The exhibition Care and Healing is the final part of the trilogy curated by Galina Dimitrova (Fear and Love and Shame and Guilt, 2024) that examines contemporary understandings and reflections on these primal human feelings and relationships. In it we direct our gaze to women, with whom we mainly connect care for children, the family, and other people in need. Women carry the stigma of patriarchy to be the main bearer of this care, but do we ask ourselves what this dedication brings her? The project draws attention to the fact that women also need care in order to be complete and effective people—for themselves and for their community.

Healing is the other position in which a woman has a major active role, as a healer herself or in helping her loved ones who have been afflicted with illness or trauma. In this case, we turn our attention to how to heal women from what weighs on them and prevents them from being happy and fulfilled.

The exhibition features six artists from different countries and cultural contexts: Boryana Ventsislavova (Bulgaria/Austria), Virginia Zaharieva (Bulgaria), Eva Teneva-Zaykoff (Bulgaria), Petya Ivanova (Bulgaria/Germany), Rachel Labastie (France/Belgium), and Selma Selman (Bosnia and Herzegovina). The first three have created a new work for the exhibition, while the others are participating with a finished work that expresses an aspect of the care and healing relationship.

Boryana Ventsislavova is participating with a new video in which she presents rituals for liberation from patriarchal and cultural restrictions, including forms of segregation, discrimination, and homophobia. Virginia Zaharieva’s video art work deals with the transformative power of death towards liberation and self-love. The exhibition also includes her manifesto poem on the topic. Eva Teneva’s installation pays tribute to the women in her family tree who serve as examples for her in the “care of the spirit” that is passed down through the generations. Petya Ivanova presents three “emo-exo” bodies and a poem, which explore healing as a metaphor and material practice for liberation, transition, and redefinition. Rachel Labastie’s sculptural installation explores the tension between attachment and limitation, power and fragility. Selma Selman’s project presents a child’s care for a parent and overcoming the limitations imposed by a particular ethnic and cultural community.

 Care and Healing is part of the special program of the Vaska Emanouilova Gallery, dedicated to the 120^th anniversary of the sculptor’s birth.

The exhibition was made possible with the kind support of the Singer-Zahariev Foundation.