Will They Be Friends One Day?

Having grown up in a Bulgarian town, and later relocated to a metropolis like Berlin had a large impact on Mariana Vassileva’s practice. Through this existence divided between dissimilar cultures, the incessant change that comes with urban development, her adventure of self-discovery, and being compelled to adjust to new social environments, she became interested in the notions of movement, speed, and loss. Her works explore feelings and issues around urban living conditions, forced migration, interpersonal communication, and cultural re-orientation. Drawing on her childhood memories, or taking inspiration from the rhythms of and observations made around present-day living conditions, she transforms everyday objects or people’s mannerisms, and poses them as questions open to re-interpretation.

"Will They Be Friends One Day?" by Mariana Vassileva is a pair of nails, one perfectly straight and gold plated, the other rusty and crooked. They are nailed close to each other on a wall, with “Will they be friends one day?” written in pencil just below. Using the binary oppositions of poor/rich or old/new as an allegory for the interaction among figures stuck in-between, such as these nails, Vassileva raises questions concerning the lack of communication across different sections of society, notable in all countries of the world.