“Every new conquest of human knowledge extends the mystery, making people more intrigued by the occult. It is not true that science diminishes the possibilities of poetry. Science, with its discoveries, enhances the possibilities of poetry precisely because it extends, deepens, and intensifies the mystery. As we know more, we understand less.” – Giuseppe Ungaretti, RAI interview, 1961
A plus A Gallery is pleased to announce the solo exhibition of Anastasiya Parvanova (1990, Burgas, Bulgaria). “Sidereal Messenger” presents itself as a dream of humanity about life and nature, where concepts and visions of astrophysics and astrobiology project into painting. The title refers to Galileo Galilei’s famous treatise “Sidereus Nuncius,” where he first described his concrete discoveries made with a telescope he built. The exhibition is a liminal space between dream and awakening, awakening and falling asleep. It is a bedtime prayer of awareness, a morning breeze of knowledge before us – a portal for the arrival of the new.
Poetry and painting unveil the Parvanova‘s world, exploring the inner spaces of the mind and the universe. The privilege and responsibility of being human are to know the world and bear witness with great care to what is observed. By revealing the secrets of what we are and what the world can be, the image we derive can change, altering our way of thinking.
Throughout history, with thought, we have slowly changed the grammar of the world. Through trial and error, constantly exploring and questioning ourselves, we have adapted the internal image of the world. While science teaches us to accept relative uncertainty in the journey of knowledge, established truths are often not questioned enough. We desire an absolute foundation, but it is our insurmountable distance from it that sharpens our willingness to change with new observations.
There is something greater than us, and we are intertwined with it. In painting and science, we explore this connection of ourselves with everything. Exploring discoveries or theories related to physics – our scientific way of understanding nature – we find an infinite wealth of knowledge to travel through. Being a traveler of the mind helps us understand who we are and what we can be. It’s a continuous redrawing of the world, starting from the past. We are constantly searching for an image of the world that works better than before. What is matter, and is there something beyond it? Can we see it? See it through science? See it through art?
Anastasiya Parvanova (1990, Burgas, Bulgaria) lives and works between Venice and Sofia. After earning a degree in Visual Arts and Pedagogy from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia, she continued her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, graduating in Visual Arts and Performing Arts in 2022. Since 2016, she has been part of artistic collectives such as Fondazione Malutta and Tutti la Chiamano la Casa delle Ragazze. Recent solo exhibitions include “Fili ife e grifi” curated by Treti Galaxie (EATALY ART HOUSE, Verona) and “The Magic Gate” at W.H.Y. Gallery, Hong Kong. Her work has been exhibited in Italy and abroad. “Sidereal Messenger” is the artist’s second solo exhibition in Italy.
