Leaves

Mariana Vassileva transforms mundane objects or behavioural patterns into questions open for reinterpretation, based on her observations of the conditions which determine the rhythm of life. Investigating themes of migration, deterritorialisation, flight and freedom in a plain, accessible manner, Vassileva masterfully combines poetry, melancholia and humour. Having spent her early years in Bulgaria, the artist has settled in the large metropolis of Berlin, where in most of her works she refers back to her childhood – to reveal a naïve, merry, curious world teeming with new discoveries. ‘The tree with windblown leaves,’ a frequently encountered theme which is repeated across different mediums in her practice, points towards the tension between the desire to settle down and take root, and to be deracinated and exposed to new worlds. In Vassileva’s work "Leaves", cables rising above a wall turn into the trunk of a tree whose branches are bent down by the wind, while shoes painted in white illuminated by LED light bulbs from inside turn into the leaves of the tree. The work, despite its plain form and childlike lightness, evokes the experience of migration, tragic destinies and flickering hopes.