Code: Red (2025) | HERBARIUM COLLECTION

Zara Alexandrova

40x40x10 cm, lipsticks, MDF boards frame

“Code: Red” signals a state of emergency—emotional, social, political. It marks the buildup of pressure, both internal and external. Between conformity and resistance, between the gesture of adornment and the desire for voice.
Here, lipstick becomes a document of tension and constraint. It transforms into a weapon, a silent cry, an act of defiance. Captured within a wooden box, it becomes part of the Herbarium Collection—an archive not just of fragility, but of resolve.
What is preserved here is not simply an object, but a social dynamic. The intimate act of beautification is caught mid-transition—as it becomes an action aimed outward, against imposed models, expectations, and silence.

Zara Alexandrova, born 1980 in Bulgaria, and based in Berlin, graduated with a master's degree in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia. Alexandrova's artistic practice is based on an aesthetic and sociocultural examination of the female body and the term femininity in the context of cultural heritage. With slightly ironic gestures, she is questioning patriarchal structures of understanding of the female body and its sexuality. Inspired by various sources like social media, pop culture and archaic symbols, her works challenge the perception of female roles and stereotypes. In her latest collaboration projects with Zoran Georgiev, she is searching for parallels between traditional folk art, contemporary art and pop culture, touching on subjects like national identity, populism, ethnic stereotypes and myths, the value of art and their impact on our perception of reality.
Zara Alexandrova has received several awards for her work, including Walter Koschatzky Art Award for Contemporary Drawing (2013) and the Gaudenz B.Ruf Award for New Bulgarian Art (2007). Nominated for the BAZA Award (2014).

Website: zara-alexandrova.net