Nedko Solakov

A High Level Public Art Project with a Catalogue” is a new work by the Bulgarian artist Nedko Solakov created specially for Malmö Konsthall. In his installation Solakov plays in a humorous way on the expectations of the art gallery visitor. The work is not, as is usual, in the exhibition hall, but rather outside, on the building itself, and at first the visitor may not notice it. High, (about 4.8 metres) above the ground around the rain guttering facing the park (Magistratsparken), Solakov has drawn small, humorous narratives with a black felt pen. At this high level he has also placed found objects from the park, common objects that have been left behind on the ground or simply thrown away. These objects seem to lack any value, but Solakov gives them a new meaning through his stories. Looking up from below, it is impossible to read all the handwritten texts and drawings which stream alongside the guttering. The letters are simply too small. To experience the work, the gallery visitor must both be curious enough to find it and use the catalogue, which contains detailed pictures of all the stories. In this way Solakov more or less forces us to sharpen our senses and to be participants. It is almost as if the installation only becomes fully realised when the visitor is present.

Solakov’s art is based on communication. He wants to speak, to chat with us through his works. The texts he writes, he says, are “actually stories I relate to people, to a person, even if I have no actual face before me at that precise moment.” It is this very personal form of address in his subtle stories which captures and fascinates us. Though they are filled with Solakov’s own imaginative comments, the stories touch upon the universal. They carry an underlying, sometimes almost cutting, criticism of our expectations, desires and ideas. With the aid of the unexpected and the comically absurd, he questions ingrained ways of thought, and does it in such a way that we recognise ourselves.

Nedko Solakov (born 1957, Tcherven Briag, Bulgaria; lives in Sofia) studied mural painting at the National Art Academy in Sofia, but began early on to introduce a narrative element – the handwritten word – into his paintings. Today he works with installations which can include painting, written texts, drawing, photos and objects. Central themes in his work are playfulness, irony and the use of the magical power of narrative. He often creates his installations directly out of the exhibition space and its architecture. Just like the spoken word, his works disappear after the exhibition ends: the stories become silent and die away when the walls of the museum or gallery are repainted for the next exhibition.

Since the beginning of the 1990s Solakov has exhibited extensively around the world. His works was featured in Aperto ’93 (Venice Biennial); the 48th, 49th and 50th Venice Biennial; the 3rd and 4th Istanbul Biennial; São Paolo ’94; Manifesta 1, Rotterdam; the 2nd and 4th Gwangju Biennial; the 5th Lyon Biennial, and Sonsbeek 9, Arnhem. Recently he had solo shows at Museu do Chiado, Lisbon; Stichting De Appel, Amsterdam; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Solakov’s new work at Malmö Konsthall is based on the same concept as his exhibition project “A High Level Show with a Catalogue” at the Center for Contemporary Art Kitakyushu in Japan in 2002, where he also drew his stories high up, at about 4.5 metres above the ground.

The first comprehensive overview of Nedko Solakov’s ›uvre, the exhibition “A 12 1/3 (and even more) Year Survey”, is being shown simultaneously at the Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art from 16/4 – 13/6 2004.

Pressetext

Nedko Solakov - A High Level Public Art Project