ARTISTS TALK / INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY ART 2012
Open Arts Foundation and Sariev Gallery present:
ARTISTS TALK
INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY ART 2012
Stefan Nikolaev, Ergin Çavuşoğlu, Nedko Solakov, Plamen Dejanoff
Moderator: Vessela Nozharova
Sofia City Art Gallery
Sofia, 1 Gurko Street
April, 7 – 11:00 – 14:00 – Stefan Nikolaev
May, 12 – 11:00 – 14:00 – Ergin Çavuşoğlu
June, 23 – 11:00 – 14:00 – Nedko Solakov
September, 21 – Plamen Dejanoff /during the Night of Museums and Galleries – Plovdiv
Free entry
Language: Bulgarian
“Introduction to contemporary art” is an educational platform initiated in 2011 by Open Arts Foundation and Sariev Gallery and developed together with curators and art historians. All events are run at different structural stages – specific educational course, open lectures, discussions with artists, etc. The necessity to generate the context of Bulgarian contemporary art motivated the concept for “introduction to contemporary art”. The forthcoming event in the spring of 2012 is “Artists Talk” at Sofia City Art Gallery and “Sunday Lections” at Vivacom Art Hall. The last talk from this platform will be held in September during the Night of Museums and Galleries – Plovdiv.
ARTISTS TALK – INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY ART
ARTISTS TALK is a series of meetings with leading Bulgarian artists from the world art scene. They will bring us closer to their work by sharing practical experience from their rise on the world art scene and will reveal their views on society and the world in the light of contemporary art. The artists invited are: Stefan Nikolaev, Ergin Cavusoglu, Nedko Solakov, Plamen Dejanoff. The talks will be moderated by Vessela Nozharova.
April, 7/ Sofia City Art Gallery
STEFAN NIKOLAEV (born in 1970 in Sofia, Bulgaria, lives and works in Paris and Sofia) started his art studies in the high school specializing in visual arts in his native city (1983-1988), followed by a course at the Paris School of Fine Arts (1989-1994) and Winchester School of Art (1992). There have been many solo shows of his work, including Holy Spirit Rain Down, at Les Eglises, contemporary art centre, Chelles, France, 2010, New Works Old Dreams, Michel Rein gallery, Paris, 2010, Come to Where the Flavour is, CCA, Glasgow, 2006, Balkanton, ATA Gallery, Sofia, 2004; and his work has been shown in a large number of group shows, including Beyond Credit, Antrepo 4, Istanbul, 2010, Periodic Table, Munich, 2009, Verstehst du das? Neue-Medien-Kunst aus Südosteuropa, Ausstellungshalle zeitgenössische Kunst Münster, 2006, Joy, Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 2005, Prosismic, Espace Paul Ricard, Paris, 2004, A Shot in the Head, Lisson Gallery, London, 2001, ZAC, Arc/Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1999, Côte Ouest – Global Motion, University Art Museum, Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, Andere Sichten, In Vitro and Altro/Field, Kunsthaus Zurich, 1999, Multiples, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, Ireland. He has also participated in the Lyon Biennial, 2007 and presented Bulgaria in the Venice Biennial (2007, together with Ivan Moudov and Pravdoliub Ivanov), as well as those at Gwangju in Korea and Cetinje in Montenegro, 2004. His work has also been shown at various art fairs (ArtBasel, FIAC, The Armory Show, ARCO).For the 4th Cetinje Biennial (Montenegro), Stefan Nikolaev was awarded the UNESCO art prize.
May, 12/ Sofia City Art Gallery
ERGIN ÇAVUŞOĞLU (born 1968 in Turgoviste, Bulgaria) studied at The National School of Fine Arts ‘Iliya Petrov’, Sofia in the early 1980s. He consequently received a BA in painting from the University of Marmara, Istanbul, MA from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a PhD from University in Portsmouth. He currently lives and works in London, United Kingdom. He represented Turkey at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. He was shortlisted for the Beck’s Futures Prize in 2004, and most recently in 2010 for Artes Mundi 4 – the UK’s biggest contemporary arts prize. Solo exhibitions include Dust Breeding, The Pavilion Downtown Dubai, 2011, Alterity, RAMPA Istanbul, 2011, Crystal & Flame, PEER, London, 2010, Ergin Cavusoglu, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, 2009-10, Place after Place, Kunstverein Freiburg, 2008, Quintet Without Borders, ShContemporary, Shanghai and Haunch of Venison, 2008, Zurich, Point of Departure, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton and NGCA Sunderland, 2006, and Entanglement, DCA, Dundee, 2004. Group exhibitions include Paradise Lost, Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, Istanbul, Manifesta 8, Murcia, Spain, 2010, fast forward 2 The Power of Motion, Media Art Sammlung Goetz, ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2010, All Inclusive – A Tourist World, Schirn Kunsthalle, 2008, Frankfurt, Between Borders, MARCO Vigo, 2006, the 8th Istanbul Biennial, British Art Show 6 and the 3rd Berlin Biennial.
June, 23/ Sofia City Art Gallery
NEDKO SOLAKOV Since the beginning of the 1990s, Nedko Solakov (born 1957, Tcherven Briag, Bulgaria; lives in Sofia) has exhibited extensively in Europe and the United States. His work was featured in Aperto’93 (Venice Biennial); the 48th, 49th, 50th and 52nd Venice Biennial; the 3rd, 4th and 9th Istanbul Biennial; São Paulo’94; Manifesta 1, Rotterdam; the 2nd and 4th Gwangju Biennial; the 5th Lyon Biennial, Sonsbeek 9, Arnhem, the 4th and 5th Cetinje Biennial, the 1st Lodz Biennial; the 7th Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates; the 3rd Tirana Biennial; the 2nd Seville Biennial; the 2nd Moscow Biennial; documenta 12; 16th Sydney Biennial; Prospect 1, New Orleans Biennial and Singapore Biennial 2011. Recently he had solo shows at Museu do Chiado, Lisbon; Stichting De Appel, Amsterdam; CCA Kitakyushu, Japan; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Centre d’Art Santa Monica, Barcelona; Kunsthaus Zurich; Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli; Sofia City Art Gallery and Galleria Borghese, Rome. In 2003-2005 an extensive mid-career “A 12 1/3 (and even more) Year Survey” was presented at Casino Luxembourg, Rooseum Malmoe and O.K Centrum Linz, and in 2008-2009 the “Emotions” solo project was exhibited at Kunstmuseum Bonn, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, and Institut Mathildenhoehe, Darmstadt. In 2011-2012 his retrospective “All in Order, with Exceptions” will be presented at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Fondazione Galleria Civica Trento (“All in (My) Order, with Exceptions”); S.M.A.K., Ghent and Fundação de Serralves, Porto.
September, 21, Night of Museums and Galleries – Plovdiv
PLAMEN DEJANOFF (born 1970 in Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria) graduated from the School of Applied Arts in Tryavna with woodcarving and then studied at the Art Academy in Sofia. In 1992 he graduated from the Fine Arts Academy in Vienna. He specialized at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture Los Angeles, Musashino Art University– Tokyo and participated in the International Artists’ Studio Program in Sweden. He has participated in many exhibitions in New York, London, Madrid, Vienna, Hamburg, Leipzig and Cairo. He had solo exhibitions at Palazzo Ducale, Genova, at the Museum of Modern Art MUMOK – Vienna, Palais de Tokyo – Paris, MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art – Shanghai.
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VESSELA NOZHAROVA (born 1974) is a freelance curator and art critic. She holds a Master Degree in Art History from the Art Academy, Sofia. She has worked at The Union of Bulgarian Artists, Irida Gallery and Ata – centre for contemporary art. From 2003 to 2006 she was programme manager for visual arts at the Red House Centre for Culture and Debate, Sofia. In 2007 she was curator of the Bulgarian Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennial for Contemporary Art, and in 2008 – assistant curator of the 11th Architectural Biennial in Venice.
She has curated a series of exhibitions in Bulgaria and abroad. In 2008 she was one of the founder members of Art Affairs and Documents Foundation.
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SARIEV GALLERY is a private gallery, founded by Katrin and Vesselina Sariev in September 2004 in Plovdiv. The gallery has had two stages in its development and from the autumn of 2009 began work on a new exhibition policy Sariev Contemporary – with the mission to present internationally Bulgarian contemporary art. Thanks to the careful selection of artists and its active work, today Sariev Gallery has become an engine and communicator of contemporary Bulgarian art. Sariev Gallery is at the core of the three organizations which are working on their founders’ idea – development of city culture, contemporary art and creative economy. The two other platforms are Open Arts Foundation and artnewscafe Plovdiv. www.sariev-gallery.com
OPEN ARTS FOUNDATION was founded in 2007 in Plovdiv. The Foundation’s main mission is reflecting, energizing and communicating the city with the means of art. Its activity is oriented to creating, developing and producing its own cultural projects. The annual platforms consist of projects and events in three main programs: Night of museums and Galleries, City and Culture, Film programme. In 2011 Open Arts Foundation started the Educational programme for Contemporary Art and Collectors’ Forum. www.openarts.info