Published on 19.11.2023

PP Talk: Simona Mancheva

The conversation was made in July 2023 as part of the PrivatePrint Meets program. Simona Mancheva (b. 1989 in Kavadarci) shares her views on art and the possibilities for activism with artistic means. She also talks about new technologies and collaboration within PrivatePrint VR Studio 2023.

Tell us more about the media you like to work in and the topics you express through them.

I often think about in which medium I could express an idea. I usually find motivation from everyday life, from the behavior of others, or my own behavior. I finished at the High School of Arts in the Department of Painting. I also studied painting, and my master's degree is the same. Throughout my education, I had the opportunity to try different media. I have painted on wood, wall, canvas, paper, plywood, styrofoam, and nylon; you can paint on anything, according to your taste and desire. There are paints for all materials; the question is, do we know how to use them, how do we use them, and what do we want to represent or decorate? Regardless of whether it is a portrait, an icon, a mural, a landscape, a design for a product, a company, or a poster.

So, for the presentation of my master's thesis, I used relief and video. Its subject was sex work in the past and today. The painting could not capture what I wanted to say. However, art is not just painting.

Why do you choose the topic of sex work?

My graduate thesis started with the idea that every woman can be beautiful. I had many paintings using gold and silver in different techniques because people value gold and silver. I wanted the works to point to a specific iconography, like another consideration or view of the female body. But after my graduation, I realized that not only is the woman who is insulted, oppressed, and mistreated, but the man can also be vulnerable. And regardless of gender, all that anger, but also the satisfaction of passions, people seek to satisfy them, among other things, in sexual work; they do it and deny it. So I went to that topic and discovered a lot of things in the discrimination against the sex workers group. Then, I also worked with them on an adult coloring book, "Induction of Rights."

Are you working on this topic long-term?

I take breaks. I work with people who want to do that work, but from time to time, it's getting close to the problem of human trafficking. It happens that I feel vulnerable moments when I have to turn away from the topic because it hurts.

Tell us more about the adult coloring book. What is the concept?

The coloring book presents a series of mandalas containing erotic and sexual images and 20 different messages from 20 sex workers that they want to convey to their clients. The coloring book is made so the reader can tear off and color the illustration that catches their attention the most or give it to someone as a gift. Behind each illustration is a message from a sex worker associated with the image. 

I think that's the first thing that attracts us, the visual. In the coloring book, there are the shapes: penis, vagina, and sex toys; there is also the umbrella, the protective symbol of sex workers. It offers another way to think about the part of the body or the toy that helps you in sexual pleasure. The mandala is a way to calm down, but now that it contains such an image, I think this outline affects the thought process toward the sexual act or what excites you to look at it differently.

Is one of your main tasks as an artist to make people think?

I find that every image we see provokes a thought, whether by an artist or not.

What do you want people to think in front of your artworks?

I am aware that I am opening problematic topics, not only for sexual work and sexual pleasures but also for the air we breathe and others. When I returned to Kavadarci after my master's studies, I began to notice the color of the sky; the sky was red. Why is that sky red? It is not naturally like that; it is not a sunset. And that's "Feni." I'm not saying it shouldn't work, but how?

I tried different painting techniques to capture it, but none allowed me to achieve the reality of that sky being red. I didn't know how to accomplish that through painting. Then I bought a camera and started taking documentary photographs. How do I tell people it's real? If I paint it, it will turn out like this picture here: a tree with a red sky. You think it's not true, and I mean it's real.

Continuing that topic, I also worked with statistics and published documents. How many people died of cancer in the Tikvesh region; lawsuits and complaints about soil pollution in Kavadarci. Then, I exhibited them at the "How I Grew Up" exhibition in 2022 and, before that, at the Biennale for Young Artists in MoCA-Skopje in 2018. In a folder, I printed all the findings from the available data. I deleted the names and surnames of people and the number of parcels, but the procedure was visible. These are statistics and research that are publicly available, and someone's job is to write them. As far as they wrote, I have that data up to there.

In what way can art respond to such themes?

Artists are working in other ways, too. I think we all have the same goal. People also don't have the same needs. That's why there are five headache pills and five menstrual pain pills; they don't suit us all the same. And that's why there are different styles of expression. That is why art is everywhere in speech, writing, and movement. Now, the sensors we use that's up to us. All of them or some? That's why I say painting alone is not enough.

Don't you ever get frustrated when you see no change?

That's great; I say I have two projects instead of one. They ask me why I think about social problems without thinking they are there.

And do you consider it an act of activism?

Yes, of course, it is; I am aware of that.

How much space do you think activist art has here? Is there fertile ground for activism in our country?

In fact, in our country, what space does art have? Is there fertile ground for art in our country? The soil can be fertile with care or by work; it depends on how much we invest and what we expect from it.

I find that many of us do a job they don't like for a million different reasons or don't have the knowledge or the time, even though they love the job. And here it is.

Does any medium hold your attention?

Recently, I started taking dance classes. Because when I perform, I'm aware I lack awareness of the movement. And now, I understand that I need to learn to coordinate my legs and arms a little. I also started drawing on the computer a lot more than before. Using digital formats daily made me start digital research so that the works are closer to the needs of today's living. Expressing a particular idea through a digital drawing, gif, video, or animation reaches a broader audience more quickly.

You are collaborating with us at VR Studio 2023 as part of a group virtual exhibition. How do you see the possibilities of the digital and virtual world?

I believe digital is necessary today because many young people are in that space daily, and relevant content is needed. We didn't learn to work in a digital world during our studies. When was digital education introduced in the High School of Arts, and when at the Faculty of Fine Arts, and in what way? We are very late with that as artists. There is no investment in it. I have done digital work before; I did animation and want to get that knowledge back. 

The photographs of the works are courtesy of the artist.
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PrivatePrintMeets is a series of meetings with emerging artists from N. Macedonia and is part of PrivatePrint's project activities funded by the Prince Claus Network Partnership programme. 
VR Studio 2023 is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of North Macedonia and made possible through our activities in the PrivatePrint Meets series funded by the Prince Claus Network Partnership Programme.