HRISTINA TASHEVA

< THE QUEEN OF THE ANIMALS    AND THE MOST BEAUTIFUL    GARDENS

When shown in West European news, Bulgaria (my homeland) is described as the poorest EU Member State, where about 1,6 million young people have left the country for lack of opportunities. The parents and grandparents who remain in the country are hoping their children will return someday.

Fifteen years ago, my sister and I immigrated to the Netherlands to be able to survive. Last summer our dear mother became ill. Our father, who shares his life with another woman, concluded: "Now you really have to come back home." A friend of mine reacted with the words: "Maybe that's why your mother is ill, because you left her alone.” To make up for the gap that opened in her life, my mother surrounded herself with animals rescued from the street. For her, they are my brothers and sisters. She says: “When you live with animals, you become one”, or, “I am half-animal and they – half-human.” Plants are also her passion, when no one else is around.

This project is a portrait of my homeland, Bulgaria, and my mother, at the same time. I am also asking from the position of a migrant what the moral relationship between me and my parents and homeland is; what it means to come back home; and where is home.

The book 'The Queen of the Animals and the Most Beautiful Gardens' was shown in 2018 at book exhibitions part of Athens Photo Festival (Greece); Fanzineist Vienna Art Book & Zine Fair in Austria; Encontros da Imagem in Braga, Portugal; SCAN Tarragona Festival in Spain; Cork Photo Festival in Ireland and Liege Photobook Festival in Belgium. It became part of the selection made by the student’s jury of The Best Dutch Book Designs 2018 in the Netherlands. Images from the project were exhibited at "The Family of No Man” in Arles Cosmos 2018 (France) and Reclaim Photography Festival, West Midlands 2017.

The presentation of the book took place in 2018 at Contemporary Space in Varna (Bulgaria).

Numbered edition of 114
Size: 190 mm x 260 mm
Pages: 128
Paper: Biotop 250 gsm, 120 gsm
Typography: Roboto Condensed, handwriting by Hristina Tasheva
Printed in 5 colors
Perfect bound brochure with cold glue

Concept, images and text: Hristina Tasheva
Design: Emmy van Thiel
Edit: Edwin Stolk, Hristina Tasheva
Text edit: Vesselin Petrov
Printing and binding: Charles Nypels Lab, Van Eyck, Maastricht

Many thanks to my mother Petranka Ivanova and my sister Nina Tasheva

Self-published
English, November 2017

Price: €40 (excl. shipping)

Shipping with track&trace and registered mail.

Payment is possible via PayPal (htasheva@gmail.com) or a bank account.

To order, please contact at htasheva@gmail.com

The publication has been made possible with financial support from the Mondriaan Fund

Part of the Shared artists' panel at Printing Plant Art Book Fair (Looiersgracht 60, Amsterdam) from 23 November until 24 November 2019
The Queen of the Animals and the Most Beautiful Gardens at Riso Revolution, The Other Book Festival 2019, Quartair, The Hague, The Netherlands
The Queen of the Animals and the Most Beautiful Garden will be shown at Encontros da Imagem, Photobooks Exhibition, Edifício do Castelo, Braga, Portugal

In 2018 'The Queen of the Animals and the Most Beautiful Gardens' became part of the selection made by the students jury of The Best Dutch Book Designs

In 2017 the book was presented in 'de Helling' (Dutch magazine on politics, culture and society)
The Queen of the Animals and the Most Beautiful Garden part of the exhibition "The Family of No Man", Arles Cosmos 2018 (France) from the 2nd until 7th of July

The presentation of the book took place in 2018 at Contemporary Space in Varna (Bulgaria)

The Queen of the Animals and the Most Beautiful Garden will be part of the Photobook Exhibition of Athens Photo Festival, in Benaki Museum (Athens, Greece)