When I Dream I Fly, I Swim

Albena Baeva

Instructions: Click on [mixed reality] or [augmented reality] and check what works best on your device.

A female swimmer moves through the air above us. As if water has shifted, disappeared, or taken over the world. In this augmented reality work, Albena Baeva places a fully clothed swimmer above the audience, anchored to the QR code of Gallery Gallery on a humble house for stray cats.

A surreal image of a changing biosphere, where survival means adapting, persisting, and caring for more than just ourselves.

There is no fear in the woman’s swimming in When I Dream I Fly, I Swim. If anything, her calm but regular motion shows determination, an innate resilience or stubbornness to fight one’s fate. A quiet climate warning — and a dream of radical, cross-species empathy.

Albena Baeva is at the forefront of interactive art in Bulgaria. She works with artificial intelligence (AI), physical computing, creative coding, and augmented reality, pushing for a feminist discourse in tech-art. As a co-founder of the first gallery for digital art in Bulgaria - gallery Gallery and its AR sculpture parks in Sofia, Varna, and Berlin she presents and supports other artists in the development of their experimental projects. Her works have been shown internationally at festivals, galleries, and museums in Europe, Turkey and the USA and recently became part of the Art Collection Telekom.

Gallery Gallery was founded by artists and curators Albena Baeva and Rene Beekman in 2019.
Gallery Gallery is the first gallery in Bulgaria that is exclusively focused on digital art.

Gallery Gallery shows virtual sculpture in Augmented Reality in three locations across Europe.

Ploshtadka (Bulgarian for playground, a landing site, or a construction site) is our virtual sculpture park in Sofia.

Gallery Gallery M is done in partnership with Projektraum Gallery M, in Berlin.

Gallery Gallery Buna is a partnership with Buna Foundation, in Varna.