Her first retrospective will open at the National Gallery of Fine Arts – a very personal and powerful emotional return to her home after many years in Germany and France.
She is fragile, delicate. Beautifully distant, her beauty keeps you at a distance. She is moved by the invisible, the world of thoughts and feelings, the matter of the soul. Oda Jaune was born in Sofia in 1979, but has lived and worked in Paris since 2008. She graduated from the National School of Fine Arts in Sofia, and joined the class of Jörg Imendorf at the world-famous Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf at age eighteen. She is a recipient of the Pierre Cardin Award. Her works can be found in museum and private collections around the world. On November 22, her first retrospective will open at the National Gallery of Fine Arts – a very personal and powerful emotional return to her home after many years in Germany and France. The documentary Who is Oda Jaune? will premiere as part of Heartland on December 1. Two months before Oda's grand return to Bulgaria, the artist brought her traveling sculpture The Embrace to Varvara. Inspired by Michelangelo's Pietà, and having undergone the numerous transformations of love, The Embracegreeted its audience on September 1, on a beautiful cliff over Varvara, in the heart of the sea. The sculpture's journey continued to five locations chosen by Oda Jaune and project curator Christina Bobokova, and it will finish its odyssey in the gardens of Vrana Park, where the public can see it in mid-December.
photographer: Darii Danovski
WHAT IS HEARTLAND?
For the first time ever, my work will be shown in the country where I was born and raised, and this makes the exhibition very special for me. I had a happy childhood in Bulgaria, my roots are very dear to me, I carry them with me wherever I go. The exhibition is designed as a retrospective and will show works from a period of almost twenty years, which have been collected from different corners of Europe. Many of them come from private and museum collections and have never been shown together.
YOU HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THIS EXHIBITION FOR MONTHS WITH CURATOR NADEZHDA DZHAKOVA. WHAT WAS HER ROLE?
For a long time now, she has wanted to show my art in Bulgaria. She has been following my development, and this gives depth to her perspective and sense of my art. We only met in person very recently and I was very happy to find in her an extremely precise curator with world-class vision and expertise.
YOU WORK WITH ONE OF THE BEST GALLERIES IN PARIS, GALERIE DANIEL TEMPLON, WHERE YOU ARE PART OF AN EXCEPTIONAL GROUP OF ARTISTS REPRESENTED BY ONE OF THE LEGENDS IN THE FRENCH ART MARKET. HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE IN SUCH A COMPANY?
I am very fortunate to be working with Templon Gallery for ten years now, and to be part of their fifty-year history, which is really inspiring. When I started showing my work in the gallery, I was only the second woman painter to work with them. Before this, the only other woman to exhibit there was the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, whom I adore. And now there are four! Things will keep changing in that direction. It's just a matter of time and a lot of work.
WHAT IS THE PATH FROM AN IDEA TO THE BIRTH OF АPAINTING?
I don't have working hours, my thoughts and ideas take no time off, nor do they observe any rules. They are born in the space between the real and the unreal, between the external and the internal. In order to materialize that which I make within myself, I need time, good light, paints and canvas. That is all.
IN MANY OF YOUR PAINTINGS, ONE CAN SENSE THE ENIGMA AND BEAUTY THAT ACCOMPANY A BIRTH, BUT ALSO ITS VIOLENCE AND STRAIN. WHAT CAUSES THIS CONTRADICTION?
As Bertolt Brecht puts it, "in the contradiction lies the hope." We are here now, this is our time – the question is, what are we doing? I am interested not in what we see, but in the invisible. Not words, but thoughts. What we feel, but not the body, but the soul. What is its material? What color? What shape?
ARTISTS COMMUNICATE WITH THEIR AUDIENCE AT THE SUBCONSCIOUS LEVEL. HOW DO YOU FIND HARMONY IN THIS DIALOGUE?
It is a language without a grammar, and there are words in it that don't exist in any other language. You can express things that cannot be said in any other way. It's my favorite language.
CAN YOU ANSWER THE QUESTION WHO IS ODA JAUNE?
No, because I don't care. But it looks like people who have seen my work are interested. This is the question asked by Camilla Pfeffer (she's a student at the film academy, a future director). It took her a year to convince me to make the documentary, which was a great success when it screened at the Berlinale. I like people who do not give up easily, and possess the strength and willpower to fight for their ideas. Camilla made this film and brought it to Germany, and the audience there greeted it in a euphoric and inspiring manner.
YOU SPEAK MANY DIFFERENT VISUAL LANGUAGES - SCULPTURE, PAINTING, FILM, TRAVELING SCULPTURE. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SAY IN THEM?
It is impossible to answer using words. I paint and make sculptures. You can find the answer there I guarantee that it will be different for each person.
Jaune fleurs, 2015
The retrospective Heartland opens on November 22 at the National Art Gallery.
You can watch the documentary Who is Oda Jaune on December 1.
The Brazilian artist with Bulgarian roots – on memory, urban spaces, and his upcoming exhibition in Sofia
Vienna-based artist Paul Riedmueller is a first-time guest at the FIG. Illustration and Graphic Arts Festival with his solo exhibition “As You Wish“
The skilled observer who tells stories in the most universal language – the visual one
