On the 9^th of October, in the stunning art gallery "Stubel" at 2 Kosta Lulchev Str. in Sofia, the exhibition "Freedom, Sancho" was opened.

After many years of absence from Bulgaria, the artist Viara Pancheva, who currently lives and works in Paris, showed us her own works; works that conquer with their sincerity and emotionality. There is a soul in them, and therefore sadness, and joy, and a confused expectation, and a pitiful groan, in one word - everything. Here's what the artist says about her works:

"Attempts on the road. Paper helps me create my own world, the border of dreams and reality, fantasy and utopia; a world in which symbols, colours, and molecules interweave and overlap. I'm at the beginning of the road... and I'm looking for the MEANING.

 Paper is a material in continuous evolution. We can fold, smear, crush, tear, smear, weave it, colour it or whiten it. Dense or transparent, it can be a foundation or a package... In it there is history, truth, poetry. Freedom.

When falling, the torn-off papers fly out. When all threads, staples, print dots, hard and soft covers disappear, everything that keeps us bound and connected - we then remain ourselves. Free to fall and fly at the same time. The way we simply are, without ready answers, just seeking.

In my work I try to break away from the academic drawing to reach a more spontaneous and emotional expression in which the feelings are shades and the words are circles, lines, triangles. In search of my truth, I learn from primitive art, which is close to me as a feeling with its naivety and sincerity.

Colours, lights, shadows ... A stretched sheet of paper, cut out silhouettes ... That's enough to feel the magic. "

Viara Pancheva was born in 1959 in Sofia. From the 4^th to the 7^th grade she studied in a French language school in Tunisia where her parents worked. Her secondary education continued at the Ceramics School in Sofia. She graduated from the National Academy of Arts "Nikolay Pavlovich" in the course of Prof. Marin Varbanov. She has taught painting and textile at the school at the Embassy of France in Bulgaria and at the Art Academy in Sfax, Tunisia.

She works in the field of textiles, painting, and more and more she is now turning towards paper from which she makes collages and voluminous woven sculptures.

Since 2009 she has lived and worked in Paris. She is a member of the Union of Bulgarian Artists and of the Union of French Artists. She has participated in numerous general and solo exhibitions.

Her exhibition "Freedom, Sancho" can be seen in the “Stuble” Gallery until the 26^th of October.

Find more about the artist at: www.azvera.com

Photos: "Diplomatic Spectrum" and personal archive of Viara Pancheva