Sevda Semer

Sevda Semer is a Bulgarian contemporary artist. She lives in Copenhagen.

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It took me 10 years of my practice to understand what my main medium is, which is apt - because it is time. Nearly all my projects start from a particular topic, and I choose a time frame in which to consider it. From there, I can work with a variety of media such as books, textile, audio, but the main material is always time - for different projects I’ve worked every day for a month, a year, four or five years. I’m further interested in memory and subjective experience. Almost like the rings of a tree or the sediments of geology, our experience is never simply our own, it’s always a composition informed by outside forces. In this sense, I also work with questions of identity and power, and the political and spiritual body.

Selected solo exhibitions

2023 Pages of a diary, Charta Gallery
2021 Two forces that create one another, curated by Irina Batkova, +359 Gallery, Sofia
2019 Figures - Part II, curated by Daniela Radeva, Contemporary Space Gallery, Varna
2019 Figures - Part I, curated by Daniela Radeva, Credo Bonum Gallery, Sofia
2018 The Things That Didn’t Happen, curated by Stefka Tsaneva, Ö space, Sofia
2018 One perfect day, +359 Gallery, Sofia
2017 Recent Paintings, Gallery 2.0, Sofia
2014 Wide Cube performance, 0GMS Gallery, Sofia

Selected group exhibitions

2022 It’s showtime, curated by Marcus Graf on the event of Istanbul Contemporary
2021 Moving images, moving bodies, curated by Ludwig Seyfarth, Goethe Institut Sofia
2021 Let them draw III, curated by Pravdoliub Ivanov and Vesselina Sarieva, Sariev Gallery, Plovdiv
2020 ABYSSAL, curated by Mitko Mitkov, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof
2020 Art without/with the times?, curated by Daniela Radeva and Luchezar Boyadjiev, Sofia city art gallery
2019 Good mirrors are not cheap, curated by Chiara Cartuccia, Goethe Institut
2019 BAZA Award for contemporary art nominees exhibition, curated by Daniela Radeva, Sofia city art gallery
2019 Periods, curatorial project & group exhibition by Ivan Mudov, Institute for contemporary art, Sofia
2018 Alter me Alter you, curated by by Clelia Coussonet, Goethe Institut, Sofia
2017 Domus Aurea, participating artist at Voin de Voin’s performance, Aether, Sofia
2017 Art start, group exhibition, curated by Vesela Nozharova, Stefka Tsaneva, Daniela Radeva, Goethe Institut, Sofia
2014 Art Book Fair, Vancouver
2014 Public Address, group exhibition, curated by My Name is Scot and Leannej, Red house for culture and debate, Sofia

Selected residencies, internships, projects in non-traditional spaces

2024 Zar pop-up, Copenhagen - series of drawings and installation
2018 Ö space project by Stefka Tsaneva, Sofia - installation and shared studio space
2016/17 Print Internship, Hato Press, London - riso internship, printing own book at the end