Syndicate: BULGARIAAVANTGARDE show

[Luchezar Boyadjiev <luchezb@cblink.net> (by way of Andreas Broeckmann)]

"BULGARIAAVANTGARDE. Contending Forces 2" in Munich
Kunstlerwerkstatt LothringerStrasse, April 29 - June 1, 1998
Concept: Haralampi G. Oroschakoff. Curator: Iara Boubnova
Artists: Tania Abadjieva, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Dr. Galentin Gatev,
Pravdoliub Ivanov, Rassim Krastev, Kiril Prashkov, Kalin Serapionov, Nedko
Solakov

Organised jointly by the Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt Munchen and the
Institute of Contemporary Art - Sofia, "Bulgariaavantgarde" is the second
leg of the "Kraftemessen" ("Contending Forces") concept about Eastern
artistic positions in the Western world. The concept is invented by the
Berlin based artist Haralampi G. Oroschakoff who was born in Sofia,
Bulgaria in an old Russian family. The first leg in June-July 1995 included
three exhibitions of Moscow Conceptualist art - "The Damaged Utopia"
(curator Margarita Tupitsyn), "Privatizations" (curator Boris Groys) and
"Conjugations" (curator Victor Misiano), several side shows and a
conference. The second leg - "Bulgariaavangarde" is curated by Iara
Boubnova, Director of ICA-Sofia, and includes the works of eight
contemporary artists representative of the new Bulgarian art from the last
several years - from the already familiar to the Western art audiences Nedko
Solakov and Luchezar Boyadjiev, to the up-and-coming Pravdoliub Ivanov, Dr.
Galentin Gatev and Kiril Prashkov, and the very young Kalin Serapionov,
Tania Abadjieva and Rassim Krastev. The exhibition is accompanied by a
catalogue/book of 240 pages - "Bulgariaavantgarde?, published by Salon
Verlag, Cologne-Sofia
which includes extensive visual information and textual interpretations on
the Bulgarian cultural context.

In her catalogue essay titled "Other-centricity", Iara Boubnova writes:
"Our integration (contending forces) was from its very beginning a process
of making one?s own way as an individual effort rather then as a collective
action. And this is reflected in the present show: all participating
artists share in the ambition to contend forces through materialised
artistic reflection on the current cultural situation and the individual?s
position there rather then through a declaration, a manifesto or a
representative gesture."

Bulgaria was recently "transferred" from the group of the "small" to the
group of the "medium-sized" countries due to the 30% increase of
independent states in Europe. Its cultural history with its unique
experiences of existence under some foreign domination, "presents" artists
and intellectuals with the phenomenon of the "other-centric" culture. This
neo-logical expression is well suited to a certain specific intuition for
differences and absences, which comes from the constant "catching up" to
somebody else through the choice of yet newer and newer models. The
other-centric culture is the "friendly" type of culture and is pointedly
dialogical. It doesn?t develop fanatical egocentricity and is capable of
assimilating what?s "foreign" to it with ease, while confusing its "upper"
and "lower" levels. It often represents itself through the demonstration of
its own shortages and is self-ironical by necessity. Behind the component
"other" there is also the "what?", the "how?", the "when?" and the "where?".

The idea to discuss any kind of "avant-garde" in art at the end of the 20th
century is a risky one. For the obvious reason that the "avant-garde" now
is always already an institution?. However, depending on the circumstances,
it is possible to signify as "avant-garde" any type of contemporary art
which is challenging accepted notions of art and which has developed
against strong opposition from oppressive state (or art world) apparatuses.
This is exactly the case with contemporary Bulgarian art. It developed in
the late 1980-ies and matured in the early 1990-ies. Its current state of
existence is motivated by concerns which are shared by most contemporary
art/artists in the world - a desire to communicate a particular human
condition in the most direct and profound manner possible while using
various means of expression (ranging from drawings to video and computer
art, usually integrated in installations), as well as, while drawing on
various intellectual, spiritual, cultural, etc. traditions, not restricted
only to Bulgaria. However, while the genesis of contemporary
("avant-garde") Bulgarian art could be traced back to the Totalitarian past
of the country its artistic and cultural originality comes from the unique
position occupied by the country and its culture between the East and the
West of Europe. Compared to the art of the so called "Moscow Conceptual
School", the art of the Bulgarian artists (Nedko Solakov, Luchezar
Boyadjiev, etc.) is just as total (see, for instance, Ilya Kabakov and his
"total installations") but far less didactically conceptual. The artists in
"Bulgariaavantgarde" are interested in individual statements which are
oriented towards the future and not the past while trying to make sense of
the unique human condition of the artist living in a particular group of
people, in a particular time and place. The major concern of the artists is
always the desire to communicate their art to people who have different
experiences and who are placed outside of the immediate surroundings of the
country.