Johana Trayanova - Organism 3.4

Organism | series, 2025 • Polaroid manipulated mosaic, size of artwork 40cm x 17cm • Limited edition of 1 | Comes in a glass frame with metal.

Organism 3.4 is part of a photographic series exploring the concept of inherited from our parents and grandparents dreams, ideas, faith:

“There cannot be a completely clean beginning. Just as there cannot be a completely independent end.
Organism is a metaphorical new species that traces everything passed on to us by our ancestors—the traits inherited from them, emotional imprints, unfulfilled dreams, traumas, and even, at times, the paths they have trodden, which we must traverse anew. In doing so, we face a choice: to follow the same route or to carve a new one where they did not dare to venture.
What does it mean to be shaped by the invisible unknown? Even without direct knowledge of our ancestors, their essence reverberates through our features, behaviors, dreams, and inner emotional landscapes. How do memories—even those left unspoken—reside and resonate within our bodies and minds?
In an abstract interplay of diverse plants and flowers, forms and colors, I, as an artist, probe the nature of our identity. It is not an individual construct, wholly pure or unencumbered. Nor is anything that befalls us an entirely new phenomenon, emerging for the first time. All of it has been lived before—in consciousness, in life—having coursed through the dreams and minds of the ones who came before us. It returns to us, inviting us to relive it: their dreams, their fears, their battles. Will we yield to a dream and fulfill it this time, where someone before us lacked the courage? Will we veer onto a path not taken by our… grandmother? Mother?”

About the artist:

Johana Trayanova is a visual artist working in the field of fine art photography. Born in Sofia in 1991, she graduated in Dramaturgy from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts “Krastyo Sarafov” in 2014. Trayanova began telling stories through photography after completing a series of courses in conceptual photographic art in 2016. In 2024, she enrolled in a Master’s program in Photography at the National Academy of Arts. Since 2018, Johana Trayanova has been creating audiovisual spaces that immerse the viewer, provoking them through the concepts she explores. Her artistic portfolio includes the following exhibitions and participations: ORGANISM @ Little Bird Place, Sofia 2025; SEE THROUGH @ Charta Gallery, Sofia 2024; Deep Diving : HER @ Bobbina, Sofia, 2024; FRAGILE @ Bulgarian Culture Institute, Budapes, 2023; FRAGILE @ Credo Bonum, Sofia, 2022; A Piece of Earth @ public spaces, Sofia, 2020; DREAMING @ 167 Place, Sofia, 2018.