Yana Yunakova’s project Handful of memory is part of the exhibition LOCAL BEAUTY, Review of Bulgarian Design 2022.

The concept behind the object was born out of a specific tassel – a small adornment to women’s, men’s and children’s festive clothing, preserved only in two villages in Bulgaria – Voyniagovo and Dabene. Her curiosity about the jewellery was triggered by the peculiar style of weaving the tassel.

With the present work, Yana turns her focus to a traditional Bulgarian technique, applying it to a contemporary artistic object with no utilitarian function. In addition to the method of weaving, Yana also retains the square shape, but with the scale enlarged many times, and replaces the glass coloured beads with ceramic monochrome elements. Each of the 196 ceramic elements used in the work is hand-made and only seemingly identical to the others. In order to fully express the character of the ceramic material, which also preserves the handprint, its natural color has been kept.