In "This month" section, artnewscafe bulletin offers a wide selection of exhibitions, events, and open calls in the field of contemporary art in Bulgaria – Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo and in Europe.
The monthly bulletin strives to offer an accessible, thoughtful, and quality information about what’s happening on the Bulgarian and European visual arts stage. artnewscafe bulletin started in 2008 as a project of Open Arts Foundation. In July 2022 the bulletin joined Open Art Files as a permanent collaboration offering the monthly bulletin also in English.
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Todor Nenov
Untitled, 2024.
Photography
Details
- Property of: Todor Nenov
- Description: cover: Todor Nenov, Unttled, photography, in International Meetings of Photography in Plovdiv, “Colour, Reality, Imagination”, Kapana Gallery, 29 "Raiko Daskalov" Str., City Art Gallery Plovdiv, Temporary Exhibition Hall, 15 "Knyaz Alexander I" Str., Balabanov House, 57 “Konstantin Stoilov” Str. Old Plovdiv, October 11 - 31.
- Copyright: Todor Nenov
SOFIA - PLOVDIV - VARNA - VELIKO TARNOVO - ART CAREER
SOFIA
¬ Bistra Lechevalier / retrospective exhibition / curated by Yana Bratanova / National Gallery, Kvadrat 500, 1, 19th February St. / July 16 - October 20. The National Gallery continues its mission and policy of introducing the public to artists of Bulgarian origin who have won professional recognition beyond the country’s borders. Bistra Lechevalier is one of a few contemporary conceptual artists who have risen to international prominence. This retrospective exhibition presents her art in Bulgaria for the first time. Iconic sculptures, objects, drawings and installations from Bistra Lechevalier’s studio and the Enseigne des Oudin Endowment Fund collection in Paris will be showcased. The emblematic series include ‘After’ (2024), a large-scale installation, never shown before, and fully adapted to the spatial characteristics of the exhibition gallery. https://tinyurl.com/2xf3v5rk
¬ The Wall Vol. 5: Filipina Stamenkova / Reflections / site-specific installation / curated by Martin Kostashki / National Gallery, Kvadrat 500, Entrance at 95, Vasil Levski Blvd. / June 6 2024 - May 31 2025. The fifth edition of the National Gallery project, ‘The Wall’, presents ‘Reflections’, a site-specific installation by artist Filipina Stamenkova. The artist explains: ‘When visitors reach this wall, they see themselves reflected in the mirror and thus occupy a central place in the installation. In the context of architecture and exteriors, mirrors retain the magical ability to bend, distort, expand and transform images and, through them, our perception of those images and our relationship with the living space. https://nationalgallery.bg/exhibitions/the-wall-vol-5-filipina-stamenkova-reflections/
¬ Labour : When the Foundations Were Laid / group exhibition / Museum of Art from the Socialist Period, 7, Luchezar Stanchev St. / June 20 - November 24. The exhibition focuses on one of the most significant themes in the art of Socialism—labour. Among the artists behind the paintings, sculptures, graphics and applied art works, names such as Iliya Petrov, Dechko Uzunov, Stoyan Sotirov, Nikola Tanev, Stoyan Venev, Ekaterina Savova-Nenova, and Alexander Poplilov, stand out. Both classic examples of Socialist Realism and unknown or previously unexhibited works are on display. https://nationalgallery.bg/exhibitions/labour-when-the-foundations-were-laid/
¬ Helga Paris / retrospective exhibition / curated by Inka Schube / Goethe-Institut and Sofia City Art Gallery, 1 Gurko St. / September 19 - November 24. The work of Helga Paris (1938-2024) played an important role in German photography. With her individual images and series, she unfolds a peculiar pictorial palette of East German everyday life from the late 1960s to the 1990s. The fact that she lived through the Second World War as a child and grew up with the hopes of the post-war and reconstruction years perhaps contributes to the particular poetics of her visual world. The exhibition contains around 130 black and white photographs, short explanatory texts and a film portrait created by Helke Misselwitz. https://tinyurl.com/3swd8b3j
¬ Judit Rita Rabóczky / Female Nature / solo show / curated by Reneta Georgieva / Vaska Emanuilova Gallery, 15 Yanko Sakazov Blvd. and Liszt Institute - Hungarian Cultural Institute, 16 Aksakov St. / September 9 - November 10. The exhibition is presented in parallel in two spaces - at the Vaska Emanuilova Gallery and at the Liszt Institute. Seven female bodies made of recycled materials are exhibited among the ceramic figures in Vaska Emanuilova's permanent exhibition. The parallel between the two authors with almost a hundred years of distance between them creates a special choreography and rhythm in the museum’s space. The exhibition space of the Liszt Institute presents the series "The Mysterious Object of Desire", in which the stereotypes of femininity are emptied of their content and wrapped in iron armour. https://tinyurl.com/4a3aj9rx
¬ Jihan El-Tahri and Radostin Sedevchev / Companions in History / site-specific installation / ICA - Sofia, 134 Vasil Levski Blvd. / September 28 – October 25. Companions in History, the site-specific installation by Jihan El-Tahri and Radostin Sedevchev in the ICA-Sofia Gallery is the closing event of the trilogy Living Together. The work of the two artists – Jihan dealing with materiality and moving images and Radostin focusing on finding and revisiting various archival materials, documents, and diaries, is the result of their joint residency in Sofia during the summer of 2024. The third chapter of Living Together, entitled Narration and curated by Katia Anguelova and Lucrezia Cippitelli, speculates on the concept of togetherness through the perspective of communities who are neither seen nor heard. https://tinyurl.com/mwf7p8fx
¬ Constantine Zlatev / Peace by Peace / solo show / curated by Maria Vasileva / Structura Gallery, 9 Kuzman Shapkarev St. / September 17 - October 12. “The exhibition’s title is a pun on the English expression “piece by piece.” It refers to the idea that every small meaningful action could move humanity away from a global military catastrophe. It is also inspired by the “Trade Beads” series of works dealing with the historical past and the seemingly inevitable repetition of events. The rosary of cast iron bomb-like shapes “Prayer Beads,” 2016, best illustrates the exhibition’s message and becomes a sign of shattered faith, lost illusions and, futile prayers.” - Maria Vasileva https://structura.gallery/en/exhibitions/peace-by-peace/
¬ Unnatural / group show / Goethe-Institut, 1 Budapest Str. / October 8 - November 1. The exhibition presents several works in which the authors, in various ways, place the materials they use in conditions and states that at first glance contradict their qualities and character – or at least contradict the ways in which we are used to using and appreciating them. In these limit states, the material does not stop being itself. His deliberate pushing of the limits of his powers brings his nature even more into focus, and the opposition to that nature, the way matter asserts it, produces results just as natural as those to which we are accustomed. With the participation of Elena Anachkova, Nikola Tsvetanov, Ana Ivanova, Sveta Atanasova, Elina Simeonova, Galya Blagoeva, Pavlin Radevski, Petar Nakov, Vitali Halvadzhiev, Yana Karamandzukova, Ivaylo Avramov. https://tinyurl.com/yca56b7v
¬ Nedko Solakov / Random Jumble / solo show / Sarieva Gallery @ DOT, Sofia, 46, Bratya Miladinovi str., Women’s Market / October 11 - November 24. When Katrin and Veselina Sarievi arrived at Nedko Solakov’s studio, they had no idea they would select the works for the upcoming exhibition without seeing them. The artist had prepared yellow stickers numbered 1 through 13 and invited his gallerists to use them to identify the works selected for the exhibition, but without moving them from their places on the shelves. Completely randomly, Sarievi managed to include in the exhibition paintings, drawings and objects from the artist’s earliest works in the ‘80s until today. The order of the selection of works was also crucial for the way they will be arranged in the gallery – from left to right, they will entirely follow the order in which they were chosen, from 1 to 13. Displayed in this way, the works offer knowledge about the artist’s works, yet not in a narrative, linear and holistic way, but rather fragmentarily and in pieces – like various cracks through which we can peer into his oeuvre. https://tinyurl.com/mrxzzksw
¬ Here, where I am / group show / curated by Mihaela Vatcheva / Swimming Pool, 10 Tsar Osvoboditel St. / October 15 - 25. The exhibition presents works of five young participants of "Photo workshop 66" - Yousef Younes Abdulrahman, Abdulhamid Alsalem, Mohamed Al Arab, Hani Mohamed Idi and Zaid Hamad. "Photo workshop 66" is a documentary photography workshop for unaccompanied refugee children who migrated to Bulgaria from the Middle East. The initiative was started by Michaela Vatcheva a year ago, when her colleagues from the United States, Singapore and Bulgaria donated used digital cameras to gift to the refugee children. https://tinyurl.com/4fjwcm4h
¬ Rashid Al Khalifa / Continuum / solo show / Credo Bonum Gallery, 2 Slavyanska str. / September 4 - October 24. The exhibition includes works from three series of the Bahraini artist: Spectrum, Waves, and Les Roses de Bagatelle, on which the author has been working in recent years. In the concept of Spectrum lies the modern reading of the 'rules of repetition' in the tradition of Islamic art. The works from the Waves series are constructed in a similar way. They pay homage to the sea that surrounds Bahrain on all sides, and the rhythmic repetitions of shapes and lines correspond to the cultural tradition of the island. The works from the Les Roses de Bagatelle series take us on an emotional journey inspired by the flora of the Château de Bagatelle. https://tinyurl.com/4dwxyuu2
¬ Georgi P. Pavlov / With Wings Turned to Heaven / solo show / curated by Yovo Panchev / +359 Gallery, 13A Galitchitsa Str. / September 26 - October 16. "Pavlov’s current exhibition is motivated by the natural reaction of a young author who dares to explore the terrain of his own ground, his motivation as an artist and an analyst of cultural processes. In this process, as spontaneous as it is logical, he directly comments on the failure of modernity, and of the post-history we inhabit and fill with post-culture.” - Yovo Panchev https://fb.me/e/3POJnb6ev
¬ Borjana Ventzislavova / Water walk with us / solo show / Toplocentrala Gallery - Cube, 5 Emil Bersinski Str. / September 27 - October 31. The exhibition project touches on topics such as the interrelationships between art and pop culture, politics and society and their impact on our perception, memory and existence, provoked by the direct confrontation with wild nature. The project was launched in 2017 when the artist, on an art residency in the Canadian Rocky Mountains in Banff National Park, provoked by the local nature, experienced déjà vu and returned to her teenage years in the late 80s and early 90s In the 1990s, at a time of transformation both personally and socially, she finds herself in Twin Peaks and remembers the Sky over Berlin, the political chaos and the underground in her beloved Sofia. https://tinyurl.com/mrhc87uu
¬ Borjana Ventzislavova / In Conversation with the Water / solo show / Depoo Gallery, 12 Vrabcha Str. / October 11 - 25. “"In Conversation with the Water" (From My Study of Water) is an ongoing project dedicated to the exploration of the water element in its historical, ecological, contextual and aesthetic dimensions. Through the use of different media, a potential narrative of water as a protagonist is developed. Central to the work is a dialogue with water, which I conduct over several sessions using OpenAI ChatGPT 4.0. This dialogue explores the history of water's origins, its role in human history, its current state in the context of the climate crisis and the future of water and humanity, as well as its mysteries as an archivist of life.” - Borjana Ventzislavova. Part of the project LOOK - Ecology and Technology. https://tinyurl.com/mpcex6ve
¬ LOOK - Ecology and Technology / curated by Rositsa Getsova and Elizabeth Talauer / Arosita Gallery, 12B “Vrabcha” Str. / October 11 - 25. The project "LOOK - Ecology and Technology" was created as a platform for presenting contemporary creative positions, exploring and interpreting socio-ecological problems through experimentation with new materials and technologies. The series of exhibitions is being held in Sofia for the third year in a row. The project was presented with selected works in May 2024 at the Forum for Contemporary Visual Art 2BUNA in Varna, where it was awarded the jury prize for best exhibition. https://tinyurl.com/yt97p4r7
¬ LOOK - Ecology and Technology / group exhibition / National Museum of Natural History, 1 “Tsar Osvoboditel” Blvd / October 11 - 25. The project is for the first time presented at the National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, where you can see the works of seven of the participants in the project: Anna Steward, Georgi Ruzhev, Kalina Dimitrova, Claudia Holzinger, Mihaela Lakova, Surshenko (Lea Rudy), Han Tang. https://tinyurl.com/2v3kbp6u
¬ Lyuben Domozetski / Hortus Deliciarum. Garden of Delights / solo show / Little Bird Place Gallery, 7 "11th August" str. / October 1 - 21. ”Named after the Garden of Delights, the show boldly blends traditional imagery from Eastern Orthodox iconography, the artist’s deep and profound interest in botany, and highly personal, even intimate, depictions. Even when his gaze falls on fragments of everyday life, they are imbued with the culture of the initiated, whether in the history of art or in the symbolism of flora and fauna. In this exhibition, Domozetski's artistic interests expand in a variety of directions, as the pursuit of the transcendent delves into the pulsing roots of life - of desire and pleasure.” - Vera Mlechevska. Part of the project LOOK - Ecology and Technology. https://fb.me/e/2r9IY9Gtv
¬ Won Joon Choi / Recursion / solo show / Punta Gallery, 13 Dunav St. / October 11 - November 2. Punta Gallery presents a solo show by the London-based artist Won Joon Choi, featuring large-scale paintings created during a one-month residency in Sofia. Choi’s workis blending painting, collage, stencils, and printer ink to create textured, multi-layered compositions. His paintings engage in a search for narrative—but resist settling into one. Instead, Choi reveals a surface of reality as if seen through a microscope. Found images and materials appear and vanish, merging into abstract symbols. Part of the project LOOK - Ecology and Technology. https://tinyurl.com/3ssewwj8
¬ Boris Pramatarov / False Imaginations / solo show / KO-OP, 5 Triaditsa Str. / October 2 - 20. Masks that absorb whole worlds into themselves, mythical creatures, occult beliefs, dinosaurs... All this is collected in Boris Pramatarov's series of drawings, which he describes as "embodying empty notions, closed and doomed to exist only in the mind. ' The exhibition, specially created for KO-OP, shows characters, black and white or multi-coloured, who come to life on the edge of the imaginary, which changes the physical and gives new meaning to reality. https://tinyurl.com/4ynftt56
¬ Rufina Wu and Stefan Canham / Portraits from Above: Hong Kong's Informal Rooftop Communities / joint exhibition / Synthesis Gallery, 55 “Vasil Levski” Blvd / October 1 – November 28. The exhibition documents Hong Kong’s legacy of informal rooftop communities as a highly unique form of architecture without architects. The project offers a comprehensive view into five rooftop settlements found in three targeted redevelopment areas defined by the Urban Renewal Authority of Hong Kong. Self-built settlements on the roofs of high-rise buildings have been an integral part of Hong Kong's history for over half a century. Rooftop structures range from basic shelters for the disadvantaged to intricate multi-storey constructions equipped with the amenities of modern life. Text records of the residents' stories, measured drawings of each distinct rooftop structure, and detailed photographs of the domestic interiors of more than twenty households offer an unprecedented insight into the everyday life on Hong Kong's rooftops. https://fb.me/e/2gwokMNVy
¬ Nikyoto and Konstantin Konstantinov / joint show / One Gallery, 1 Diakon Ignatij Str. / October 3 - 30. Nikol Andonova, known under the artistic pseudonym Nikyoto, is a Bulgarian visual artist who transforms epoxy resin into three-dimensional fluid objects. Inspired by the theme of nature, she breathes life and a variety of forms and structures into her art. Konstantin Konstantinov defines himself as an intuitive artist who does not need a preliminary plan, theme, concept, or consideration. This process is a constant background in his thoughts and needs no additional effort to immediately bring to the surface what he is looking for on the canvas. https://www.onegallery.eu/
¬ Elena Filipcheva / Fake photo exhibition / solo show / One Cafe, 1 Diakon Ignatij Str. / September 26 - October 17. "In Elena Filipcheva's exhibition, which already in its title sets the freedom of interpretation as a basic rule - Fake Photo exhibition, 22 photographs in a strange at first glance communication with materials, frames and objects tell about a journey in Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore, with a sense of insufficiency of touch and emotion found its added value from Paris. And so, just as only art can bring the inexplicable into harmony, Elena Filipcheva's photographs go beyond the limitations of the traditional perception of photography and add boldly unexpected provocations.” - Krassi Genova https://www.onegallery.eu/
PLOVDIV
¬ Kamen Stoyanov / Town of Shadows / solo show / Sarieva/Gallery, 40 Otets Paisiy Str. / September 6 – November 30. The exhibition explores the subject of identity through representations of the urban. The gallery will present new monochrome paintings created especially for the exhibition, as well as the author’s 16mm film “The Town of the People” (2024). Kamen Stoyanov studies the town in its intermediary mode of being between an “ideological project” and an attempt at a common “place to live”. His inspiration is the town of Dimitrovgrad named after Georgi Dimitrov, the first totalitarian leader of the former People’s Republic of Bulgaria. https://tinyurl.com/2u7cr7d8
¬ International Meetings of Photography / Colour, Reality, Imagination / group show / Kapana Gallery, 29 "Raiko Daskalov" Str., City Art Gallery Plovdiv, Temporary Exhibition Hall, 15 "Knyaz Alexander I" Str., Balabanov House, 57 “Konstantin Stoilov” Str. Old Plovdiv / October 11 - 31. The theme for 2024 “Colour, Reality, Imagination” is a concrete and overarching concept encompassing ideas and practices for creating artistic images that continue to transform the lexicon of contemporary photography in the 21-st century. On how our perception of photography has evolved amidst the dynamic socio-political changes and the digital environment in our daily life. How do we respond to encounters with postmodern Photography. These are the essential questions that drive the educational aspect of the festival, shedding light on current trends in the realm of photographic images. Full programs and participants on https://tinyurl.com/5n6utrbr
¬ Yoan Leviev / retrospective exhibition / City Art Gallery Plovdiv, 2019 Exhibition Hall, 32 Gladstone Str. / October 11 - November 3. The commemorative exhibition presents a selection of nearly 85 paintings, among them canvases from the pictorial cycles "Royal times" and "Achilles". The exhibition also includes the highly impactful portraits of the artist's father and mother, as well as theater director Yulia Ognyanova, opera singer Asen Chavdarov, writer Zdravko Popov and other well-known contemporaries of the author. The public will see paintings from other important themes and genres in his painting: legends and stories, social issues, Plovdiv, landscapes, works from the series "Archangels", "Man - subject of research". https://tinyurl.com/3bhjns5r
VARNA
¬ Art as a countermeasure / Art Forum / Varna City Art Gallery, 1 "Lyuben Karavelov" Str. / August 30 - October 10. The third edition of the art forum includes two large exhibitions and an installation located in the inner courtyard of the Gallery. It will be possible to see the exhibition of the Plovdiv group "Edge" - one of the pioneers of new art forms in Bulgaria, and the exhibition of the "Process - Space" festival created by art critic Dimitar Grozdanov, whose history is also connected with contemporary art from the 90s those years of the twentieth century. https://tinyurl.com/2smkuaxt
¬ Ognyana Serafimova / Time-space fields / solo exhibition / Varna City Art Gallery, 1 Lyuben Karavelov St. / September 10 - October 10. The exhibition is a side event of the art forum "Art as a countermeasure". The project of the author Ognyana Serafimova examines the theme of memory and is a dive into the physical world of objects, surfaces, materials that create the past. https://tinyurl.com/zvhmbwxe
¬ Lisa Størseth Pettersen / Life vests / solo show / Heerz Tooya Gallery, 18 “Ivan Vazov” Str. / September 28 - October 20. Lisa Størseth Pettersen lives and works in Trondheim, Norway. In her practice Lisa works with performative, context specific events relating to site, that can take form as sculpture or happening or a combination of these two. She is interested in repetition, rehearsal/trying and collaboration as a method to create space and far-fetched connections. https://heerztooya.com/exhibitions/livets-vest
¬ Amalie Vestergaard Olsen / Gul horisont / solo show / Heerz Tooya Gallery, 18 “Ivan Vazov” Str. / September 28 - October 20. Amalie Vestergaard Olsen (b. 1990) lives and works in Oslo, Norway. In her practice Amalie works with installation, sculpture, drawing, text, and performance. In her work she often explores the significance of work and labour, both historically and as a criterion for social recognition. She draws inspiration freely from archival materials, folk traditions, and myths from her own family. https://heerztooya.com/exhibitions/Olsen
¬ Alina Vergnano / and and and / solo show / Heerz Tooya Gallery, 18 “Ivan Vazov” Str. / September 28 - October 20. Alina Vergnano (b.Torino, 1989) is an Italian artist based in Oslo. With the line as a point of departure, she explores concepts of fluidity, time, and entanglement, working at the intersection of drawing, painting, and poetry. https://heerztooya.com/exhibitions/and-and-and
¬ Art criticism and the museum: dynamics and challenges of relations in the 20th century / Open call for papers / International Association of Art Critics / Deadline for applications October 23. Despite its centrality, the relationship between art criticism and museums has remained a discreet issue in academic and institutional research in art history and museum studies. Yet the institution of the museum and art criticism have evolved together since their inception, and there are clear links between them. The aim of this one-day study session is to explore the different ways in which art critics and museums related to each other in the 20th century. https://tinyurl.com/esrxxma9
Monthly edition by Open Art Foundation
¬ news selection : Desislava Mileva
¬ logo : Nedko Solakov
¬ cover : Todor Nenov, Unttled, photography, in International Meetings of Photography in Plovdiv, “Colour, Reality, Imagination”, Kapana Gallery, 29 "Raiko Daskalov" Str., City Art Gallery Plovdiv, Temporary Exhibition Hall, 15 "Knyaz Alexander I" Str., Balabanov House, 57 “Konstantin Stoilov” Str. Old Plovdiv, October 11 - 31.