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In this first episode of the FeminEasts podcast, recorded in early 2018, we speak with Boryana Rossa about her work, the Sofia Queer Forum 2017 edition “Sex & Revolution” and broader topics concerning sexual art, politics and sexual liberation in Eastern Europe and beyond. We publish this interview while the next edition of the Queer Forum is taking place in Sofia November 9 – December 2, 2018.
Boryana is a Bulgarian-born, US-based interdisciplinary artist, curator, and academic who works in the fields of electronic arts, film, video, performance and photography. In 2004 together with the Russian artist and film maker Oleg Mavromatti, Rossa establishes UTRAFUTURO–an international group of artists engaged with issues of technology, science and their social implications. In 2012 Rossa has finished her PhD on Post Cold -War Gender Performances. Cross-cultural examination of gender representations viewed through Soviet, Russian and Bulgarian film re-enactments, in the Department of Arts, at Rensselaer, Troy, NY. Since 2012 she has been a founding member and co-director with Stanimir Panayotov of Sofia Queer Forum, an event that investigates, with the means of contemporary arts, gender and sexuality. She is currently an Assistant Professor, Art Video and Transmedia Core at the Department of Transmedia, Syracuse University.
[FeminEasts] Queer Podcasting from Around the Blocs, is part of the platform FeminEasts within LeftEast, curated by Alexandra Ghit and Mariya Ivancheva. The aim of this podcast series is to open a decolonial queer space for discussion of feminist topics related, but not limited to Eastern Europe. This episode was (minimally) edited by Alexandra Ghit.
Boryana Rossa “Come to America! Get Rich!” 2017.
Photo performance together with Selma Selman. Photographer: Oleg Mavromatti
