection to artistic growth.
KLETKA was created in 2019 during an exchange program at Faculdade de Belas Artes in Porto.
