Zhana Ivanova (Russe, Bulgaria, 1977)  studied Russian language and literature at Queen Mary University College in London. In 2009 she graduated from DasArts in Amsterdam and in 2013 she completed a residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. Her practice involves rearranging and reconfiguring daily patterns and structures to which we have grown accustomed. She often uses performance in order to artificially induce situations in which social, gender and power relations fluctuate.practice centres on rearranging and reconfiguring patterns and systems to which we have grown accustomed. She often uses performance in order to induce situations where social and power relations fluctuate. Her constructions are initially formal and rule-governed; yet within them she insistently exposes the ambiguity of her own rules. 

 

Zhana Ivanova creates performances that reveal underlying codes, rules and constructs in our daily experience. In doing so she makes a proposition for a hidden pattern behind this predictability. The focus is on how we relate to one another – power structures, social and gender relations are often examined. The performances also examine relationships between people. Both directly and indirectly the spectators become participants and the reading of a script is transformed into its performance.