Gery Georgieva
Gery Georgieva’s multimedia works explore identity, gender, and cultural memory through the aesthetics of performance and pop culture.
Gery Georgieva (b. 1986, Varna/BG) is a London-based artist working primarily in video, performance, and installation. She studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London, and later completed her postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy Schools. Her work explores identity, self-representation, and the interplay between popular culture and folk tradition, often through performative self-staging and musical personas. Georgieva blends Balkan visual and sonic motifs with Western pop aesthetics, using her own body and voice as expressive tools. Her art critically examines taste, cultural stereotyping, and femininity through humor and emotional intensity. She was the recipient of the Frieze Film Commission (2015) and the Gaudenz B. Ruf Award for New Bulgarian Art (2017). Georgieva lives and works in London/UK.
The following artworks will be shown as part of the EVROVIZION.CROSSING STORIES AND SPACES project:
Balkan Idol, HD Video, 4’ 5”, Buzludzha/BG and Svilengrad/BG, 2015.
Camera: Louis-Jack; Dubbing mixer: Fred Pearson; Colourist: Laura
Hewett; Music: Brala Moma Ruzha Tsvete (Young Ruzha Was Picking Flowers), written by Stefan Mutafchiev; Kuchek S-Class, FANTASY FACE remix, written and performed by Patchfinder & Vera
Modena; Courtesy of: Body Records
©Gery Georgieva
In her video work Balkan Idol, Gery Georgieva makes use of the female voice and female body as a medium through which she conveys multiple cultural histories and identities of Bulgaria. The artist interweaves songs and places from the decaying remnants of the communist past with Bulgarian folk-pop culture. Whereas in one film scene, Georgieva sings the traditional song Brala Moma Ruzha Tsvete a cappella in the ruins of the communist Buzludzha Monument, in the
other, she dances in Svilengrad’s Romantika Princess folk pop nightclub. Each of the venues chosen by Georgieva reflects the history and national identities of Bulgaria.
The Buzludzha Monument was erected by the Bulgarian Communist Party in 1981 as a tribute to Bulgarian socialism during the Soviet era and was abandoned and left to decay after 1989. At the same time, in the 1990s, a new form of music arose in Bulgaria that is known as Chalga. This extremely popular music, which is considered to be folkpop, is the Bulgarian version of a pop music style that originated in southeastern Europe in the 1980s. Clubs like Romantika Princess are places of wilful abandon and a reflection of the newfound freedom.
The film constantly switches between the two scenarios. The individual elements begin to merge and overlap, complementing and completing one another, their boundaries dissolving to create a hybrid whole. Even the artist’s DIY dress is a hybrid construction, combining the aesthetic elements of traditional Bulgarian attire with those of a
shimmering disco ball.
The title references American Idol and questions the mechanisms of authenticity and cultural representation in a global context. Georgieva, who was born in the Bulgarian seaside town of Varna and grew up in London, explores issues of desire and authenticity through her performances and films. She uses her own physicality to question cultural belonging. With her video work, Georgieva creates a “third space" (Homi Bhabha). It is a space where cultural meaning and identity are not fixed but are negotiated, hybrid, and constantly in flux. It emerges when two or more cultures interact and new meanings or identities are formed that are neither one nor the other, but something in-between - like the Diaspora.
The Blushing Valley, HD video and stereo sound, 4’, Kazanluk/BG, 2017.
©Gery Georgieva
Gery Georgieva’s video work The Blushing Valley is an evocative exploration of cultural identity, femininity, and the commodification of tradition. The video is a looped, 4-minute piece in which Georgieva portrays herself as a modern “Rose Queen,” drawing inspiration from Bulgaria's famous Rose Festival in Kazanluk, where roses are harvested for their precious oil. The work juxtaposes the symbolism of the rose, an emblem of national pride, with the artist's contemporary interpretation, subverting expectations around tradition and femininity.
In The Blushing Valley, Georgieva performs a choreographed dance, wearing a lavish, flowing gown that echoes folkloric imagery but is recontextualized through her personal, slightly surreal gesture. The video’s aesthetic merges the traditional and the pop-culture infused, with the artist performing a delicate balance of grace and irony. Her
movements are synchronized with a rhythmic, almost hypnotic soundtrack that amplifies the sensuality of the rose’s symbolism while simultaneously hinting at its commercialization in contemporary society. The piece critiques the commodification of national identity by exposing the performative nature of cultural symbols, particularly
how feminine ideals are often packaged for public consumption.
Through her self-presentation, Georgieva engages in a complex dialogue about the construction of identity—both individual and collective—and how national heritage is marketed, particularly within the context of Bulgaria's rose oil industry. By embodying a modern, hyper-feminized version of the “Rose Queen,” Georgieva subtly confronts the viewer with the tension between nostalgia and the commercialization of heritage. The video asks viewers to reflect on the role of tradition in the context of global capitalism, as well as the ways in which femininity, cultural symbolism, and authenticity can be manipulated and redefined.
The Blushing Valley is a provocative work that invites the audience to question not only the commodification of culture but also the ways in which personal and national identities are shaped by both heritage
and globalized consumption.
