I dreamed I am here
(2018)

I Dreamed I Am Here
Performance 30 min
Mai 2018
Goatmilch Festival, Bela Rechka, West Bulgaria
Performance: Albena Mihaylova /Bendji
Saxophone: Jerry Martin, England
Video: Thomas Lindenmayer, Zeitecht, Wien
Video sample 6’25’’
In May 2018, I was invited to present my documentary DISTANCE at the Goat Milk Festival in the village of Bela Rechka, Northwestern Bulgaria - an incredible meeting place for thinkers and sentient artists from different industries. During my stay in the village, I was inspired by an abandoned house that artists from Germany had turned into an area for free creative expression - any visitor could paint where they wanted - on walls, ceilings, doors and windows.
In one of the rooms was still a rusty frame and an elongated spring on a former bed. There was an inscription on the bed board «I dreamed I was gone». My idea was to turn the contents of this inscription into the present, offering my body as a drawing area. Each visitor could paint on me with paints and brushes provided on site.
That is how I dreamed, but I was here, I existed. I only wore a robe on my body, which gave me an aged woman from the village specifically for the performance. My act has become something of a group sacrament. Many painted on my feet, hands, neck and breasts. It felt great to me. Candles burned all around me. I have rarely experienced such a catharsis.