Biography
Ivan Moudov (1975, Sofia) graduated in 2002 from the National Academy of Arts in Sofia. His artistic practice spans photography, video, performance and installation. His work, which has a strong metaphorical charge, questions the sociopolitical and economic conditions of art and its relationship to systems of power. By subverting their existing norms and rules the artist reveals the levers of their functioning.
Ivan Moudov has presented his work at numerous solo and group exhibitions: Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Cabaret Voltaire (Zürich), Kunstverein Braunschweig (Braunschweig), Manifesta 4 (Frankfurt), the 52nd Venice Biennale, the 1st Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, and Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig - MUMOK (Vienna), Manifesta 14 (Pristina).
Gallery
Ivan Moudov
A Loafer, 2021.
Drawing
Details
- Material: Pencil drawing on a wall
- Description: A Loafer, 2019, consists of dirty shoeprints, left as if inadvertently by careless visitors on the gallery wall. However, on closer inspection it becomes visible that the shoeprints have been carefully drawn with pencil by the artist himself. The artwork stands for the traces of human presence and human traces have been elevated to a work of art.
Ivan Mudov
Fragments box #1, 2002.
Installation
Details
- Photographer: Еsa Lundйn
- Material: Handmade box, stolen fragments
- Description: Courtesy of Nedko Solakov
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2008
2002/2007
Ivan Mudov
Performing Time, 2012.
Video
Details
- Material: HD video, no sound, 24 hours (loop). Video still.
- Description: The work is a performance, shown as a one-shot 24-hour video documentation. Testing his sense of time, Ivan Moudov stayed alone in a space with a big clock on the wall, moving the hands of the clock manually. The artist didn’t know what time it was, so the act was completely intuitive. It turned out Ivan Moudov has a fairly good sense of time, as his “perceived” 24 hours amounted to 23 hours and 15 minutes in astronomical time.
Courtesy of Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani and the artist.
Ivan Mudov
Traffic Control, 2001.
Performance
Details
- Photographer: Ilina Koralova
- Description: Traffic Control was a performance, which the artist first conceived for a performance festival in Graz, Austria. It was later performed also in Thessaloniki, Greece and Cetinje, Montenegro. Dressed in the authentic uniform of a Bulgarian traffic policeman, Ivan Moudov regulated the traffic at an intersection in the city center of Graz, overruling the functioning traffic lights. The performance lasted 20 minutes until the arrival of the real Austrian police. The action was illegal; there was no permission from the city authorities. However, with the help of the festival’s lawyer and the fact that luckily he didn’t cause any accidents, Moudov was promptly released by the police.
Association for Contemporary Art, Graz, Austria