Marta Djourina
40х40х10 cm, MDF, analogue photo paper, unique piece
Folds is a series in which Djourina expands the analog image space by incorporating the physicality of folded photographic paper. The paper is creased, bent, or folded before exposure, introducing a sculptural surface that shapes both form and color. The folds serve as sharp visual boundaries while also becoming part of the image itself. Light penetrates the semi-translucent paper, allowing adjacent color fields to subtly influence one another. The paper’s dimensionality casts its own shadows, ranging from soft to sharply defined depending on the angle and intensity of the light source. These intersecting layers of light, texture, and shadow generate hybrid forms that oscillate between flat geometry and painterly depth.
By reinstalling the work in a sculptural yet enclosed form within the box frame, the work echoes the Herbarium's concept—preserving traces of movement and transformation, within a confined space, like a specimen suspended between origin and reinterpretation.
Marta Djourina (born in Sofia, Bulgaria) lives and works in Berlin. She studied Fine Arts at the University of the Arts (UdK) Berlin and the Glasgow School of Art, and completed her master’s degree under Prof. Christine Streuli at UdK Berlin. Her artistic work explores the nature of light through analog photographic processes and experimental techniques. By examining the relationship between cause and effect in light phenomena on photosensitive paper, she investigates the potential of light as both medium and subject. Through performative gestures, objects, and movements traced by various light sources, she creates unique impressions on large-format analog photo paper.The process—situated between painting, performance, and photography—translates the ephemeral into visible form. The resulting images often take the form of abstract compositions where fleeting gestures are preserved through light. Her work spans from small, intimate formats to monumental paper scrolls reaching up to six meters, and reflects varying conceptual focuses: some series emphasize the physicality of light traces, while others explore the visualization of spatial folds and geometric forms.
Website:
martadjourina.com
