Rada Boukova (b.1973, Sofia, Bulgaria) lives and works in Paris, France. Her recent solo exhibitions include “Players and Pleasures”, KVOST Berlin (2019), "What Energy Do We Put into Transforming Things, with Undisguised Pleasure", Sariev Contemporary, Plovdiv (2018); “Alice Georges”, One Night Stand Gallery, Sofia (2017); “Start a New Victory”, FUTURA, Prague (2013). Her work was presented in group exhibitions at institutions including Kunsthalle Bratislava, MOCA Taipei, Salonul de proiecte, MNAC Bucarest, MUDAC Lausanne, ICSP New York, Domaine de Pommery, Reims, Palais de Tokyo, Paris. In 2019, Rada Boukova (together with Lazar Lyutakov) represented Bulgaria at the 58th Venice Biennale.

In practice, the gesture is simple: diversion, defusing, de-functionalization of non-noble materials. Quite crude, it could suggest a form of spontaneity. This is obviously not the case, because it is the great myths, which have become decorative clichés that transpire in each of Rada Boukova's works. We are sometimes close to parody (flattened garbage bags that become sunsets), in contemplation (glued pearls that turn into stars), religious remembrance perhaps (a shapeless piece of cut polystyrene is a sliced bread) or abstract (what do these copper balls do in caps?). It is the world of special effects without means and without intermediaries, Hollywood is out of reach and/or we will do without it.  Damien Airault