Marta Djourina

Born 1991 in Sofia, Bulgaria

Marta Djourina was born in Sofia in 1991. After graduating from art history and theory she received in 2018 her Meisterschüler Degree at the University of the Arts Berlin (UdK).

Her work involves analogue direct exposure processes and light paintings or drawings. What can be described as cameraless photography is based on the principal aspects defining analogue photography, combining them with concepts such as time, space and chance. In a similar matter like in the darkroom, the ideas of ‘blind’ drawings are to be found also in her printmaking projects, in which she explores her own traces.

Detailed CV

Marta Djourina (* 1991, Sofia/BG) absolvierte zunächst ihren Bachelor und Master in Kunst- und Bildgeschichte/ Kulturwissenschaften an der HU Berlin (2012), gefolgt von einem Master in Kunstwissenschaft und Technologie an der TU Berlin (2014). Anschließend studierte sie Kunst an der UdK Berlin bei den Professor:innen Pia Fries, Gregory Cumins und Christine Streuli (Abschluss 2018). Sie erhielt zahlreiche Auszeichnungen und Stipendien wie das Eberhard-Roters-Stipendium (2020), das DAAD-Abschlussstipendium (2018), das Karl-Hofer-Projektstipendium (2017), den IBB-Preis für Fotografie (2016). Ihre ersten Einzel- und Gruppenausstellungen präsentierte sie im Goethe Institut Sofia, Bulgarien (2019), CAN Neuchatel (2019), Christine König, Wien (2018), Dorothea Konwiarz Stiftung, Berlin und Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2017). Im September 2021 wird Marta Djourina anlässlich der Verleihung des Eberhard-Roters-Stipendiums für junge Kunst 2020 in der Berlinischen Galerie ausstellen.

Description

“In my artistic work, I experiment with the cause and effect of various light phenomena on photosensitive paper, thus approaching the medium of light. It’s a performative movement, in the darkroom of the studio, where the drawing is made with various light sources and captured on the two-dimensional medium of paper (a large-format analog photo paper).”

Marta Djourina’s artistic practice focuses on exploring various light phenomena. Light becomes an object, a tool and an object of investigation. While some works have a biographical component and use self-made pinhole cameras (later sent by mail, attached to a pigeon or made from a suitcase during transit), other works are dedicated to the light of living organisms such as bioluminescent fungi and algae.

The artist also uses historical photographic techniques to capture the concept of touch in an image, using the example of Kirlian photography. She creates large-format unique pieces directly on site in the photo laboratory, where she uses different light sources to transfer several performative movements directly onto the photographic paper, i.e. as a camera-less process. Some of them are self-made mobile light sources that the artist carries in her hand or attached to her body. The photo paper itself translates the light into a more complimentary color, creating a kind of blind drawing or blind painting in dynamic compositions.