BORJANA VENTZISLAVOVA is Vienna based and Sofia born artist. She gained MA in visual media arts at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria.
BORJANA is an cross--disciplinary artist who works in the fields of film/video, installation, photography, performative and media art. In her works she analysis stereotypical roles and models of representations and the impact of political and social structures and control mechanisms on our existence. Her work addresses issues of mobility and crossing of socio-geographical and cultural borders and deal with the complex process of communication and translation. Focusing on documentary and narrative structures and constructions, she mixes stages and situations, still and moving image, text and sound into cases and stories that test the line between personal and social, examine the interaction between individual and collective in the frame of current events and history. In her concern with the strategies of re-positioning, manipulation and perception, Ventzislavova’s work draws attention to the permeable borders between documentary and fiction.
Her works have been exhibited internationally in solo and group shows as well as at media art and film festivals, including, 21er haus – Museum of contemporary art in Vienna, MAK Vienna, MAK Los Angeles, Lentos Linz, Museum of Modern Art Salzburg, Museum of Modern Art Carinthia, Museum of Modern Art - Esterházy Foundation, MUSA, Sofia Arsenal - Museum of Contemporary Art, Sofia City Art Gallery, National Art Gallery Sofia, Landesgalerie Linz, Essl Museum, k/haus, quartier21, Gallery bäckerstrasse4, Gallerie Ostlicht, Thomas K. Lang Gallery, BCI “Wittgenstein House” in Vienna, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Kurt-Kurt, LS43 in Berlin, Austrian Cultural Forum Washigton DC and London, ICA London, Academia gallery, Sofia, ICA Sofia, Art Today Plovdiv, Hunt gallery, St. Louis, US, Cologne Conference, IDFA, Diagonale, Graz, EMAF, Osnabrück, transmediale, Berlin, filmwinter, Stuttgart, Rencontres Internationales, Berwick Film and Media Arts Fest., Moscow Int. Filmfest., Int. Short Film Fest. Istanbul, Split Film Fest., etc.
She received the promotion award by the City of Vienna 2017, the Austrian State Scholarship for Fine Art 2013, numerous grants and awards for projects, Start Scholarship for Fine Art 2009, winner of Top Ten Nonfiction Award at Cologne Conference 2006, Otto Prutscher Fonds Award 2006, Susmannstiftung Award 2005, recognitions at Art in Motion 2002, Los Angeles, Ars Electronica, 2002, Linz, CYNETart 2001, Dresden. She was artist in residence in London (ACF), Rom (BKA), Newcastle (ISIS Arts), Berkeley (CEC Artslink), Los Angeles (MAK Schindler), Chicago (BKA), Athens (Snehta), Banff Center (BKA) and in 2019 NYC (BKA).
Her works are part of private and public colletions among Foto collection of BKA, Vienna, Collection of the city of Vienna, MUSA, Collection of National Art Gallery, Sofia, 21er Haus / Belvedere, Vienna, LENTOS Linz, Essl (Albertina), Estherhazy, Angerlehner Collections in Austria, a.o.
She has been granted honorable Austrian citizenship for her achievements in visual arts.