Public Republic

“Stories are never to be forgotten”
Kristina Tsenova

Photo: Kristina Tsenova

What is your first memory connected with?

To define your first conscious memory is like trying to remember what you’ve dreamt about – it slips away. My first memory is not of a particular event; it’s rather fragments of what I’ve experienced – certain words, reactions and feelings that do stand before all, sealed in my mind. My very first memory? Huge snow-drips, in the morning, a sledge, my grandfather carries me on his shoulders on our way to the kindergarten.

Without Title

How does your day usually start? In fact could your day start in a usual way? What does something to be ‘ordinary’ mean to you?

All of my days start as usual. And they continue being usual. They do become unusual when I step forward from my ‘day’ – when I dip into a story or when I draw. It depends only and solely on our own consciousness if we will create the not ordinary. I would like it if in my world there would be at least a bit of what is going on only in my mind.

Tiara

Could you tell us about one of your ‘ordinary’ days? Let’s say… about yesterday?

While you are experiencing the day, it really looks ordinary. It’s only later, when you look back to it, that you could realize you’ve been through an adventure. With my eyes looking back to it… yesterday I was picking up stones that I intend to write on as fortunes and they will be presents, I also drew some masks and got lost on a dirt road where a storm caught me.

Photo: Kristina Tsenova

Do you like any colours in particular? Could you imagine the world/life without colours?

I like tender, a bit gloomy and yet calm colours. Like dark midnight blue. Or chocolate brown. I avoid the harsh and glaring ones. If we could say that someone has their antipode in a colour, mine would be red.

Could I imagine the world without colours? It could be a white world (as white is a blank canvas, a basis and light)… Probably I would not miss the colours as much as their nuances (the gloominess of the white colour) – we could imagine the colours while having the nuances.

Demeanour

Since when has art been your way of expression, how did it find shelter in you, how do you find your shelter in art?

Art has been my conscious way of expressing myself only since a couple of years. I think that we start to express ourselves only after we become aware of doing so. As a chid I used to draw as well but I wouldn’t say that I was able to translate any messages through it. Back then I was drawing for drawing’s sake. It has been only recently that this complex process, when drawing itself is not enough, has begun. For me drawing means expressing feelings that otherwise would remain buried deep, deep in my soul. And this would burden me tremendously.

Grace

Could you describe a world without art?

A world without art would be a nondescript world, a world where no one has personality, there would be no beauty and even nature would be way too straightforward. If we look around us now, we’ll see that art is almost all around – in the things that someone has created, in which there are someone’s effort and soul. A world without art would be unthinkable.

Crying Guitar

What kind of literature do you like? Who is the latest writer that you have discovered and who kept you awake till dawn and thanks to their words – full of energy?

I am not keen on thoughts that remain on the pages, I prefer events that speak for themselves and leave you to your own conclusions. I like adventurous books, books about different worlds, about merry or tragic twists and turns and taking on the Road. The recent writers that have charmed me are two – Mihail Kremen and Peyo Yavorov. Yavorov – who lived his own poetry, and Kremen – because he has described this world so that it can reach us.

Masquerade

Who are the painters that matter to you, the ones without whom the world would have been a totally different place, a scarce place beyond measure?

Hayao Miyazaki is a true magician to me. He is not so much of a painter as he is a creator of whole new worlds, a person whose imagination recognizes no borders. The paintings he makes move, his art is real magic to me.

What kind of music makes you thrill (of emotions, not of fear)?

The music that I connect with beautiful or real stories, people I feel affection for and experiences. I adore soundtracks of my favourite movies because behind every song, I see a story.

Tell us about your family.

My family is very open-minded. I have always had absolute freedom, which has helped me find my own way and learn being responsible for my own choices. My closest person is my mother. She is very energetic, has an unconventional and creative way of thinking. I would like to have her point of view – she always seeks the good and beautiful. She is my inspiration.

Daenerys Stormborn

Do you think that we could tell anything about ourselves? And can someone else talk about us?

The one who can build my image in a right way… is I myself. If a friend of mine, a parent, an acquaintance, or a stranger would talk about me, you would get four different Krises altogether… and even more. Maybe some of the characteristics would repeat but in its core every one of this Me would be different – shaped by circumstances and opinions. Also, I only know myself through my own point of view – I am not able to see myself from aside. I think that you could “completely” know only a fictional character – you could see them from all possible points of view, including their own.

Photo: Kristina Tsenova

After all where, according to you, are stories being born? And is there such a power that might destroy them?

Stories are being born in the imagination but the moment they have taken their first ‘breath’, they begin to evolve themselves – they start to demand unexpected twists, unbelievable outcomes and on the whole – any kind of growth. A story is being ‘alive’ till there is someone to remember it. I would like to quote one of my favourite writers: ‘Does a falling tree in the woods make a sound if there is no one there to hear it?’ Terry Pratchett answers: ‘There is always someone in the woods.’

The same goes for stories – a story can never really be forgotten. Even if you can’t clearly remember it, it is still there and sooner or later it will repeat itself, even if it has to be invented all over again.

Under the Sea

My name is Kristina Plamenova Tsenova. I am 18 years old and live in Pleven, Bulgaria. I study at The Foreign Language School of Pleven. Since 2010 I have been attending the school for ceramics and study painting which is part of The Centre for Work with Children in my home town. My teacher there is Viara Savova. I have been drawing since I was a child. Recently I had my first exhibition, called ‘Steps’.

My passion and inspiration are fine arts, literature, photography and cinema. I am keen on Korean and Japanese culture. In the future, I would like to keep on drawing and painting, and start directing and animating. I intend to continue my studies abroad.