Global art, culture and more

By Lachlan Ellis

A new art exhibition is coming to Ballan, with the opening day this weekend to feature dancing, music, and food.

The Ways of Resonance exhibition will be held at the Ballan Art Space at 117B Inglis Street, with the opening night to run from 5.30 pm to 8.30 pm on Saturday 25 March.

Featuring the works of Singapore’s Ayob Ismail, the Netherlands’ Barbara Henkes, and Bulgarian-born local artist Velislav Georgiev, the exhibition’s opening night will also include a performance from Bulgarian folk dancing group HORO.

“It’ll be running until Easter Sunday, we’ve left the date kind of open, the gallery is booked until then. It’ll be an international exhibition which is also travelling – Ayob Ismail is a senior lecturer of industrial design in Singapore. He’s interested in bamboo as a sustainable exhibition, in both industrial interior design and also artwork,” Mr Georgiev told the Moorabool News.

“I’m also a sculptor, I do mainly public art and architectural details. I’m presenting a series of models for larger sculptural work, which could be taken up and scaled up as big as a budget allows. And Barbara Henkes from the Netherlands is mainly a painter, she provides two dimensional works for the walls, mainly pastels but also on metal plates, copper and aluminium.”

Mr Georgiev urges lovers of art and culture to get to the exhibition at 5.30pm, or they may miss the extra fun planned.

“We’ve got a very interesting guest appearance from HORO on our opening night, who do Bulgarian folk dancing. They’re coming specially from Melbourne for the opening, so be there at 5.30 or you’ll miss it. They’ll be dancing on the street too,” he said.

“That’s something that is unusual and unique in our exhibition, a live performance. They’ll bring music, costumes, everything. The reason for that is, we contacted SBS’ Bulgarian language program, they spread the word in the community, and the group said ‘Hey, we haven’t been to the area for a long time’.

“SBS will be coming as well to interview people, opening speeches around six o’clock, and little nibbles from foreign cultures…I’m asking the artists to present some dishes from their areas of origin. It’ll be an unusual, but fun event.”

Pastel and bamboo workshops are also planned, with spots still available – contact Velislav on 0490 455 429 to book.

For more information on everything happening at The Ballan Arts Space, visit ‘The Ballan Arts Space’ on Facebook, or email [email protected].