Boryana Rossa

PROJECT:” Touch and Tap TV”  June 12 @ 7pm Gallery

This work is a reenactment of the classic performance by VALIE EXPORT “Touch and Tap TV”1968. EXPORT constructed a small theater-like box with a curtain and put it on her chest. The people on the street  – men, women and children – were invited by another artist, to touch her breast in the box, behind the curtain.

What makes my piece different is not only the obvious shift of socio-political context and cultural environment, but also my specific anatomy – I have no breast. It had been removed surgically because I have been diagnosed with breast cancer. The audience is offered to experience the reality of this medical necessity in a mediated manner. The audience hands are hidden behind a curtain. The experience is unexpected and is more touching than seeing. Protected by this mediation, people can “touch and tap” the problems, women and not only women with different bodies experience internally and socially.

Women with double mastectomy like me have a very big chance of survival. They live long lives, however women like me experience great depression mostly because of the superficial and stereotypical understanding of femininity and sexualized female image related to the presence of a breast.

photos by Laura Heyman, Oleg Mavromatti | boryanarossa.com

Boryana Rossa (Bulgaria) is an interdisciplinary artist and curator who works in the fields of electronic arts, film, video, performance and photography. Most of Rossa’s works have been shown internationally at venues such as Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, NY; Kunstwerke and Akademie der Kunste, Berlin; The 1st and 2nd Moscow Biennial For Contemporary Art; Museum of Contemporary Art (MUMOK) Vienna; Zacheta Gallery, Warsaw, Exit Art and Feldman gallery, NY. In 2004 together with the Russian artist and film maker Oleg Mavromatti, Rossa establishes UTRAFUTURO–an international group of artists engaged with issues of technology, science and their social implications. Rossa’s works are in numerous collections such as Kontakt. The Art Collection of Erste Bank-Group, Sofia City Art Gallery, SAMCA and in international art archives such as the performing art archive re.act.feminism and Transitland Video Art from Central and Eastern Europe 1989-2009 etc. She is also a director of Sofia Queer Forum, art festival first held in 2012 in Sofia, Bulgaria.