Boryana Rossa with Ultrafuturo, The Last Valve, 2004
Boryana Rossa
with Ultrafuturo

The Last Valve

Boryana Rossa (*1972, Bulgaria) is an interdisciplinary artist who works in the fields of performance and visual arts. In 2004, Rossa and the Russian artist Oleg Mavromatti established Ultrafuturo, an international group of artists engaging with issues of technology and science and their social, political and ethical implications. Together with activist/philosopher Stanimir Panayotov, she has been the co-director of the Sofia Queer Forum since 2012. Rossa is associate professor for video art at Syracuse University.

artist's website: boryanarossa.com

Boryana Rossa sees her performance The Last Valve, in which she sews her vulva shut with surgical thread, as a manifesto for a future that is free of gender distinctions. Rossa was inspired by transgender models of sexuality, by sexually hybrid human and animal bodies, and by the emergence of artificial robotic and biological cyborgs free of gender determinations. The video combines two recording processes, a regular video recording of the performance and a process, which converts the electrical potential of the artist’s skin into a video signal. The two recordings are given equal importance and are shown side by side.

Courtesy Boryana Rossa

Document media
2-channel-video, colour, sound, 5:00 min

Issue date
2004

Tags
de/construct identities, flesh, pain, touch