Tsvetomira Borisova Suspends an Ancient Gesture Without Resolving it

lo3eto Presents A Hot Day in Vetren Dol

lo3eto presents A Hot Day by Tsvetomira Borisova , curated by Vanya Grozdanova, through August 20, 2026.

Its central sculpture shows a woman lifting her skirt, cast in red clay and suspended on ropes. It is not a joke and not an accident: the gesture has a documented history in Sheela na gig carvings on medieval churches and the Greek myth of Baubo, both tied to fertility ritual and the warding off of evil.

Two more works, forty-nine ceramic apple tiles and a pencil drawing installed outdoors on an old bench, extend the same logic.

Below, curator Vanya Grozdanova explains why.

Curatorial View - Vanya Grozdanova

To reach lo3eto, anyone with the intention must leave the closest settlement, cover a certain distance on semi-broken asphalt road, then walk along the dirt alley overgrown with wild bushes and trees to finally reach the desired end point with a feeling that in the meantime a certain boundary has been crossed and the space they are already in is approaching uncertainty much better than any clear definition.

There, nature and human presence are infiltrated, while divergent layers of time remind of themselves. Placed in a context like this, any artistic content recalls its primal mysticism. Intuitively, artist Tsvetomira Borisova grasped this synthesis from her first experience of the environment, when she began work on her exhibition there. On the day of its opening, the place and time, and the ecstasy that their interaction creates, form a subtle imprint on the conceptual body of the exhibition called "A Hot Day".

On the wildflower meadow in front of the pink-rusty van is placed an old wooden backless bench. On it, at the bench's base among the grass, framed in glass and translucent green textile is hung a pencil drawing. The image shows contoured female knees, pressing an apple. From here we enter the hot day of Tsvetomira Borisova.

Being in it, our gaze is drawn to the indoor exhibition space, emitting a soft yellow-green glow and the object in the midst of it. Positioned to be clearly observed through the entrance from the outside, this is a sculpture of a woman. It is in the air, placed on a suspended platform, secured by ropes hanging from the ceiling.

The construction resembles a swing that does not move, but is instead frozen in place to emphasize the scenicity and bring out the exact moment of the expressionistically emphasized gesture of the woman.

Upon entering, this sculpture determines the perception of the entire space, focusing attention, even though its position in the space is not even precisely central. And despite the fact that it is actually only about 40 cm high, this work is undoubtedly perceived as enlarged in the closed environment outlined through the entrance hole. The presence of the elevated figure resembles that of key images in Byzantine iconography in which reverse perspective is applied.

The sculpture, made of red clay, depicts a graceful female figure, some body parts of which remain immersed in the material from which it is sculpted. Standing, with her head slightly bowed, her hair loose and a ribbon on her head, this young woman visibly opens her skirt in two directions with her hands, thus casually exposing herself.

The ritual of showing one's body through skirt lifting is an ancient religious symbol associated with fertility, expulsion of evil forces and renewal through turning to humor.

Old examples of this symbolic gesture, depicting women with their genitals on display, are the stone figures of Sheela na gig on the outer walls of medieval temples or the ritual terracotta statuettes associated with the ancient Greek myth of Baubo.

The act of the female figure in the exhibition interprets this same symbolic expression. Only from the perspective of the present, in which everything is the same, while it is not at all. The sculpture itself does not indicate clear signs to relate it to a certain moment in time (its clothing, ribbon or hairstyle can easily float through).

It is the carelessness of the presented gesture that - compared to old figures' fixed-symbolic poses embedded with ritual functionality - opens, precisely through its carelessness, a dialogue made for the current viewer. In this dialogue, ancient symbols and modern clichés clash with discoveries of personal experience, then with some accidental or deliberate prejudices that we carry with us.

The impact of the artistic gesture here comes from its unlocking of the game for the viewer, without applying any intention of control over the process, neither a hint of expected conclusions, nor a proposal for resuming.

The release of analysis, labelling, and control (which, following Foucault, we realize are intentionally implanted in individuals when experiencing their own sexuality) allows symbolic associations to explode freely. Access is opened to some undefined terrain, where we jump between voyeurism and intimacy, ritualism and self-introspection.

Still, observation does not stop there. It is in the artistic design for visitors to feel invited to enter the exhibition space, walk freely, surround the sculpture and examine it from all sides, while comparing it to themselves and the space. Then, become aware of the encompassing environment.

Until now, it has only been present in the background, but stepping through the entrance, viewers find themselves inside the imagery that until recently was only observed from a distance. The dimension acquires depth.

With its internal rhythm the surrounding green space shelters numerous apple-red ceramic tiles with a minimalistic fruit-shaped contour - each about the size of a palm and nailed to the wall by its apple handle-nail.

The production of the tiles according to a common pattern and their coloring in a bright glaze create a decorative stylization and highlight their symbolic presence in the space. The apple is a classic symbol that we associate with fertility, with knowledge, with temptation.

It is also a symbolic motif from the work of Bulgarian early 20th century painter Vladimir Dimitrov - the Master - who created his own mythology of fertility and purity in a recognizable palette. For Tsvetomira Borisova, the fragility of apples, as well as their round shape, are key to their understanding and by this logic, they own a natural proximity to knees - a perception that she shares with the director Eric Rohmer ("Claire's Knee").

This series of accumulated symbolic content - at a minimum - is accordingly multiplied by its repetition in the space saturating it; it is also nailed to the walls - i.e. an unavoidable statement within the exhibition's perception.

The walls, approached closely, in their turn, begin to reveal a wealth of nuances, and through them, content. Their color, when seen thoroughly, reminds of a bitten apple, examined closely shows pink brushes mixed with green tones. This is no coincidence - the pink that the artist so delicately returns to the space is a memory of the color the wall had when Tsvetomira Borisova first encountered the space.

The walls then carried memories in several layers - of previous functionalities and manifestations that the place has hosted. Now those are woven into the story again. Realizing the colors like that, we recognise that the dark red clay from which the woman's sculpture is made is actually a shade very similar to that of the front door and the frame of the only window in the room, against which the sculpture is positioned in diagonal. Within this play of colors, memory references are brought to encompass the environment like a gentle afternoon reverie.

Soaked in this symbolically defined and dreamily enchanting environment, we grow to understand that the figure of the woman raised in the air actually integrates the symbolic content of her surroundings. Thus its positioning as a compositional center is sublimated.

Yet, this imagery comes reproduced outside of any ritual functions; it is an obvious artistic act, aware of it in its self-ironic reflection, while due to it, quite unexpectedly for the viewers it strikes in them the effect of its symbolic referent.

Leaving, above the entrance-exit, on one of the reddish metal pipes of the roof structure, we notice a thread with several apple seeds strung on it dangling. The color of this object is the same dark red shade. We smile and descend the path down, where a wild apple tree waves at us with branches adorned with slowly ripening fruits.

Vanya Grozdanova

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