Krassimir Terziev

Biography

Krassimir Terziev (born 1969) holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Sofia University (2012), where he is lecturer, and graduated from the National Academy of Arts, Sofia (1997) where he was lecturing from 2008 until 2016. Terziev was a founder of the interSpace Media Art Centre and participated in its activities from 1998 to 2004. Since 2007 he is a member of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia. His work was shown internationally at museums, festivals and galleries, such as: "Grammar of Freedom / Five Lessons: Works from ARTEAST 2000+ Collection" Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2015); "Art for Change 1985-2015" Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia (2015); 3rd Mardin Biennial, Turkey (2014); "The Projection Project" Kunsthalle Budapest (2007), Museum of Contemporary Art (MuHKA), Antwerp (2006); "Kino wie noch nie" Akademie der Kunste, Berlin (2007), Generali Foundation, Vienna (2006); "New Video New Europe. A Survey of Eastern European Video" The Kitchen, New York (2006), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2005); Renaissance Society, Chicago (2004), TATE Modern, London (2004). His recent solo exhibitions include: "Forget the Future", Versus Art Project, Istanbul (2019); "Between the Future That has Already Been and the Past That is About to Happen" the National Gallery, Sofia (2015); "Cosmopolis" ICA-Sofia (2013); "Background Action" Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart (2008). He received the Unlimited Award for Contemporary Bulgarian Art (2011), and the Gaudenz Ruf Award for New Bulgarian Art (2007). Terziev's works are part of the public collections of Centre Pompidou/MNAM; Arteast 2000+ Collection, Moderna Galerija Ljubljana; Sofia City Art Gallery; Kunstsammlung Hypovereinsbank among others. Krassimir Terziev is the author of the academic monograph "Re-composition. Author, Media and Artwork in the Age of Digital Reproduction" (2012).


About

In the world of global networks, images of different historical and technical origin, media and materiality coexist with me, preventing me from focusing, making me worries. My only useful move is to put them in front of me, but often this is not enough and I have to put them in front of others around me so they help too.
- Krassimir Terziev

In his oeuvre Krassimir Terziev has been criticizing the real immediate environment and the possibilities to analyze it. His artist' gaze glides over the irregularities of contemporary life, but also pushes back to unknown worlds in search of an alternative. He uses all the means of expression to penetrate deeper into the visible spectrum of things - painting, painting, video, photography, installation, sculpture. For Terziev, the different perspective turns everyday banal objects into surprising figures with the change of optics. The sharpness of vision and thought includes both aesthetic, social, and political. The author often handles real images, but neither space nor time matters. It is about deeper layers of consciousness, or weaving of the real with the fantasy.
- Maria Vassileva

Space is the best metaphor for the totality of things, sucking into its vacuum, inaccessible and perfect totality. The perfect sterile environment of contemplation, offering peace and sanctuary where man may dwell only thanks to the development of technology or of science fiction. So its image always pops up somewhere in between the two, where Krassimir Terziev's works are also to be found. For several years now he has been taming outer space with great patience and perseverance, mostly as his own escapist phantasy to which, little by little and very carefully, he has been moving civilizational baggage. And the more populated his outer space is, the emptier and more uninhabited the pieces of earthly reality he studies and recreates, most often through the cool eye of the camera.
- Svetlana Koyumdjieva


Gallery 

Krassimir Terziev

Yet to be Titled, 2018.

Photography

Details

  • Material: photomontage, pigment print on canvas, stretcher, wall painted in black
  • Width: 90.00 cm    Height: 90.00 cm    Depth: 7.00 cm   

  • Property of: private collection Plovdiv
  • References: Krassimir Terziev. Images Staring at Images, Sariev Contemporary, Plovdiv, 2018

Krassimir Terziev

Monument to the Time Elapsed, 2013.

Installation

Details

  • Material: defunct notebook, engraving on LCD screen
  • Width: 30.00 cm    Height: 33.00 cm    Depth: 27.00 cm   

  • Property of: private collection, Plovdiv
  • References: Let Them Draw, Sariev Gallery, Plovdiv, 2016, curated by Pravdoliub Ivanov
    Krassimir Terziev: Between the Past Which is about to Happen and the Future Which has Already Been, 2015, National Gallery Sofia; curated by Iara Boubnova
    Krassimir Terziev: Between the Past Which is about to Happen and the Future Which has Already Been, 2015, City Gallery Dobrich; curated by Evelina Handjieva
    Know Thyself, ICA-Sofia Gallery, 2014; curated by Iara Boubnova
    Krassimir Terziev: Cosmopolis, ICA-Sofia Gallery, 2013; curated by Iara Boubnova

Krassimir Terziev

Domestication. The First Five Thousand Years, 2014.

Installation

Details

  • Photographer: Jelko Terziev
  • Material: modified anatomical models
  • Sizes: dimensions variable

  • References: Krassimir Terziev: Between the Past Which is about to Happen and the Future Which has Already Been, 2015, National Gallery, Sofia. Curated by Iara Boubnova
    Krassimir Terziev. Between the Past Which is about to Happen and the Future Which has Already Been, 2015, Dobritch Art Gallery, Dobritch, BG. Curated by Evelina Handjieva
    Disconsent, 2014, Center for Contemporary Art - Plovdiv The Ancient Bath. Curated by Iara Boubnova

Krassimir Terziev

Between Flashback and Déjà-vu III, 2018.

Video installation

Details

  • Material: Full HD video , 9 min, 1080P, PAL, 16:9, color, sound
  • Sizes: dimensions variable

  • Description: Four cameras (directed east, west, north, south) mounted on a tripod are located on the windows and the terraces on different floors of a building (a water tower). Each one offers a view in a static wide shot revealing the surrounding cityscape from a distance.
    A fifth camera is mounted on a drone that goes off ground level and begins to search for the location of the other cameras by taking a close look at the facade of the building.

    Part of the series Between Flashback and Déjà-vu (I, II, III)
  • References: Jelko Terziev / Krassimir Terziev: If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?, 2018, Plus 359 Gallery, Sofia

Krassimir Terziev

A Movie, 2004.

Video installation

Details

  • Photographer: Werner Kaligofski
  • Material: two channel video installation , 27:51 min, DV PAl, 4:3, color, no sound
  • Sizes: dimensions variable

  • Description: A Movie stages a film production. The stage is a film set, built by a previously shot film production in Boyana Film Studios (the main infrastructure facility of the film industry in Bulgaria). A group of 50 extras are dressed with period costumes from the Boyana Film collection (period costumes left from film productions in the past several decades).
    After dressing the group is led to the film set and left there to wait for further instructions and an “action” signal. Such a moment never comes. Three cameras from different angles follow the behaviour of the people. This process goes on for 5 hours. Then the group is dismissed without further explanation.