Biography
Samuil Stoyanov (1975) is visual artist who lives and works in Dobrich, Bulgaria and Arusha, Tanzania. In 2001 he graduated from the National Art Academy, Sofia as MA in Ceramics and made his first solo show with oil paintings. Some of his latest solo shows are Reverse, 2017, Contemporary Space, Varna, Bulgaria and Evening News 2014, Formatokomodo Gallery, Madrid, Spain. At 2017 Samuil took part in The Image is No Longer Available Exhibition in three galeries with curator Vessela Nozharova, ICA - Sofia. At 2013 he took part in two big international events – The 5-th Moscow Biennial, entitled More Light, with curator Catherine de Zegher and Sofia Contemporary Festival, Near, closer, together, curator Ovul Durmusoglu. In 2012 Samuil Stoyanov participate in 53th October Salon in Belgrade, Curators: Branislav Dimitrijevic and Mika Hannula. At 2011 and 2009 Samuil Stoyanov won the RUF Award and BAZA Award - two of the biggest prizes for contemporary art in Bulgaria. The BAZA Award which is part of the Young Visual Artist Awards of The Foundation for a Civil Society provides him a residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York in 2010 and also a solo show in ICA-Sofia Gallery, in the same year. Samuil was represented in Frieze Magazine by Nedko Solakov for the anniversary issue 141, September 2011(20/20 article) and in 2012 was included in The Bulgarian Nouvelle Vague – a book published by Edno Magazine, which presents 101 representatives figures from the avant garde of contemporary Bulgarian culture.
About
Samuil works in the field of all the existing media, by multilevel treating various subjects of the day, trying to execute and investigate different aspects of the topics he is interested at that moment. Sometimes he is sceptical and often with the means of sharp irony. Recently he is working over the issue about how much visual arts is related with the image and whether art is something that happens in the space between the viewer and the work.
I like finding a meaning in the small, local or ordinary thing which questions, threats or even explains global human subjects and processes. To me the art is a form of un-verbal relations which has a potential to shift “the matrix” and I rely on that.
- Samuil Stoyanov
Thinking while looking, or looking while thinking - thus looking evolves into seeing, or into what Samuil Stoyanov is interested in - "thinking vision". This is a theme which lately, periodically and persistently, appears in his works, yet it has nothing to do with visual experiments or optical effects, but is fully associated with conceptualizing the visual action.
- Daniela Radeva
Gallery
Samuil Stoyanov
H20 Project (Geozavod) - the circle of the water, 2012.
Installation
Details
- Photographer: the author
- Material: mixed media (objects – dehumidifier, water machine and table), interactive performance, moisture, water, bodies, text, air
- Sizes: vary dimensions
- Description: Produced by Cultural Centre of Belgrade for the 53rd October Salon (Good Life Exhibition).
Samuil Stoyanov
10 meters ART, 2016.
Installation
Details
- Material: paintings from Sofia City Art Gallery collection and reinforcing belt with a length of 10 meters.
- Sizes: 10 meters
- Property of: the autor
- Description: "10 meters Art" is an exhibition project which will be realized as a sculptural object in a museum space. This temporary work will be made by framed oil paintings which are part of the actual museum collection. The whole installation will be placed in the middle of the hall, so that the visitor could walk around it, but it will be impossible to look at each picture, because they will rest against each other. Only little fragments of the paintings will be visible. 10 meters(optional, maybe longer) of orange belt will envelop the whole body of the work, thus keeping the pictures standing upright. The walls are empty (, there is only pepper with the list of included paintings in alphabetical order).Samuil Stoyanov, 2011
Samuil Stoyanov
Bull Riding, 2012.
Performance
Details
- Photographer: Senja Vild
- Material: ready-made mechanical bull installed for 2 hours in front of the building of the former Geodetic Institute, built in 1905–1907 as the Belgrade Shareholders’ Association. Free access for bull riding to the public. Opening of the 53rd October
- Description: Production of The Belgrade Cultural Center for the 53rd October Salon, Belgrade, Serbia.
Samuil Stoyanov
What if art happens in the space between the viewer and the work?, 2017.
Sculpture
Details
- Photographer: the author
- Material: ceramic and concrete
- Width: 17.00 cm Height: 17.00 cm Depth: 18.00 cm
- Property of: Gaudenz B. Ruf
Samuil Stoyanov
The Desolated Inheritances, 2001.
Painting
Details
- Material: oil on canvas
- Width: 65.00 cm Height: 100.00 cm Depth: cm
- Property of: the autor
- Copyright: the autor
Samuil Stoyanov
10 min National Museum of Natural History, 2013.
Video Art
Details
- Photographer: Rayna Teneva
- Material: Single canal, Full HD, sound, 10'20"
- Property of: the author
- Description: Camera: Rayna Teneva
Video and audio editing: Stanislav Kolev and Samuil Stoyanov
Samuil Stoyanov's site-specific space portraits series started with the Geocidite building in Belgrade where the 53rd October Salon took place in 2012. To study these modernist spaces of display and presentation, the artist first destabilizes the light, the fixed element of every space as such. Through these portraits every building he interacts with becomes a part of Stoyanov's artistic cosmos. In a gesture of hurling a light bulb above his head making the largest possible circle, Stoyanov, in his own words, makes reference to the movement of the space objects in the universe. Here the figure of the artist appears not only as a pseudo-scientist conducting inventive experiments but also as a black hole holding all the centrifugal movement in an orbit around him. The artist chose the Natural Museum of History in Sofia for the venue of his first-time such experiment in Bulgaria of a site-specific portrait as museum is a classic display place for geological history.
Text by Ovul Durmusoglu (Turkey/Germany).
Filmed in the National Museum of Natural History - Sofia, Bulgaria
Produced by Sofia Contemporary 2013 Festival. - Copyright: Samuil Stoyanov
- References: http://www.samuilstoyanov.com/en_EN/works/2013-2/10-min-natural-museum/