Biography
Kamen Stoyanov was born in 1977 in Rousse, Bulgaria. He lives and works in Vienna and Sofia. He studied from 1996 to 2003 at the National Academy for Fine Arts in Sofia and from 2000 to 2005 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Kamen Stoyanov’s work is multimedial including film, photography, video, performance, drawings, installation and the mixture of them. Over the past few years his films, actions, videos, installations, photographic works and performances have been shown, among others, at exhibitions such as “In-Visible” (Cultural Center Tobacna, Ljubljana, 2018, solo); “Exhibiting the Exhibition” (Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, 2018); WRO Biennale (WRO Art Center, Wroclaw, 2017); „ASK THE ARTISТ“ (Sariev Contemporary, Plovdiv, 2017, solo); “Ask the Artist”, MANIFESTA 11 (Zurich, Switzerland, 2016); “Will I be happy?” (Inda Gallery, Budapest, 2016, solo); “Operantium”, Projektraum LS43, Berlin, 2016, solo); “Let them draw”, (Sariev Contemporary, Plovdiv, 2016); “Urbanauts”, Projektraum Viktor Bucher, Vienna (2015); “Past future-future past” (Transmediale, Supermarkt, Berlin, 2014); “The Movement of the Whole” (Inda Gallery, Budapest, 2014); “Unexpected Encountrers” (Camera Austria, Graz, 2013); “Material and Culture” (MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles, 2012); 17th Biennale of Sydney (Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2010); Aichi Triennial, (Nagoya, 2010); “At Arm's Length”, MUMOK (Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, 2008, solo); MANIFESTA 7, the European biennial of contemporary art (Trentino, 2008).
He's been awarded, among others, with the following prizes: The Sovereign European Art Prize (2011), Otto Mauer Prize (2011), Alexander Resnikov Award (2010), Kunstpreis Europas Zukunft, (Galerie für Zeitgenoessische Kunst Leipzig, 2008) MUMOK Prize for the Zone1 at the VIENNAFAIR (2007), Prize for Visual Arts of the City of Vienna (2007) and with the MAK Schindler Artists and Architects-in-Residence Program in Los Angeles (2012).
His works are part of public collections (Lentos, Austria; MAK MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts; MUMOK, Austria; MUSA, Austria, Public Collection of the Austrian Government; Sofia City Art Gallery, Bulgaria) and private collections (ESSL MUSEUM, Austria; EVN Collection, Austria; DOM MUSSEUM, Austria).
About
The movement as a process plays an important role in my practice. The movement as an intentional act of change of a given condition. Social, urban, cultural or institutional one. The movement as an instrument of shaping the space.
- Kamen Stoyanov
Kamen Stoyanov's artistic practice finds parallel between physical movement and process, and ideas of historical, social and cultural change. The artist performs - in actions or objects - with the same care in streets, fields, and art spaces, drawing on the accidental and ubiquitous readymade. Inevitably, high and low culture mix in Stoyanov forms; his work is just as likely to consist of making his native Bulgarian yoghurt as neon sculpture. From here, he inserts himself into dialogues of power, progress, and geopolitics, without abandoning the intimate that surrounds his ideas.
- Pierre d'Alancaisez
Gallery
Kamen Stoyanov
Aquarell, 2017.
Video Art
Details
- Photographer: Katharina Swoboda
- Material: 12:40 minutes
- Property of: Sariev Contemporary
- Description: „I used a car wash in Kronstadt called „Akvarel“ for doing an artistic gesture on aquarell (watercolor) painting.„
In the same way as the modern painting refuses the image as representation and concentrates on the painting itself, the car wash here was used not for cleaning of a car, but for putting the attention on the water and on the movements of the body. - Copyright: Kamen Stoyanov
- References: https://vimeo.com/kamenstoyanov/akvarelpreview
Kamen Stoyanov
Future Idea, 2013.
Photography
Details
- Photographer: Kamen Stoyanov
- Material: photography in light box
- Width: 80.00 cm Height: 120.00 cm Depth: 15.00 cm
- Property of: Sariev Contemporary
- Description: Future Idea expresses the wish for a move beyond, for an expansion of the horizon and a search for a direction. What looks like a line might appear as a circle depending on where and how long you stand, in which direction and how fast you move. It is a sign of hope and absurdity at the same time.
- Copyright: Kamen Stoyanov
Kamen Stoyanov
Havalimani- New Istanbul Dream, 2017.
Film
Details
- Photographer: Katharina Swoboda
- Property of: Sariev Contemporary
- Description: Since 2014 Turkey has been constructing it´s third international airport. Istanbul New Airport is going to be the world largest airport in the future. The opening is scheduled for February 2018. The current airport Atatürk Airport will be closed down once the new airport is operational.
In the film the construction side turns into an arena of critical artistic investigation and intervention using the old “Karagöz” theatre in the setting of the current political situation in Turkey. Karagöz is an old Ottoman theatre form that allows strong critique on power structures. Today, Erdogan is pushing back Turkey´s modernisation to “Re-Otomanization”.
In the film the re-application of the abandoned Karagöz is used as a form of critique. This is happening in a double bind. It re-vitalize a traditional Otomian technique of critique to criticise the current Re-Otomanization in Turkey.
New Istanbul Airport is one of Turkey’s most controversial projects in recent times for a number of reasons. Firstly, there are problems with the area’s ground, because of its instability. Secondly, the airport’s potential environmental impact on the surrounding nature. Thirdly, there no need for a new airport as Atatürk is big enough for the current needs. The new is located in the Northern Forest Area, which is of huge importance for Istanbul’s ecological sustainability. The movie shows the construction side of the New Istanbul Dream from a critical perspective. Documentary and staged sequences are mixed. The main issue of the video is the conflict between the Erdogan´s “mega-project” and it´s impact on nature and on the villagers living around the future airport. - Copyright: Kamen Stoyanov
- References: https://vimeo.com/kamenstoyanov/trailer
Kamen Stoyanov
Impossible, 2015.
Video Art
Details
- Photographer: Kamen Stoyanov
- Material: 39:35 minutes
- Property of: Sariev Contemporary
- Description: A rubber boat is moving in the sea living white traces, which dissolve afterwards into smaller waves.
One realizes slowly the sense behind the not linear movements. The boat tries to write again and again letter after letter, the word “Impossible”. It is several days trial to make the impossible possible. - Copyright: Kamen Stoyanov
- References: https://vimeo.com/kamenstoyanov/impossible
Kamen Stoyanov
Noise Trial, 2013.
Video Art
Details
- Photographer: Kamen Stoyanov
- Material: 10 минути
- Property of: Sariev Contemporary
- Description: The work reflects the daily demonstrations in Sofia in 2013 which were going on for more than three months untill the moment of the artistic action .The artist produced a monumental whistle and mounted it on top of his car. By driving the car from the city of Pernik to the center of Sofia on a highway, the whistle was producing an unidentifiable noise.
During the demonstrations people used amongst other noise devices whistles in order to emphasize their discontent with the current situation and to struggle for a societal change. The action by Kamen Stoyanov enhances this political gesture into an absurd statement. The artist drove the object into the City Art Gallery, which is just 500 meters from the gouvernment house, and exhibited it in a group show. - Copyright: Kamen Stoyanov
- References: https://vimeo.com/kamenstoyanov/noisetrial