Albena Baeva's 'When I Dream I Fly, I Swim' at BUNA 04 in Varna

Albena Baeva's video work 'When I Dream I Fly, I Swim' will be shown at Forum for Contemporary Art BUNA 04 from 2 to 31 October 2026, through a partnership between Gallery Gallery and BUNA. The venue is at Preslav 23, Varna. The piece depicts a fully clothed woman swimming through the air above the audience in a straight line, repeatedly. Her attire implies she did not choose to enter the water but was caught in it, and her position above viewers directly references rising sea levels and a climate-changed world. Viewers access the artwork by scanning a QR code attached to a yellow plastic cat house, a type of shelter communities use for stray cats. By linking the swimmer to animal shelter, the work suggests survival depends on radical cross-species empathy. The installation recalls Baeva's earlier 'Flag,' which featured two car tyre swings before a wall-size projection of a yellow lifebuoy swaying on an ocean with a white flag. Both works use contemplative imagery to evoke a post-apocalyptic world without fear, instead creating spaces for reflection. The swimmer's calm, regular motion conveys determination and resilience, while the cat shelter points to grassroots urban resistance built through empathy.