Biography
Petko Tanchev was born in 1985 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. In 2010, he graduated from National Academy of Arts, Sofia with a master's degree in scenography and later continued his studies as a PhD student in the specialty Digital Arts. Since 2016 he has been teaching the discipline Visual Programming Tools in the same specialty. He co-founded the audiovisual collective Melformator and the studio SenseLab.
Petko Tanchev is a visual artist who uses software systems and media content. His professional creative activities includes a number of author's installations for national and international festivals, audiovisual performances, digital scenography projects, video mapping projections, interactive designs in the field of advertising industry and video art works. In 2009, he worked on the scenography and video design of the performance "Four Rooms" at the Sofia Theater, awarded two Icarus Prizes in the categories of scenography and masterful technical implementation. In 2015, he created the large-scale interactive installation CNNCTR on the facade of the former Party House in Plovdiv, produced by One Design Week. Since 2016 he has been the curator of the module for digital arts Creative Media Lab, part of the program of "NIGHT / Plovdiv". In 2018, he created the stage design for the opera "Madame Butterfly" of the Plovdiv State Opera, awarded the Plovdiv Prize. In 2019, he worked on a number of projects from the program of Plovdiv - European Capital of Culture, including the performance "Odyssey" of Plovdiv Drama Theater and the Gala opening of the festival "Opera Open" with the concert "Fire / Feast", winner of the Plovdiv award in the category “Contemporary multi-genre arts”.
Petko Tanchev often collaborates with Bulgarian and international artists from various creative fields. In the period 2017-2019, he developed interactive visualizations for three dance performances by the performer Ria Murphy and her studio Aerial Cirque, produced by Culture Night Dublin. In 2018, he participated in the one-month residency Laboratorio de Interactividad Corporal (Body Interactivity Laboratory) of the Center for Research in Engineering, Media and Performance at the University of California, Los Angeles (R.E.M.A.P. - UCLA), held in cheLA, Buenos Aires. In 2020, he worked together with the director Chris Baldwin and the artists Charlie Cauchi and Andrew Alamango on the Valletta Pageant of the Seas project in Malta, produced by the Valletta Cultural Agency.
About
Petko Tanchev’s current artistic work focuses on the creation of real-time media content for interactive installations and projection mapping by combining hardware devices and visual programming software. Most of his projects are site-specific and focus on art in a public environment. He creates virtual worlds, which challenge our accepted perceptions of a physical reality we think we know. With an experimental approach, Petko Tanchev welcomes exploring new tools and the ever-changing technologies in order to develop cutting-edge creations.
Gallery
Petko Tanchev
Il Mappa - Valletta Pageant of the Seas, 2020.
Site-specific
Details
- Photographer: Zigli Jonathan Borg
- Material: Light, Video projectors
- Sizes: Free size
- Description: Il-Mappa – a show produced by Valletta Cultural Agency as part of the event Valletta Pageant of the Seas in Malta’s Grand Harbour.
Under the artistic direction of Chris Baldwin, the sails of 60 boats were transformed into screens showing images of different members of the Maltese community, while the voices of several Beltins were narrating their stories about the jobs they used to do using their hands. The projections were specially designed for this occasion by Visual concept director Charlie Cauchi and the original soundtrack of the show was created by Andrew Alamango. The light designer and visuals coordinator is Petko Tanchev. - References: https://petkotanchev.wordpress.com/2021/01/25/il-mappa-pageant-of-the-seas/
Petko Tanchev
Odysseus, 2019.
Digital Art
Details
- Photographer: Alexander Bogdan-Thompson
- Material: Video projectors, computer
- Sizes: Free size
- Description: The visual environment of the theatrical performance Odysseus is based on custom-made live interactive motion-tracking system. The whole media content is generated in TouchDesigner by using shaders, particles, 3D rendering techniques and post-processing effects. The visuals reacts to actors movements by drawing abstract textures which extends their bodies on stage.
Odysseus is a project of the Drama Theater in Plovdiv, part of the Plovdiv-European Capital of Culture program 2019. The dramaturgy is based on Homer and written by Alexander Sekulov.
.
director - Diana Dobreva
stage design and costumes - Mira Kalanova
interactive digital environment – Petko Tanchev (SenseLab)
music - Petya Dimanova
live music - Yannis Pantazis
choreography - Deyan Georgiev - References: https://petkotanchev.wordpress.com/2019/03/22/odysseus/
Petko Tanchev
CNNCTR, 2015.
Digital Art
Details
- Photographer: Maritsa Kolcheva
- Material: Video projector, sound, coding
- Sizes: Free size
- Description: Interactive mapping projection for "One Design Week", Plovdiv. Collaborative project of Melformator: Petko Tanchev (author, visualization), Bogdan Kovachev (software) and Atanas Dinchev (music)
- References: https://petkotanchev.wordpress.com/2015/12/09/cnnctr-the-biggest-interactive-mapping-in-bulgaria-part-i/
https://petkotanchev.wordpress.com/2016/03/19/cnnctr-the-biggest-interactive-mapping-in-bulgaria-part-ii/