Shame and Guilt presents new work of art of five young artists: Maria Nalbantova, Martin Penev, Martina Vacheva, Nevena Ekimova, Radostin Sedevchev, which are created especially for the exhibition in Vaska Emanuilova Gallery. This is the second part of a trilogy by the curator Galina Dimitrova-Dimova (Fear and Love, 2023 and Care and Healing, 2025) that examines modern understandings and reflections on these primal human feelings and relationships. Shame and Guilt shows the point of view on the topic by the five invited artists, each of whom has taken a pronounced critical attitude and individual approach to creating an artwork. The interest in the topic of shame and guilt comes from the current moment in Bulgarian society which is torn between stereotypes and patterns of behaviour that reflect the untold stories and traumas of socialism and the transition in the country. The project explores shame as a moral corrective and the guilt inherited from previous generations. A personal sense of shame that usually derives from norms of behaviour imposed by society and at the same time reveals the emotional legacy borne by each successive generation. In this context, the show is loaded with the many problems accumulated as a result of the difficult transition from socialism, and the deep political crisis and division in society based on attitudes towards the legacy of socialism.
The Foundation is supporting the presentation of the exhibition in Berlin.
