BUNA No. 3 2025

From September 3 to 8, the third edition of BUNA – Forum for Contemporary Visual Art will take place in Varna, Bulgaria.

Launched in 2023, BUNA has quickly become the largest platform for contemporary art in Bulgaria, bringing together over 150 artists from Bulgaria and around the world. Every year this artistic content transforms the seaside capital through over 50 events – exhibitions, urban interventions, performances, discussions, and unconventional actions.

This year, BUNA is held under the patronage of H.E. Joël Meyer, Ambassador of France to Bulgaria, and in close collaboration with the French Institute.

From the heart of the European scene – France – BUNA 3 also outlines another trajectory important to the contemporary visual art scene in Bulgaria: the Balkans. The complex histories of the region, many of them shared, shape the Balkans as a field for a dynamically emerging art scene, marked by its own characteristics and contexts.

During the third edition of BUNA, the new Balkan Contemporary Art Prize will have its premiere – an initiative of the Singer-Zahariev Foundation. The art foundation has supported and funded Bulgarian contemporary art for five years and stands as an inspiring example of philanthropy and private sector engagement with the issues of society and art.

https://bunavarna.com/en/artists/

 

Slavica Janešlieva (MK) - Imigrant, Emigrant or Maybe I; Monument Dedicated to the End of The 20th and Beginning of 21st Century (with two unintentional human errors)

The two artworks presented at BUNA Festival are part of Slavica Janešlieva’s solo exhibition State of Things (2016). The show explores questions without clear answers and solutions that don’t always solve problems. Memories — elusive, fragmented, and subjective — serve as a medium for personal stories that resonate with collective experience. In Immigrant, Emigrant or Maybe I, a sugar-coated “Europe” hides 2,700 sharp screws and 13 kg of candy, a metaphor for migration dreams and harsh realities, global and local. Monument… questions what we commemorate, inviting reflection on values, priorities, and the legacies shaping our present.

Slavica Janešlieva is a visual artist known for her distinctive multimedia and intermedial expression, blending personal archives, domestic narratives, and intimate microcosms with broader socio-political, historical, and philosophical themes. Trained in printmaking, her work spans original prints, objects, installations, drawing, photography, video, and book art. She has presented 30 solo and over 300 group exhibitions worldwide, earning numerous national and international awards. Her works are in prestigious collections in North Macedonia, the USA, and Finland. In 2024, she represented North Macedonia at the 60th Venice Art Biennale. She lives in Skopje and is a Professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts.