A performance work consisting of the artist pickling both her valid passports (Bulgarian and British) in water, vinegar, salt, passports, dill, pepper (white, green, red). Their reservation and destruction freed them of their legal function, allowing them to embody all they symbolise and hold, frozen in their current state within an ever-changing time. The work questions the legal ownership of governmental ID and intelectual property throuh the illegal action of damaging a passport in order to create an artpiece.
Nenova received a nomination for the BAZA Award for Contemporary Art 2024, and produced this work for the group exhibition of nominees at Sofia City Art Gallery. The exhibition text:
Passports embody the intersection of the personal and economic (in)abilities to gain citizenship and rights according to a bureaucratic identity.
After years of living as a foreigner, acquiring dual citizenship deepened my sense of foreignness at home. It intensified my guilt around emigrating, freed my mind of many concerns,and reconnected me to my traditions.
My passports contradict each other regarding who I am and, thus, my rights. One is owned by the British Crown, and the other by the Republic of Bulgaria. They embody heavy feelings, bureaucratic contradictions, and my father’s efforts.
Their preservation frees them of their legal function and allows them to exist as artwork (my own property), raising questions about migration and rights in an increasingly nationalist world.
If you like this work, check out the pickling recipe.