article: Milla Tarabanova The Vladimir Dimitrov – The Master Gallery is an incredible hybrid: a treasure trove of the Master’s works, a modern gallery, and one built atop ancient Roman ruins—ruins that, as they say, were not buried under concrete but were instead preserved with respect for history, carefully prepared to be displayed to the…
While working on one of my projects I came across the Krakra fortress in Pernik, Bulgaria. I was amazed by the poor quality of the work on the reconstructed section and the fact that the original remnants of the fortress were conserved and exhibited in an even worse manner (most of this work was financed…
SASHO STOITSOV – the ever rebellious child of the Transition period article: Maria Vassileva In 1996, Sasho Stoitsov presented the installation “Saxophonist in the Bathroom” at the Ata-ray Gallery. The main element in it is a large painting depicting a young man playing the saxophone in the corner of a typical bathroom from the socialist…
Let’s assume that we have missed the opening of the exhibition of Krassimir Terziev but it has happened despite our absence. Our thought is busy trying to work out how our absence is seen through the eyes of the others. What did they think, what did they see, what if I had been there? The…
The body paints the body. To paint the body with the body. Urine is the holographic code. It is the paint, the tone with which I create— the gold within the human being, according to the god Shiva. Before the idea of painting with urine was born, I drank it as a means of…
Passions and Complexes Between the Couch and the Screen article: Maria Vassileva In September 2015, the Sofia City Art Gallery opened the first retrospective of Christo and Jeanne-Claude in Bulgaria. It sparked strong emotions—ranging from absolute admiration to total rejection. In fact, the rejection was not directed at the works themselves but at the figure…
FORTRESS – FESTUNG exhibition in the space of the Sofia Arsenal – Museum for Contemporary Art article: Lilyana Karadjova What are the fortresses of the modern world and how do we penetrate their matter and significance? This pressing question which has taken on a new and specifically European meaning was raised in the…
Alexander Valchev New Life, 2016 Goethe Institute, Sofia 10 December 2015 – 30 January 2016 When I was invited to hold an exhibition at the Goethe Institute, I started reflecting on a principle I have always believed in—that an exhibition should be connected in some way to the place where it is presented. In…
Scrap Opera (series of 4 photographs), 2011, inkjet print on rag paper, 40 x 30 cm Scrap Opera This series of photographs depicts a couple of squatters in a ruined Victorian mansion. An open-air kitchen is a stage for obscure performance: a pregnant woman with horns, a man in a dirty morning robe and sleeping mask,…
Nadejda Pavlova, series Algorithm of Fears (2016) ALGORITHM OF FEARS article: Nadejda Pavlova “Which is better: to be loved or to be feared? The answer to this question is that it would be best to enjoy both, but if one must choose, it is better for a ruler to be feared than to be loved.”…
