Mariya Tsaneva +43 650 5925961
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tsaneva_maria@yahoo.com
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Flurschützstraße 7/10 1120, Wien
Selected Projects 2017 — 2021
LOST and FOUND
Perspectives on Resources Group Research Project & Exhibition 2017 Vienna, Austria
n school
e for Democracy! (workshop and intervention) Färber, Ruth Mateus-Berr & PoF Collective
lost aND foUND
Nordbahnhof area and the future development plan
and interventions dealing with f courage. Current social, ecolitical, governmental and techresponses are too slow to provide the rapid growth and speed of anges. Rapid urbanization, the of rural landscapes, increasing cities, structural unsustainabilnflicts over diminishing natural massive explosion of environd economic refugees. Design must olitics. We cannot further rely on nts and society.
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The ‘Nordbahnhof’ area represented a collection of “in situ” and “ex situ” resources. The area around the former ‘Nordbahnhof’ railway station has been neglected and taken by nature over the years but is now one of Vienna’s biggest inner city development areas. The research project is revealing two relevant aspects of ‘Nordbahnhof’: the site specific storytelling and its potential to implement materials from local suppliers of re-used materials at the new constructions. Facing the actual and the future condition of the area the goal of the project is to highlight its potential and show how the different
LOST and FOUND Perspectives on Resources
resources can work together. Therefore the final exhibition is used as a medium where the “in-situ” and ``ex-situ” concept present the valuable use of the current space and its rooted history, as well as examples of how material flow can be implemented during the construction of new developments. The core team of the project consisted of students from the Social Design program (Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien) in collaboration with Renaud Haerlingen from Rotor (collective from Brussels interested in construction based on circular economy and the material flow of the industry).
On-site research
Circular economy research
Over the process of researching the area stories from a diverse group of local people were gathered to form a collection of tales concerning the area. Aside from enjoying nature, local people use the space for a variety of activities provided by the “no man’s land” feature of the site. Kids, teenagers, biologists, homeless people, dog owners, are some examples of the site goers. Besides, the place acts as ‘a living archive” of the city’s history presenting its continuous transformation over the years.
Inspired by the method of work of Rotor collective, the project explored the presence of circular economy in Austria. ‘Nordbahnhof’s’ development, being still in a stage of planning, gave the team the perfect window of time to create a space for discussion around topics such as implementation of used material in the new construction. Triggered by these conditions the group visited shops for used materials in Vienna and its surroundings to create connections for future development.
LOST and FOUND Perspectives on Resources
Care & Repair - two week workshop The concept of the ‘Lost and Found’ Project correlates the two main perspectives: on site investigation and circular economy. It frames the existing resources and gives them new meaning, exposing their values as long term investment. The project came into practice during a two weeks workshop in July. To realize it, the team recruited the help of а group of volunteers with interdisciplinary backgrounds. During the two weeks workshop, the team managed to turn two of the sites in the area from desolate to “presentable” through cleaning and fixing. An abandoned skate park and staircase from the time of the old railway station, both completely overtaken by nature. Simultaneously the team made trips to used material shops bringing back valuable resources that could be implemented in the future development. The team also managed to delineate the future building line highlighting its edge and the real limits.
LOST and FOUND Perspectives on Resources
The Exhibition The work on “in-situ” and “ex-situ” resources resulted in an exhibition presenting the valuable use of the current space and its rooted history combined with applicable examples and technical guidelines of how material flow can be implemented during the new development. The building line was also introduced with a guided walk tour through it.
LOST and FOUND Perspectives on Resources
Arena of dialog
Urban explorations and historical research Urban Explorations & Art walk 2019 Sofia, Bulgaria
This project aims to present the historical past together with the new face of the sports complex (from 1968) in the city of Sofia, Bulgaria. It is used as an example which represents the ongoing processes of transformation of historical buildings from the socialist period. Festival Hall '68 is one of the few striking examples of Brutalist architecture in Bulgaria and it is an organic combination of function, form, and construction. Although the architectural solution and the visible concrete structural system makes the building one of a kind, today it is being reconstructed without any sign of architectural conservation efforts and as if a completely different building has emerged without it actually being demolished. Besides its architectural value, the hall
* archival photos: magazine “Architecture 1, 1969” and magazine “Sofia” 1968
Arena of dialog
has a historical importance for the development of Sofia. It was built for the Ninth World Festival of Youth and Students, which brought 20,000 people from 142 countries with leftist ideologies and aimed to enhance the influence of the Soviet model of socialism among the youth of the East and the West. After 1989, a lot of cultural and sports centers were abandoned and have not been renovated since. Until 2007 (when Bulgaria became a member of the European Union) new businesses and Western companies started buying out these particular buildings at large, and as a result private corporations became the main owners of culturally significant buildings. After the 2010s more and more international companies have taken over and remodeled existing public buildings with their
distinct examples of art and architecture. However, by repurposing these buildings – now entirely reshaped and converted into profitable spaces – these business enterprises have essentially stripped them of their cultural value. To involve the audience with the current development of the area and the building itself, I organized an artistic walk (part of the program of Water tower Art Residency # 3). The walk aimed to guide the audience through the space focusing on the distinct combination of the new аesthetic coupled with the historical background of the space. The new interventions that have been implemented on the facade together with
the presence of the bar situated on the ground floor create a new identity of the area which is in contrast with the original intention and ongoing function of the sports complex for athletes. The new look is not connected to its inner life nor is it to its historical past of the site. And by making this integral change, the place generates a new kind of behavior for the people living in this district. By narrating the story in this area where to this day it still holds cultural significance for the locals and facilitating a discussion around its current state, the project aims to point out the importance of urban changes as fundamental to our society and its resilience.
Arena of dialog
Un.documented
Creating resilience in Roma communities Artistic research project. Developed together with Julijana Rosoklija, Violet Dayhun Kim and Gerald Reyes 2018 Sofia, Bulgaria & Skopje, North Macedonia
The project Un.documented aims to highlight the issue of Roma people who lack personal identification documents through investigating the variety of misalignments between all the agents involved in attempting to solve the problem (civil society, NGOs and government institutions). The project aims to encourage the discourse between different governmental institutions and nongovernmental organizations creating a bridge through an online platform. Although our primary research was focused mainly on Bulgaria and Macedonia, the issue of undocumented Roma people and the disconect between organizations trying to solve the problem is present across many European countries.
Un.documented
The project looks at the issue of undocumented Roma people through different facets from the micro (NGOs, civil society and organizations) to the macro (government institutions such as ministries and local municipalities) level in Bulgaria and Macedonia. It is important to point out the various problems such as communication issues between macro and micro levels of perspectives from different institutions, in order to promote awareness of the enormity of the situation and to furthermore focus the public’s attention. Moreover, the project provokes the public outside of the Roma community by comparing the two and revealing the tremendous difference of rights, opportunities and privileges available. By exposing this disproporation the project aims to encourage a discourse on how people both in - and outside the community are affected by the issue.
Political and historical context
Artistic approach
During the project, we researched the political and historical context in both countries with the goal to understand better the existing situation. During the Communist era, Roma people were mostly registered and documented since they were strongly and strictly required to settle down and be Identifiable on the system. In the recent history, during and after the transitory process from Socialism to Democracy, the bad socio-economic situation of the Roma communities developed further by cultivating and creating new ghettos in the big Cities.
The chosen research medium was to use drawing as a method of documentation and at the same time as a means to shorten the distance between interviewer and interviewees. We chose drawing, precisely because of its analog nature and as an indirect, non photographic, way to replicate situations and engage with people during the process of exchange. The author of the drawings is Violet Dahyun Kim, an illustrator and designer. The drawings used for our project have been made in black and white because we believe that colors, or in our case the lack of such, often convey specific characteristics, details, information about status, class, ambiance, and circumstances (the polarizing attitude towards Roma ethnicity). The idea was also to avoid distraction by painting a bias pictures of the situation but more to stress on the content within the drawings.
The problem with undocumented people in Bulgaria and Macedonia has different dimensions in both countries mainly affecting the Roma population. It is very much related to the structuring role of the policies. In the present situation, the issue with undocumented people reveals a policy of ethnic marking. The fundamentally alienated attitude towards the Roma population is primarily the effect of the radically different treatment they are subjected to. Taking the examples of two different countries like Bulgaria – an EU member – and Macedonia – waiting to become part of the EU – we explore the similarities and differences that legitimize the different treatment of Roma that these countries share. With our project, we want to show that there are not only some individuals who are racist, not solely a societal flaw either, but more so that the state actively contributes to the creation of disputes because it plays a fundamental role in institutionalizing differences. To summarize, although Bulgaria and Macedonia are having different policies and political attitudes towards their Roma minorities, the issues related to Roma inclusion in those two countries of the communities are quite similar.
Un.documented
Research, Institutions and success stories On the one hand, we reached out to numerous NGOs as well as government officials in both countries, in order to meet and interview them. We wanted to find out more about why there are still so many undocumented Roma people, what their struggles are, how these institutions tackle the issue, what big difficulties they face, where the problems in the communication between government and non government organizations lie. On the other hand, there was the need to compare and see what different mechanisms and methods the two countries use to deal with this issue, how their different systems were built, to learn about stories of success and failure, so that we can work on new methods on how to improve and repair missing links. We were interested in projects focused on stimulating active citizenship and civic
Un.documented
responsibilities within the Roma communities. Very often private and public donors are demanding immediate results to justify their grants which makes the projects and programmes less efficient. Generally, the lack of long-term investment and support of long-term projects are the main problems. We see it as an important thing to share and exchange different approaches to projects that aim to strengthen institutional capacity between NGOs and the government, thus stimulating civic responsibility among the Roma communities. Presenting projects which are looking for ways to treat people as equal citizens will allow us to directly address those who avoid making decisions on a larger-scale. When the sociologist Eric Fassin did a lecture in Sofia in 2015, he stated that treating Roma community badly is much more expensive than treating them well. We have to take the structural policies seriously because they affecting, not only the Roma people, who are the main target, but they actually have an effect on everyone.
Indra's net
During the interview process, it became clear that there were several points which were repeatedly mentioned by various institutions and stakeholders. Therefore, after brainstorming and collecting the data from the interviews, we figured out that the interview quotes are associated with six issues that are all linked to each other. Thus, through Indra’s net, we tried to show how these problems are concretely connected and how it influences all the other issues at a macro level. To visualize the complexities of these processes we used the idea behind the term "Indra's Net" in
Buddhism which symbolises how we individuals are all glass beads which are threaded together in a vast net without a visible end. Ideally, we should be able to see ourselves as a whole in spite of our differences , like Indra’s Net, but ironically we, humans, have always separated each other throughout the long history of mankind, due to lack of mutual understanding and due to historical, cultural, and ethnic reasons. Thus “the others” such as the Roma communities, are confronted with a huge barrier to live their lives within the majority culture, which is represented by “us”.
Un.documented
INEVITABLE GAMBLE
Exploring the malleable culture of Malta Research project & sound installation. In collaboration with Zuzanna Zajac 2019 Graduation exhibition, Vienna, Austria
Geographically, Malta is an island country located in the central Mediterranean Sea and as such it is well known as an attractive and sunny place, perfect for holidays with its warm climate and its architecturally and historically significant monuments. Likewise it is considered one of the top countries in Europe, with the highest growth in GDP (Gross domestic product) in 2019, that creates favorable conditions for Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain, gambling, betting, IT, and technological development. Due to its size and location, being an island country, Malta proves an attractive place for foreign businesses thus leaving it very much dependent on outside investments. The globalization process is happening everywhere and it’s opening the world by giving more opportunities like freedom of movement, dream jobs, higher wages, cultural experiences, global and social networks, cheap traveling and shipping. However, in the case of small island countries like Malta globalization also results in limitations and evokes a sense of claustrophobia. With our project, we aimed to capture the feeling of a rapidly changing environment that has a strong sensory influence on people’s behavior and decisions. The new demands for more workers and faster building processes are turning the island increasingly into a space that evokes claustrophobia. After our observations and the resulting conclusions, we created a portable sensory installation that exemplifies the message of the rapidly changing environment. The object we created is a closed cardboard box that combines sound, material, and light. To the box we attached sound speakers called – “transducers” which, plugged into a sound source such as an mp3 player, produce a very strong bass that resonates with the material itself. We also decided to include an infrared light in order to reflect the warmth of Malta, thus heating up the, already very small, space around the viewer who needs to get into the box to experience the claustrophobic feeling in Malta. The project was developed by Mariya Tsaneva and Zuzanna Zajac.
INEVITABLE GAMBLE
INEVITABLE GAMBLE
Courage for Democracy! a workshop held by PoF Collective
Participatory public art project. In collaboration with PoF-Collective 2017 Hasselt, Belgium
The project took place in the form of a workshop, part of the program of the TRADERS Open School in Hasselt, Belgium. TRADERS is a 4-year Europeanfunded project that focuses on developing and testing a methodological framework upon which art and design practitioners can rely when working as part of participatory, public space projects (tr-aders. eu). Members of PoF Collective together with Ruth Mateus-Berr and Martin Färber made a workshop implementing design and artistic research to tackle the topic of courage and the value of democracy. To get in touch with the public and talk about courage and the democratic voice the workshop took place on the main square in Hasselt where the citizens and the tourists were asked questions and had the opportunity to discuss personal positions, human rights, and the value of democracy. To present the significance of the topic of courage and collective participation, the collective created a Manifesto that was presented in front of the city municipality.
Courage for Democracy!
Courage for Democracy!
GeoS 2017 - Simulator of interest Project part of the group exhibition Multipolis - Images of the city 2017 Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria
“Multipolis - Images of the city” is a project that aims to explore Sofia in its diverse meanings, images and metaphors; the capital as a stage, shared space, history, and archetype. The project is a multilayered experiment that gathers young artists, humanities, and musicians from different backgrounds to study urban challenges and establish joint creative projects. For the group exhibition, my project GeoS 2017 explored the Roma neighborhood next to the district I'm living in Sofia. Related to the framework of the exhibition I wrote a text about the urban segregation that keeps the Roma isolated. I also created a video installation that is presenting the area throughout different virtual simulators that are giving us access to places that many people are normally avoiding. In Sofia most Roma live in isolated neighborhoods with limited or even no access to welfare and institutions in the central part of the city. For this reason, I decided to take a look at how the neighborhood - "Hristo Botev" was built and what is the role of the infrastructure for preserving the segregation of the Roma. The neighborhood is located in the eastern suburbs of Sofia, between the Slatina and Vasil Levski districts, between the river beds of the Slatinska River, the Refrigerated Railway Depot, the Sofia-Plovdiv railway line and the Sofia Airport. A mixed population district, mainly of Roma origin. The constant drive for updating and upgrading technology makes me wonder if fun and voyeurism can have the power to focus our attention on real action to solve problems, or they will only remain as an attraction through our monitors. With this project I approached the area as a side observer deliberately because it illustrates the real fact that we are not related to the life of the Roma, we do not understand its logic, and we are literally just passers-by. Even with a virtual collection of trips around Hristo Botev, we are still aliens for the neighborhood and its reality.
GeoS 2017 - Simulator of interest
GeoS 2017 - Simulator of interest
Arts & Cultural Education
Im Wunderstadtpark
‘Re-look’ and ’Re-make’ the spaces for play in Stadtpark Public Play, children’s workshop. Developed with Julijana Rosoklija and Nathalia Portella. 2017 Vienna, Austria
“Im Wunderland” invited children, aged 10-12 years, to explore, imagine and rethink their space in Stadtpark in relation to child culture and child friendliness. In Stadtpark, the river divides the park into two parts where the right side is accepted as the children’s park and the left side is more leisure and tourist area. In the urban parks, there is little attention to the qualities that children can teach us through playfulness, creativity, spontaneity, and even naivety. Our question was how to involve children and young adults as experts on subjects as “play” and “experimenting” in ways that can be useful to make public spaces more social and playful for different user-groups. In a series of play activities the children were asked to ‘re-look’ and ’re-make’ their space in the already organized pattern of Stadtpark. The project was developed by Mariya Tsaneva, Julijana Rosoklija, and Nathalia Portella.
Im Wunderstadtpark
Im Wunderstadtpark
The mysterious machine
Encryption and decryption of secret messages Developed with DIE BIBLIOTHEKARE association, Elisabeth Stockinger and Zoé Gendron. Art project with pupils from NMS Brüßlgasse 18 School. 2019 Vienna, Austria
Project developed by DIE BIBLIOTHEKARE association, Elisabeth Stockinger, Mariya Tsaneva and Zoé Gendron, realized with pupils from NMS Brüßlgasse 18 School in Vienna. Machines can be fascinating because of their hidden functions and mechanisms, which makes them a mysterious riddle to some. There are machines that encrypt information, that can be transmitted only to certain recipients, and there are machines that decode this encryption. Inspiration for this project are different methods of coding and unusual inventions such as Leonardo da Vinci's flying machine. The pupils in the project were firstly introduced to early encryption methods to try different methods of encrypting and decrypting secret messages. This helped them to invent their own secret languages. In collaboration with the artistic team of the LIBRARIES, a fantastic machine in the form of an artistic object was created to convey diverse messages created by the students. In the next stage, the students learned to use animation software to create and visualize the inside of the machine as they imagined it. At the end of the project, the pupils took the roles of engineers and inventors in front of the camera to show how they their own machine invention works and make a short film. It was important for us that the students were involved in every step of the work in order to understand the process-oriented work and actively participate in process. The aim of the project was to stimulate creativity and logic in a playful way. The participants gained practical and creative skills by working with different materials and digital media.
The mysterious machine
The mysterious machine
Children’s spaces for play then and now
Urban explorations in the city of St. Pölten Research project for children, part of VIFKIDS Children’s Academy International. 2020 St. Pölten, Austria
What kind of games the adults and the elderly people used to play in the city of St. Pölten? Where were their playgrounds situated? Can we re-enact these games? Are these games still interesting today? where is it possible to play them today? Together, in a group, children from the VIF KIDS International Children’s Academy in St. Pölten, traveled back to history by exploring the historical presence of well-known places and hearing their old stories. During the research week, the kids invited people from the elderly house next to the Academy to understand more about their childhood. They also visited the city museum to look at and explore old
Cihildren’s playground - then and now
archival photos and talk to the museum director. In the museum, they were introduced to old maps of the city, archival documents, and photos that gave them information about the presence of the kids in the city throughout the years. The historical collection of places, stories, and games they put together in selfmade research notebooks. The research process was used as an inspiration for the development of new games at the end of the workshop. The combination of art and play creates space for new ideas and opportunities for interaction with the public space as well as the possibility to address social topics.
Cihildren’s playground - then and now
Mariya Tsaneva +43 650 59 25 961 tsaneva_maria@yahoo.com