The Medi-Terra exhibition is the first solo exhibition in Bulgaria of the social and cultural anthropologist Dostena Laverne, which will open on June 6 at 6.30 pm at the Dimitar Georgiev Gallery in the Old Town.

Her paintings have so far been presented in a number of solo and collective exhibitions in France, where she has lived for thirty years. Her works have been purchased by the Fund of French Mediatheques and are in prestigious private collections. Her most recent solo exhibition at the Council of Europe in June 2022 highlighted her as an artist with a strong individual signature and European recognition.

Dostena's artistic explorations do not end with her anthropological studies of social processes in Europe and her articles on art. She herself is an artist who expresses herself through poetry and fine art. Dostena is an internationally translated and well-known poet with five books of poetry and works published in journals and anthologies worldwide. Her publishers say her poems are imbued with the imagery of the artist, and her canvases are expressions of her poetic and vividly sensuous perception of the world.

Her paintings are a kind of journey into the vast inner cosmos, where natural landscapes and the dynamics of emotion merge into one. Dedicated to the olive tree, the sea and the rhythms of nature, the works in her Medi-Terra exhibition embody the spirit of the Mediterranean and radiate its unique light. The cosmic olive tree, the dancing figures in the foam of the waves, the softness and power of Nature-Woman, the clouds that irrigate the earth with their heavenly milk, the shadows of the wave-birds on the sand, create an unforgettable pictorial space and transport the viewer to a world where the celestial and the terrestrial reflect each other.

Dostena Laverne says she chose to present her paintings in her native Plovdiv because she connects her first tremors as an artist with the magic and intimate territory of childhood. "Plovdiv is my Ithaca. For me, it is more than a cultural capital, it is my city that houses the whole world as an unsolved mystery of the centuries, and the people of Plovdiv are exactly the audience that every artist can dream of."

The exhibition can be viewed from 6 to 20 June.