TERRITORIES OF SIGHT

 

An exhibition presenting works by Magda Abazova, Dimiter Bouyukliyski, Stela Vasileva, Peter Dochev, Ivan Kirkov, Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova, Georgi Mashev, Orlin Nedelchev, Stanislav Pamukchiev, Sirma Sarafova, Kalin Serapionov, Dinko Stoev, Sasho Stoizov, Maria Stolarova, Krassimir Terziev. Curators are Borislava Vartova, Dobromira Terpesheva, Eva Maria Ivanova, Elica Stoyanova, Melisa Arif, Rosena Ivanova.

The city is among the most popular topics in Bulgarian art: from the early landscapes of growing Sofia in the beginning of the 20th century, through the industrial and social development of the city, the everyday life during socialism, to the neo-capitalist city of luring images and displacements in the works of Luchezar Boyadjiev.

Curated by a team of undergraduate students in Art Studies and Art Management at New Bulgarian University, under the supervision of the philosopher Boyan Manchev, this exhibition presents a different perspective to the city space. Economy, anthropology and memory are left in the background, and the city-scheme or map is highlighted; not its geographical image, but the abstraction which transforms it into an infinite drawing, a rhythm of colours, lines, lights, shadows and/or gaps, white fields, featureless spaces.

Working mainly with the collection of works of Sofia City Art Gallery, and having attracted artists like Kalin Serapionov, Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova, Krassimir Terziev, Stela Vasileva, the young curators explore the directions of sight, as well as the relationships between subjects and objects. They are interested in the imaginary image of space, its completeness and utopian nature that make it a place beyond time, as if seen from outer space. Thereby the city becomes a global, ever-lasting modernity, in which different times and historical periods coexist. The from the top perspective in the exhibition is opposed also to the sight through perspectivewhere visible become the white fields, the dark gaps, and the glittering artificiality of fragmented space which is driven by the internal forces of entropy and ongoing disintegration.

The exhibition includes early works, among which: “Yana’s nine brothers” by Georgi Mashev, contemporary artists like Peter Dochev, Dinko Stoev, Ivan Kirkov, the dense-coloured object-abstract paintings of Dimiter Bouyukliyski, works by Stanislav Pamukchiev, Magda Abazova, Sirma Sarafova, Maria Stolarova. They are displayed alongside works of contemporary artists like Sasho Stoitzov, Orlin Nedelchev, et al.

The exhibition project is initiated by Boyan Manchev, Prof. Ph.D. and Vladiya Mihaylova, curator, and is implemented under their supervision by the student curators’ team.