Krasimira Butseva is a visual artist and researcher based between London, UK, and Sofia, Bulgaria. In her practice, Krasimira engages with ideas around trauma, exploring the dynamics of remembering & forgetting, carrying & caring for memory. She creates moving-image, photographic and sound work, and multimedia installations in an attempt to visualise traumatic experiences, memory of spaces/landscapes, unofficial archives & silent/silenced narratives. Her works are part of both gallery spaces and academic journals.
Krasimira is a Senior Lecturer at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. In 2024, Krasimira, alongside her collaborators Julian Chehirian & Lilia Topouzova, was selected to represent Bulgaria at the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale. In 2022, she received the BAZA Award for Contemporary Art (YVAA), and in 2021 she was awarded an artist fellowship at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany. Krasimira is also one of the co-founders of Revolv Collective, a former editor and contributor to EEP Berlin, and curator of the History in Between digital archive and programme.
Get in touch: kbutseva@gmail.com
www.instagram.com/krasimirabutseva
Education
Activist cinema & Militant film - Short Course - University College London, UK - 2022
MA Photography - University of Portsmouth, UK - Distinction - 2016 - 2017
BA (Hons) Photography - University of Portsmouth, UK - First Class Honours - 2013 - 2016
Professional Appointments
Senior Lecturer in Photography - BA Photography, Media School, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London - 2022 - present
Curator of the “History in Between” Archive - 2021 - present
Associate Lecturer - BA Photography, Media School, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London - 2019 - 2022
Part-Time Lecturer - University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth - 2021 – 2022
Associate Lecturer - University for the Creative Arts, Farnham - 2020 – 2021
Visiting Lecturer - London College of Communication, University of the Arts London - 2018 - 2019
Editor of EEP Magazine - 2019 - 2022
Co-Founder of Revolv Collective - 2017 - present
Residencies, Fellowships & Awards
Heritage Toronto Awards People’s Choice Award - Toronto, Canada, 2024
Residency Unlimited – New York, USA, YVA, 2024
BAZA Award for Contemporary Art – 2022
Bulgarian Fund for Women Grant “State of Emergency”- 2022
Artist Fellowship - Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany - 2021 – 2022
National Fund for Culture - Collectives Grant - 2021
a-n: time space money bursary - 2021
Lifeboat Arquest Artist Residency, London – 2018
Temporary Home Residency, London - 2018
Live Art Local Residency, Gosport - 2018
Santander Mobility Award - 2017
Nominated for Platform Award - 2016
Heritage Toronto Awards People’s Choice Award - Toronto, Canada, 2024
Residency Unlimited – New York, USA, YVA, 2024
BAZA Award for Contemporary Art – 2022
Bulgarian Fund for Women Grant “State of Emergency”- 2022
Artist Fellowship - Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany - 2021 – 2022
National Fund for Culture - Collectives Grant - 2021
a-n: time space money bursary - 2021
Lifeboat Arquest Artist Residency, London – 2018
Temporary Home Residency, London - 2018
Live Art Local Residency, Gosport - 2018
Santander Mobility Award - 2017
Nominated for Platform Award - 2016
Solo Exhibitions
A Cartography of Absences, Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2025
The Neighbours, the Bulgarian Pavilion at the 60th Venice Art Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2024
Did you think you would come back?, Goethe Institute Bulgaria, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2024
The Neighbours: Forms of Trauma (1945-1989) at MUNK school, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, 2023
The Neighbours: Forms of Trauma (1945-1989) at studio Benkovski 40, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2022
The Neighbours: Forms of Trauma (1945-1989) at Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2022
Are we communists?, Gara Art space, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2022
Frequencies of Trauma at Structura Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2022
The shimmer of a possibility at ko-op art space, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2023
History is in the present, Zahariev-Singer Foundation, Malak Izvor, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2021
Balkan Mine, EEP Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 2019
Group exhibitions
Standing voices, Toplocentrala, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2025
Acqua Alta: a retrospective of Bulgaria’s participation at the Venice Biennale, Kapana City Art Gal-
lery, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 2025
Folklore Sci-fi, audio play commission & public presentation, equipage studio, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2024
Pоrtable museum of rebellious art: ‘W(e) A(re) R(ebellious)’, Structura gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2024
Re-turn, The triangle tower of Serdika, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2023
Needles in a haysack, National Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2023
Beyond All Reason. In the Mirror of Surreal Times. Structura Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2023
Camera Obscura, Voloshyn Gallery, Kiev, Ukraine, 2022
Past not passed, Toplocentrala, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2022
Nominees exhibition BAZA Award for Contemporary Art - Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2022
Orbits - Seen Fifteen Gallery, London, UK, 2022
Frequencies of Trauma - Structura Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2022
The case of Poor Images - ARTGET Gallery, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022
Horizons, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Germany, 2021
Intimacy & Spectacle in the Epoch of Social Media part of Sofia Art Projects - Largo underpass, Inde-
pendence Square, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2021
History in Between - History Museum of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2020
New Beginnings - MERTZ, Berlin, Germany, 2020
Art Start 2020 - Credo Bonum Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2020
F O R M - Seen Fifteen Gallery, London, UK, 2020
Photography & Sculpture - AMP Studios, South Bermondsey Art Trail, London, UK, 2019
Curating cultures of Remembrance, District Six Museum, Cape Town, South Africa, 2019
Intro:spective, Seen Fifteen Gallery, London, UK, 2019
Representation on the Line II: (Un)framing our Identities, RPS, Chelsea, London, 2019
4UZHBINA, Brighton Photo Fringe, Phoenix Gallery, Brighton, UK, 2018
Post memory - Lovech Fine Art gallery, Lovech, Bulgaria, 2018
Transition, PLOVEDIV gallery, part of festival NIGHT, Plovdiv, Bulgaria 2017
Archives as Medium, Four Corners Gallery, London, UK, 2017
Fragments, Sticks Gallery, Gosport, UK, 2017
Ginnel Foto Fest, Ipswich, UK, 2017
Uncertain States/Emergence, Mile End Art Pavilion, London, UK, 2016
Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China, 2016
Showcase / Brighton Photo Fringe, Brighton, UK, 2016
Selected talks, lectures and workshops
Useful Archives: symposium, HfG Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2025
In conversation with Vasil Vladimirov, Aqua Alta exhibition, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 2025
Sad in Venice - group discussion with the Pavilions of Ukraine, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovakia, The
Bulgarian Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2024
Cultivating Change: Unseen Stories of Land, Identity, and Resilience, Brighton Photo Fringe Symposium,
Brighton, United Kingdom, 2024
Remediations of Silence — The Bulgarian Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale talk with Julian Chehirian,
Residency Unlimited, New York, USA, 2024
The Neighbours: process, stories and collective work, talk with Julian Chehirian, Lilia Topouzova, Martin
Atanasov & Lubov Cheresh, Swimming Pool, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2024
The Neighbors: silenced histories of Bulgaria’s state-led violence talk with Julian Chehirian, Cell Project
Space, London, UK, 2024
The Neighbours: Erased Histories, Traumatic Memory and Collective Care talk with Julian Chehirian, Lilia
Topouzova and Vasil Vladimirov, Diffrakt space, Berlin, Germany, 2024
Silent histories, found objects & collective practices talk with Vasil Vladimirov and Julian Chehirian,
BUNA festival, Varna City Art Gallery, Varna, Bulgaria, 2024
The Making of The Neighbours: The Artist Studio as a Transitory Archive or How to Visualize Silenced
Histories? talk with Vasil Vladimirov, Valentin Kalinov, Lilia Topouzova and Vera Beyer Regensburg,
Germany, 2024
The Neighbours from Belene to Venice: Dramaturgy of Memory, panel discussion with Julian Chehirian,
Lilia Topouzova, Vasil Vladimirov, Valentin Kalinov, Daniela Koleva, Venelin Shurelov, Boris Pantev,
Sofia University, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2024
The neighbours of whom we don’t talk about, Sofia Human Rights Forum, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2024
Archives, memory and history in contemporary art, Wide Art Forum, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2024
Artist talk for FUTURES: Learn with Magnum Photos, 2024
The Neighbours talk with Lilia Topouzova and Julian Chehirian, 2023, University of Toronto:
International academic workshop Authoritarianism: Lives, Legacies, Trauma, 2023
On practice of care, book reading at KO-OP Art Space, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2023
A walk with the artists, Artist talk with Julian Chehirian, studio Benkovski, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2022Can art narrate history?, Panel discussion, Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2022
An image with bad quality, Masterclass, Toplocentrala, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2022
Listening in conversation, Listening session, Structura Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2022
Artist talk, BA Photography, Arts University Bournemouth, UK, 2021
Staging Oral History: The Unseeable, the Unheard and the Imagined, 10th World Congress of Central and
Eastern European Studies in Montréal, Montréal, Canada, 2021
Institutional and self-led archiving practices: how does APTART manifest on a screen, (Counter-)Archive:
Memorial Practices of the Soviet Underground, Technische Universitat Dresden, Germany, 2021
Why should we remember?, Summer school workshops, Belene, Bulgaria, 2020
How to forget?, workshop, KO-OP Art Space, Bulgaria, 2020
Articulating a practice, Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, 2020
Truth, Reality and Imagination Interpretations from Eastern and Central Europe, Conference at UCL,
London, UK, 2020
A living memorial, panel discussion part of Forms of Ground symposium, Seen Fifteen Gallery,
London, UK, 2020
Identity, Panel discussion with Rashida Mangera and Maryam Wahid, Espacio Gallery, London, UK
Trauma & ritual, Reading group, EEP Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 2019
Remembering whilst forgetting, Artist talk, EEP Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Why should we remember? Summer school workshops with Julian Chehirian, Belene, Bulgaria, 2019
ARTGET Gallery, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022
Horizons, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Germany, 2021
Intimacy & Spectacle in the Epoch of Social Media part of Sofia Art Projects - Largo underpass, Inde-
pendence Square, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2021
History in Between - History Museum of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2020
New Begginings - MERTZ, Berlin, Germany, 2020
Art Start 2020 - Credo Bonum Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2020
F O R M - Seen Fifteen Gallery, London, UK, 2020
Photography & Sculpture - AMP Studios, South Bermondsey Art Trail, London, UK, 2019
Curating cultures of Remembrance, District Six Museum, Cape Town, South Africa, 2019
Intro:spective, Seen Fifteen Gallery, London, UK, 2019
Representation on the Line II: (Un)framing our Identities, RPS, Chelsea, London, 2019
4UZHBINA, Brighton Photo Fringe, Phoenix Gallery, Brighton, UK, 2018
Post memory - Lovech Fine Art gallery, Lovech, Bulgaria, 2018
Transition, PLOVEDIV gallery, Plovdiv, part of festival NIGHT, Bulgaria 2017
Archives as Medium, Four Corners Gallery, London, UK, 2017
Fragments, Sticks Gallery, Gosport, UK, 2017
Ginnel Foto Fest, Ipswitch, UK, 2017
Uncertain States/Emergence, Mile End Art Pavilion, London, UK, 2016Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China, 2016
Showcase / Brighton Photo Fringe, Brighton, UK, 2016
Bohemian, Pop-up show, Portsmouth, 2016
Platform, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, UK, 2016
Selected press & interviews
Cartography of Absence. Meeting with the author (in Bulgarian) / 2025
Kari’s Calling #102 Krasimira Butseva / Contemporary Art (in Bulgarian) / 2025
The exhibition as a note of remembrance / review by Hristo Kaloyanov (in Bulgarian) / 2025
CBC radio: Voices of silenced history: inside Bulgaria’s Gulag, 2025
Third Text: Strangers Everywhere or Apocalypse is Always Now: Notes from the 60th Venice Biennial,
2025
The Guardian/ The Observer: Armed guards, reparations and the lives of others: Venice Biennale 2024
European Review of Books (issue 6): Interjections: non words for the remembered & unremembered violence of Bulgarian labour camps, 2024
NO-NIIN magazine (issue 27): Bulgarian Pavillion’s The Neighbours: Briding the Memory Archipelago of the Bulgarian Communist Past, 2024
Recessed.space: Venice 2024: Bulgaria & Serbia both create scenography to explore political histories, 2024
Kitchen Conversations: Podcast episode with The Neighbours, 2024
Financial Times: Beyond the Giardini and the Arsenale: five Venice Biennale shows across the city to catch now,2024
Sverige Radio: Kommunismens terror i Bulgariens paviljong på Venedigbiennalen, 2024
Apollo Magazine: Must-See Pavillions at the Venice Biennale, 2024
Artforum: Venice Diaries: Friends and Enemies, 2024
The Guardian: DIY spaces of remembrance: Artist’s tribute to Bulgaria’s gulag prisoners, 2024
The Neighbours – A Project on Survival, Silence, and the Consequences of a Regime, BTV television interview, 2024 (in Bulgarian)
The Greatest Discovery: How the Bulgarian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale Sparked a Strong International Resonance, Free Europe, 2024 (in Bulgarian)
From Closed Doors to the Venice Biennale: Krasimira, Julian and Lilia, Fighting Against Forgetting, Free Europe, 2024 (in Bulgarian)
When you left, did you think you would come back? interview on Bulgarian National Radio (in Bulgarian), 2024
Trauma, as a focus in the exhibition The shimmer of a possibility, Bulgarian National Radio interview (in Bulgarian), 2023
Open Arts Files
Our good neighbours / review by Valentin Kalinov (in Bulgarian), 2022
Journal for Social Vision / The dramaturgy of memory, interview (in English), 2022
Kultura.BG / review of “The neighbours: forms of trauma” (in Bulgarian), 2022
Bulgarian National Radio Hristo Botev / Power through the prism of philosophy, law and the arts, talk show (in Bulgarian), 2022
Free Europe / Can violence be narrated?, article (in Bulgarian), 2022
VIJ! magazine / a different reading of the communist past, an interview (in English), 2022
Kapital / Carriers of memory: the artists who narrate memory, article (in Bulgarian), 2022
Bulgarian National Television / the neighbours at SGHG broadcast (in Bulgarian), 2022
Bulgarian National Radio Horizont / the visible and invisible trauma (in Bulgarian), 2022
Kapital / The file of Krasimira Butseva, interview (in Bulgarian) / 2022
Kitchen conversations / podcast (in English), 2021
Balkan Stories/ Krasimira and the Gulags of Bulgaria (in German), 2019
Kultura / Post-memory, article (in Bulgarian), 2018
Kapital / Unhappy sots, article (in Bulgarian), 2017