Zornitsa Stoyanova Explores Immigration and Materiality in Performance at Sofia's Etud and Friends Festival

At the 2019 Etud and Friends festival held in Sofia, Bulgaria, performance artist Zornitsa Stoyanova showcased her piece titled Un-seen. This work employs Mylar as a symbol for Western society, drawing connections between its application in space missions and US border detention facilities. Under the name Here[begin] Dance, Stoyanova crafted a large balloon using twenty-four emergency blankets. The performance included a narration in a British accent discussing Mylar's various uses, interspersed with recordings of children separated at the US-Mexico border and the Soviet-era tune "Trololo." In an August 2019 interview in Berlin, she reflected on her transnational life and the theme of immigrant identity. Her film Elsewhere explores evolving identities and places.