Refraction is a term in physics, which refers to the change in the direction of waves. In optics, this means the deflection of light beams as they pass from one optic medium to another. Anton Tsanev borrows the term and relates it to a large range of questions on how ideas are formed and how they incorporate into objects.

The exhibition features three works: Prometheus (2012 – 2017), Cow (2014–2017) and Letters (2016–2017), presented as installations of various components in space. Each of them includes the physical position of the spectator as an immediate observer who is present at the spot. The artist explores and rationalizes basic concepts of the history of art, such as perspective, creation of form, composition. He refers to Plato’s philosophy of the eidoses – those trans-celestial ideas that possess form and are reflected in the earthly things; he draws inspiration from Indian beliefs and symbolic images, from Chinese medicine as well as modern science. His work involves a process of study and numerous experiments in which he uses diverse materials: paper, fabrics, tow, plaster, gravel, and art mediums: drawings, sculptures, video.

The artist’s work represents a reflection on the foundations and beginnings, the fundamentals of art that are part of not only the academic education but also of the adopted concepts and “laws” of art in the Western world. Going back to the philosophy of the eidoses, Anton Tsanev deals with a specific series of refraction points: how ideas acquire a form, how forms become works of art, how works of art form a space, etc.

Anton Tsanev (born 1983) earned a degree in Ecology and Environmental Protection from the University of Forestry, Sofia, following which he completed the Master’s Programme in Sculpture – Shape and Movement in the class of Prof. Emil Popov at the National Academy of Art. He engaged in urban ecology involving urban environment observation. As an artist, he mainly works with sculpture, which he explores and considers in terms of the object-subject-environment interrelations. Anton Tsanev participated in the Transform exhibition in 2012 in Thessaloniki, as well as in exhibitions organized by Prof. Emil Popov. Together with Miroslav Hristov, Marina Zheleva, Rada Mateva and Lidiya Kamenova (the Plus Association) he implemented the multimedia project City Portrait for the Otets Paisiy Street Festival of the Open Arts Foundation, Plovdiv, and participated in the Night/Plovdiv event in 2012 and 2014. Anton Tsanev created and exhibited projects of his own in two successive years (2015 and 2016) in the workshops and exhibitions held within the framework of the Endeavours educational program for contemporary culture and architecture of Vaska Emanouilova Gallery and Studio ProJectirane at the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy. Refraction is his first solo exhibition.