YANA MILEV / works


Me Myself & I - Release your true Image



Frida meets Dr. Tina Alexander

Yana Milev Yana Milev Yana Milev Yana Milev
 
title: Frida meets Dr. Tina Alexander vol.1 (1-4)
block: Me Myself & I - Release your true Image
2006
lambda on aludibond behind 2mm acrylic-glass
170x120 cm each


Yana Milev
title: Frida meets Dr. Tina Alexander vol.2
block: Me Myself & I - Release your true Image

2006
lambda on aludibond behind 2mm acrylic-glass
120x170 cm


Yana Milev
title: Frida meets Dr. Tina Alexander vol.3
block: Me Myself & I - Release your true Image

2006
lambda on aludibond behind 2mm acrylic-glass
170x120 cm


References:

Painting by Frida Kahlo
Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo, “Frida”, Film by Julie Taymor, 2003

The whole body of works entitled “Me Myself and I” is dedicated to the subject of constructions of the “I”. Yana Milev is interested in the experience of facets of the “I”, which are activated by meetings with other figures (from film and media). In this, the question always remains open who or what the “I” really is and according to which patterns it actually operates. This topic touches several debates about “identity” and the “free will”. In the series figures meet who would usually never encounter each other. - In the pictures of Yana Milev, the idea of the historical Frida meets Dr. Tina Alexander, a doctor of plastic surgery. At Frida's feet there is a gallery of breast implants and medical instruments. The Diego-puppet stands as a symbol of Frida's symbiosis with Diego Rivera, as well as for her accident trauma, which becomes clear in many of her paintings and drawings. The result in the sequences of pictures is actually a grotesque. For neither the breast implants of plastic surgery, nor the options of reproductive medicine can really help Frida Kahlo, whom this serious accident left paralyzed. Both figures are involved in a slightly helpless conversation, marked by minimal gestures, in search of a wonder.

Realization:
idea, production, director, accouterment: Yana Milev
performance: Yana Milev, Tina Alexander
Make up & Hair Styling: Christa Raqué
photos by Philipp Beckert

Trinity meets The Bride
 

Yana Milev Yana Milev Yana Milev Yana Milev Yana Milev
 
title: Trinity meets The Bride vol.1 (1-5)
block: Me Myself & I - Release your true Image
2006
lamda on Aludibond behind 2 mm acryl-glass
170x120 cm each


Yana Milev
title: Trinity meets The Bride vol.2
block: Me Myself & I - Release your true Image

2006
lamda on aludibond behind 2 mm acryl-glass
170x120 cm


Yana Milev
title: Trinity meets The Bride vol.3
block: Me Myself & I - Release your true Image

2006
lamda on aludibond behind 2 mm acryl-glass
170x120 cm


References:

Anne-Carie Moss as Trinity in “The Matrix”
Uma Thurman as The Bride in “Kill Bill”

The whole body of works “Me, Myself and I” is dedicated to the topic of constructions of the “I”. Yana Milev is interested in the experience of facets of the “I”, which are activated by meetings with other figures (from film and media). In this, the question always remains open, who or what the “I” really is and according to which patterns it actually operates. This topic touches several debates about “identity” and the “free will”. In the series, figures meet, who would usually never encounter each other. - In the picture, the imitated film figure “Trinity” from The Matrix encounters the imitated film figure “The Bride” from Kill Bill. Both fight against imaginary enemies and finally, in the central picture, against themselves. Therewith, two figures from the storybooks of two different films are set on each other. On the other hand, those figures also present something, which every woman would like to possess. A role play for adults and not without humour. Never tease a woman!

Realization:
idea, production, director, accouterment: Yana Milev
performance: Yana Milev, Tina Alexander
Make up & Hair Styling: Christa Raqué
photos by Philipp Beckert

The Storytellers Return

 
romantica
 

Yana Milev Yana Milev Yana Milev Yana Milev
 
title: romantica vol.1 (1-4)
block: the storytellers return
2005
lamda on aludibond behind 2 mm acrylic-glass
170x120 cm each


Yana Milev
title: romantica vol.2 (1-2)
block: the storytellers return

2005
lamda on aludibond behind 2 mm acryl-glass
170x120 cm each


Yana Milev
title: romantica vol.4
block: the storytellers return

2005
lamda on aludibond behind 2 mm acryl-glass
170x120 cm


References:

Caspar David Friedrich, Winterreise, 1831
“BURST” (dance movie). Director: Reynir Lyngdal. Choreography: Katrin Hall. ©2003

In the series “romantica”, historic and contemporary quotations of the Romantic period are used in a new story. The historic quotations here are based on a place stylized by Caspar David Friedrich into Romanticism. Through his paintings “Winterreise” and “Ruinen in der Abenddämmerung”, the cloister Altzella became an icon of Romantic picture conception. The contemporary quotations of the Romantic here are depiced in the form of alpinism as icon of the modern preparedness to take high risks and the yearning for new levels of experience on the one hand, as well as the escapism towards glamour on the other. The latter is visualized by the golden party dress from California, a symbol of Hollywood and star-cult, money and fame. With its risky acrobatics at the wall of the cloister, the performance symbolises the attempt of two people driven by diverse projections to come together. Likewise in the sense of the Romantic conception of love, love here results in a dramatic fall from the peaks of illusions and hangs itself, so to speak, in an ecstasy of the beautiful death.

Realization:
idea, production, director, accouterment: Yana Milev
performance: Yana Milev, Sebastian Isinig
dress: Golden 70th West-Coast Barbecue-Sampler
shoes: NAVYBOOT
equipment: Mammut (belt), Petzl (nylon rope)
location: cloisterremains Altzella
photos by Philipp Beckert

cella
 

Yana Milev  
title: cella vol.1 (1-4)
block: the storytellers return
2005
lamda on aludibond behind 2 mm acryl-glass
80x100 cm each


Yana Milev
title: cella vol.3
block: the storytellers return

2005
lamda on aludibond behind 2 mm acryl-glass
120x170 cm


Yana Milev
title: cella vol.4
block: the storytellers return

2005
lamda on aludibond behind 2 mm acryl-glass
120x170 cm


Yana Milev
title: cella vol.5
block: the storytellers return

2005
lamda on aludibond behind 2 mm acryl-glass
170x120 cm


References:

Kazuo Ohno, Butoh
Drawing by Caspar David Friedrich

The series “cella” presents new conjunctions of historic and modern quotations of the Romantic period. At the basement vaults of the cloister Altzella, also a place of the Romanctic gaze thanks to the hand of C.D. Friedrich, existential orientations of isolation and emotional torpor meet in the hospitalistic style of Butoh (Japanese free dance of the 1950s). The low vaults of the humid and dark basement force the bodies into a crooked position. The armaments remind of the preceding performances of Yana Milev, of the “body dwellings”. In this case, however, the armaments and straps do not stabilise, but they encumber. In suspended minimal movements the bodies do not get on. Maltreated by protheses, the bodies remain captured in themselves and the room.

Realization:
idea, production, director, accouterment: Yana Milev
performance: Yana Milev, Sebastian Isinig
location: basement vault, cloister Altzella
photos by Philipp Beckert

body dwellings

Hüft Rüsten
 

Yana Milev  
title: Hüft Rüsten vol.1
block: body dwellings
2003
lambda on aludibond behind 2mm acrylic-glass
120x170 cm


Yana Milev
title: Hüft Rüsten vol.2 (1-2)
block: body dwellings

2003
lamda on aludibond behind 2 mm acryl-glass
80x100 cm each


Yana Milev
title: Hüft Rüsten vol.3
block: body dwellings

2003
lamda on aludibond behind 2 mm acryl-glass
120x170 cm


References:

Oskar Schlemmer, “Stäbetanz”, Manda v. Kreibig. Bauhausbühne 1928.
Yana Milev, “body dwelling - prototype”, 1987

In the performance block “body dwellings”, communicative acts are extended and expanded with the help of architectural interventions. An elongation of the body axes or the axial extremeties around their points of rotation and joints with strips of wood, bands and straps generates new temporary buildings. The armaments of the body on the one hand limit its flexibility and force it to execute so-called suspended movements. On the other hand, the scope of the actions and the space-consuming process taken up by bodies for their activities become clear. Yana Milev calls the resulting symbioses from solid room-elements and the amorphous plasticity of moving biomass “body dwellings”. The movements of the body in the performances “Hüft Rüsten” are a conglomerate of martial arts, artistry and hospitalism.

Realization:
idea, production, director, accouterment: Yana Milev
performance: Yana Milev, Edi Schoeffmann, Bernhard Readle
location: Rosenthaler Platz Berlin-Mitte
photos by Philipp Beckert

ResonanzArchitektur
 

Yana Milev  
title: ResonanzArchitektur vol.14
block: body dwellings
2000
lambda on aludibond behind 2mm acrylic-glass
120x170 cm


References:

Oskar Schlemmer, “Figur und Raumlineatur”, 1924

“Already in the first weeks of Kyudo, I discovered a relationship between archery, playing the violin and architecture. Linguistically, they are interconnected in the Latin word ARCUS. Archer - Architect - Strumentalista d’Arco all stem from one and the same root of meaning.” During a 2-year Kyudo training in Kyoto, Yana Milev developed the concept of ResonanzArchitektur©. Here, performance in the sense of methods of training and the ritual appropriation of rooms directly relate to each other. A ResonanzArchitektur (“resonance architecture”) exists exclusively in the moment of synchronisation between body, instrument and surroundings, as a living room. Precondition for that are “Katas”, a grammar of exercise rules, which ultimately generate a “Tonus” inside the body. At this point, the perception can glide into the sound track of the room and ResonanzArchitektur begins. - The photograph shows the second position (Dozokuri) of the eight phases of shooting while standing (Shahohassetsu).

Realization:
photos: Yana Milev
performance: Hankyusha-Kai
location: Kyudôjo Budôkan, Kyoto, Japan
part of a serie of 100 pieces, each 40x60
selected works will be manufactured on aludibond (120x170 cm) as a unique copy.

VESUV TM

David
 

Yana Milev  
title: david vol.1
block: VESUV TM
2005
lambda on aludibond behind 2mm acrylic-glass
120x170 cm


Yana Milev
title: david vol.2
block: VESUV TM

2005
lambda on aludibond behind 2mm acrylic-glass
90x100 cm


Yana Milev Yana Milev Yana Milev Yana Milev Yana Milev Yana Milev Yana Milev Yana Milev Yana Milev

title: david vol.3 (1-9)
block: VESUV TM

2005
lambda on aludibond behind 2mm acrylic-glass
40x50 cm each


References:

David by Michelangelo
Penny-brand

In the performance “David”, several levels of presenting art and perceiving culture are being discussed. In the storytelling, the idea of the figure of David by Michelangelo, as well as several copies of the figure of David meet the Penny-Brand in the public space of the museum. The original sculpture of Michelangelo was 500 years ago knwon as the symbol of the emancipation of the citizens of Florence, since it represented the victorious David fighting with the giant Goliath. It represents the hero in idealized masculinity. - Equipped with a shopping bag of Penny supermarket, the protagonist ties a David-kitchen apron around her waist in front of a David copy, and joins the audience of the museum like this. With only few means, themes of High and Low Culture, of Gender and Transgender, of original value and copy value are staged here. And: which kind of art is the real art? The David of Florence? The copy on the plinth in the museum? The market heroes of Penny? Or the David-trash-performance of a woman, who searches the foyer for the men of the past?

Realization:
idea, production, director, accouterment, performance: Yana Milev
location: Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig
photos by Gabi Francik