Supporting Vera Hadzhiyska's visual research

<<This self-portrait is from the series “Vera”, named after my paternal grandmother who, alongside numerous Bulgarian Muslims,
was forced to change her given Muslim name to a Bulgarian (Slavic) name during the 1970s in Bulgaria >>

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR US TO SUPPORT WOMEN IN ART, CULTURE PRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT​

Stories Of Migrant Women  supports VERA

<<Growing up my grandparents never sat me down to explain their religion and heritage. It was always in the background, something I thought of as normal but didn't know what it was or what it meant. My parents brought me up with no religion in mind. It wasn't until 2-3 years ago when I started creating work about my
family, reading on Bulgarian history more, digging in family albums and asking my relatives tons of questions, that I understood why my grandparents never openly talked about it. They have lived through a lot and learned to adapt, overcome traumas and hardship and make the most of life to protect and take care of their
families. Living during the communist regime in Bulgaria wasn't all rainbows and sunshine. And although many people talk about the socialist era with nostalgia, there are a lot who have been kept silent about the atrocities they have experienced. Nowadays a lot of those stories are coming to light: memories of the labour camps, forced migration, forced name changes and more. Apart from being historically, politically and religiously charged the project "With the Name of a Flower" is also a deeply personal journey of discovery and tracing my heritage; of making sence of the world by looking at the past in order to understand the present.>> ​
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IF YOU WANT TO SUPPORT HER WORK PLEASE CLICK HERE

<<During my visits to Bulgaria I started asking people about their old (Muslim) names. I began keeping a record of these names - I wanted to create a piece with them that would express my utter dismay about the fact these people were made to change their names.
Some of the people I spoke to changed their names voluntarily once the name changing campaigns started in order to avoid any repercussions, others held off until it was basically impossible not to change their name, because of the obstacles the government presented to people who refused to give up their birth names (sacking people from their jobs, withholding wages and pensions, refusing to renew passports or to give out legal documents which people needed to get married, and many more). As this is a delicate topic and I wanted to keep individuals anonymous, I decided to use only the first (given) names of people to create a performance piece symbolising the fracturing of identity through the erasure of the name.>>

Vera Hadzhiyska is a Bulgarian
multi-disciplinary artist based in England.
She works with photography, audio and video installations.
Vera’s work explores past and present historic and political events in the Balkans and Eastern Europe.
Her latest series "With the Name of a Flower", investigates the forced name changes of the Bulgarian Muslim population in Bulgaria from 1912 until 1989, taking into consideration the past and present historical and political context.

Vera is interested in how these historical events have affected the cultural, religious and national identity of people who experienced them and their descendants. How memories have been preserved or purposefully omitted from family narratives, resulting in a shift of identity and sense of belonging of the younger generations.

The exhibition Vera is building up is a culmination of Vera's MA Photography degree at the University of Portsmouth and will showcase new work by the artist including a multi-channel sound installation, video installations, self-portraits from the series "Vera" and more.


*There will be free workshops for artist happening during the week (bookable in advance).

For more information visit www.verahadzhiyska.com

to support Vera's research click HERE