World-renowned photographer Elina Kechicheva presents her 'Contact' project in Bulgaria

Last year, more than 20 women in Bulgaria were killed by their partners or other men in their lives. The number of registered cases of domestic violence for 2023 is almost 1400. At least ten women lost their lives in the first six months of 2024, according to the website Saved. In the years following the pandemic, the number of victims of domestic violence in the country has almost quadrupled. They are usually women, but not always. The issue is widely discussed in the media and in society, but it has never been a focus of the election campaigns of any of the parties in the current National Assembly.

Instead, one of the world's most successful Bulgarian photographers, Elina Kechicheva, returned from France, where she has lived and worked for 25 years, to create a "contact" between the dry statistics, the real faces of the victims and the public.

The exhibition "Contact" opened on July 1 at ONE Gallery in Sofia, featuring analogue images by Kechicheva and a video installation by visual artist Victor Popov, who has been living in Beijing for the past 15 years. The show, which runs until 14 July, is part of the long-running Art Awakens initiative of the Emprove Foundation, the first Bulgarian community of its kind, founded by women who have managed to free themselves from emotional or physical abuse.

"We're trying to awaken our society to a really early prevention of violence against women, gender-based violence, and we're doing it through art, so that we can get to the deep layers of the subconscious," Olga Mineva, founder of the foundation, told BNR a few days ago, in support of women on the road to change and a new life.

The Women Survivors as they call themselves, take this title as a counterpoint to the dogma that domestic violence creates victims. On the contrary, a survivor is brave, proud, fighting and worthy of a bright future. This is exactly what the exhibition shows, with 20 such Bulgarian women standing in front of Elina Keshisheva's camera in the forests of Vitosha Mountain near Sofia, dressed in their freedom and strength, holding hands. This is also the main message that those involved want the audience to feel - we depend on the strength of others. It can be destructive, but also constructive.

Elina Kechicheva, who has worked for some of the world's most prestigious fashion magazines and has an impressive portfolio of portraits of famous artists, musicians and filmmakers, including Amy Winehouse, Nick Cave, Wim Wenders, Philip Stark, Diane Kruger, Andy McDowell, Nastassja Kinski and Pharrell Williams, says that change comes from contact, from tactility, from reaching out to the world of the other.

Elina Keshisheva's first meeting with some of the ladies in the #WomenSurvivors community.

"I met these women on a day when they had a poetry class for which they had all written poems. What I heard was very serious, which makes it even more powerful. The passion and emotion behind the words was incredible and I cried as I listened to them. And in that moment the connection was made. Why we did it - because you have to do these things. Because fundamentally we have to help, we have to push things forward that can help other people.

"A lot of people will say, what is this exhibition with these amazing pictures going to do? We are there with our faces, with our bodies, with our emotions. When they see it, I want them to say 'I can be one of these women'. I in turn want to say to them, "Look at us! Look how beautiful we are! Look at how brave we are, how free we are! You can be here with us," adds Maria Ilieva, our colleague from the Radio Sofia programme of Bulgarian National Radio,

Moriel Georgieva, Elina Kechicheva, Velin Manov and Nora Hristova.

Connection with each other is what the victims need most and "Contact" shows it, says another participant in the exhibition - Moriel Georgieva.

"Whether it is a man or a woman - because there are also male victims of violence - violence separates the person from themselves, from what they have in terms of strength and potential. Secondly, it separates them from other people. You go out into society, you put on your mask, but you feel as if you are separated behind a glass, as if you are not worthy to be among others. And that's the thing that was very much shattered as an experience through this exhibition - that very connection to the other and that you are an equal part of this society. You've fought through it, you've overcome it and you're with others who understand you," she adds.

In fact, the idea of the "Contact" exhibition is not to show what was before, but what can be after - explains photographer Elina Kechicheva. "What a lot of people can't see in the dark tunnels of these days, where they are going through difficult moments, they can't imagine that the future can be bright," she says.

This message has managed to reach those who need it most within a few days of opening," says Nora Hristova, operational director of the Emprove Foundation. "I am happy to tell you that since the opening we have already been contacted by several women through the website and our Facebook page. As part of the exhibition, we are also running what we call a 'Live Library', where visitors to the gallery have the opportunity to speak to the survivors, listen to excerpts from their personal stories and get in touch."

"I see the human in everything. In the expression, in the gesture, in the eyes, in the facial expression. In my work I seldom try to reduce it to a single reason. I think I am a complex person and I do complex things, I work with complex reasons" - says Elina Kechicheva, reminding us that a picture can say more than a thousand words. One look can tell a life.

Photos: BTA, Ani Petrova, Facebook /EMPROVE, Antonio Georgiev

Translated and posted by Elizabeth Radkova

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Dedicated to Bulgarian survivors of domestic violence

World-renowned photographer Elina Kechicheva presents her 'Contact' project in Bulgaria

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