Bojana Tomše (born in 1978) is young artist expressing herself mostly through the photographic media which she uses with the great sense for visual effects and accompanying, mostly hidden narratives. After her study on Faculty of graphical sciences in Ljubljana she studied on department for photography on Academy for film and television (FAMU) in Prague. In the near future she will start with post-graduate study of documentary photography on the Newport University in Wales. In the last three years she was presented on various group exhibitions of international level while coming presentation in Photon Gallery is only second solo exhibition in her artistic career. Momentarily she lives and works in Nicosia, Cyprus.

Bojana Tomše was selected for last year Slovenian representation for group exhibition Photonic Moments II – Southeast European Salon of Contemporary Photography (2006). This event is presenting emerging artists from Southeastern Europe, the region that was completely overlooked and excluded from the official western art history in the past. In spite of that the same region in last few years produced many excellent artists, working in the field of contemporary art and specific field of contemporary photography. Bojana Tomše has prepared part of her larger scale series forPhotonic Moments II, that occurred in longer time period, named My Room Will Not Stay Empty. This time the exhibition and series is composed of the selected new photographs, never showed in public before.

Project My Room Will Not Stay Empty is composed out of photographic images of different dimension, visually advanced and formally suitable for presentation of her personal story. The main narrative is based on subtle diary recordings of artist’s personal experiences where she is catching selected moments of her apparent everyday life through exceptionally aesthetic photographic images. Dark photographs, dealing with self-reflection of past life, confrontation with her ego and repetitive evaluation of her own memory through specific symbolic images, can be connected in closing story, full of personal symbolism and indicated meanings. Spectator is the one about to recognize many different interpretations inside the project narrative.

Photographs are not made like ordinary documentary fast recordings of furious contemporary world, but cogitated, compositionally refined clips of reality, taken out of its original context. Works are over-evaluated, including more meanings from self experience based frozen images. Therefore the whole context remains completely unknown for spectator. Artist is exerting specific periods of the day, playing with glower lightning, dim flare or complete darkness, breached only by flash of the camera. In her work and especially in her last series Bojana Tomše is framed on specific dingy, metal colors helping to reach unrepeatable dark and mystic effects of presented photographic images.

Miha Colner