Solakov, Nedko (BG)
Carlsberg Tap E
Nedko Solakov
Born 1957 in Cherven Briag, Bulgaria
Lives in Sofia
Nedko Solakov's art is focused around our interpretations of events, traces, and
myths; it also involves interpersonal relationships, frequently depicted with a touch of absurdity. His chosen mediums are drawing, painting and installation.
Solakov, who trained originally as a muralist at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia, was the first artist to represent Bulgaria at the 1999 Venice Biennale after the country's 30-year absence from the event. Indeed, it was at the 2001 Venice Biennale that Solakov exhibited the conceptual piece Life (Black & White), which involved two workers hired to paint the entire exhibition space - one applying black paint, the other white, day after day, throughout the duration of the show. It was, among other things, a comment on the immutability of the life cycle and the absurdity of the human endeavour to make life meaningful before it ends.
In the exhibition held at Carlsberg's former mineral water plant, we get to see a crucial element in Solakov's oeuvre, namely his site-specific work. Typically these works involve his decoding of the site's existing details through a proliferation of comments written or drawn directly on the wall. Holes in the wall, shutters, tiles, old sign fixtures, thresholds or power sockets all receive a voice and a personality. The comments vary according as the site is a museum, a venerable old house or as here - a brewery providing the venue for an art exhibition. His 2001 Chat, shown in the IASPIS exhibition space in Stockholm, was a generically similar work - involving a conversation between a yellow patch on the wall and a grey switch box. The legend next to the yellow patch read: "Why they hide me here?" - The remains of that (once much larger) yellow spot were talking to the switch box next to it. However the box kept silent (she didn't want to lose her job by taking the side of the yellow loser).
-SHO
Lives in Sofia
Nedko Solakov's art is focused around our interpretations of events, traces, and
myths; it also involves interpersonal relationships, frequently depicted with a touch of absurdity. His chosen mediums are drawing, painting and installation.
Solakov, who trained originally as a muralist at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia, was the first artist to represent Bulgaria at the 1999 Venice Biennale after the country's 30-year absence from the event. Indeed, it was at the 2001 Venice Biennale that Solakov exhibited the conceptual piece Life (Black & White), which involved two workers hired to paint the entire exhibition space - one applying black paint, the other white, day after day, throughout the duration of the show. It was, among other things, a comment on the immutability of the life cycle and the absurdity of the human endeavour to make life meaningful before it ends.
In the exhibition held at Carlsberg's former mineral water plant, we get to see a crucial element in Solakov's oeuvre, namely his site-specific work. Typically these works involve his decoding of the site's existing details through a proliferation of comments written or drawn directly on the wall. Holes in the wall, shutters, tiles, old sign fixtures, thresholds or power sockets all receive a voice and a personality. The comments vary according as the site is a museum, a venerable old house or as here - a brewery providing the venue for an art exhibition. His 2001 Chat, shown in the IASPIS exhibition space in Stockholm, was a generically similar work - involving a conversation between a yellow patch on the wall and a grey switch box. The legend next to the yellow patch read: "Why they hide me here?" - The remains of that (once much larger) yellow spot were talking to the switch box next to it. However the box kept silent (she didn't want to lose her job by taking the side of the yellow loser).
-SHO