KAMEN STOYANOV

Transcription

1 KAMEN STOYANOV The movement as a process plays an important role in my practice. The movement as an intentional act of change of a given condition. Social, urban, cultural or institutional one. The movement as an instrument of shaping the space. My actions happen on the streets or fields or in the art spaces. They are often reactions and comments on political and social processes or interactions with the environment. The accidental appears not as a problem but as an impelling power or force. My work could be seen as hybridizations of the art language and the bright cultural practises from the so called outside of the art field. I get inspiration by ordinary daily processes and use them to transform conditions in which I am. In the specific tension between the artistic-high and the non-artistic or low, the idea of the absurd, misaligned and strange plays a crucial role.

2 Akvarel video min., 2017 I used a car wash in Kronstadt called Akvarel for doing an artistic gesture on aquarell (watercolor) painting. In the same way as the modern painting refuses the image as representation and concentrates on the painting itself, the car wash here was used not for cleaning of a car, but for putting the attention on the water and on the movements of the body.

3 Akvarel, stills from the video

4 Akvarel, stills from the video

5 New Istanbul Dream documentary-experimental movie, 28 min New Istanbul Dream investigates the counstruction side of the New Istanbul Airport. It will be the third airport in Istanbul, situated North West of the city on the black sea coast. Before the starting of the construction, the area has been home to villagers, animals and vegetation. Now the area is home to Erdogan big dream: the biggest airport of the world. The film is showing the transformation from these two types of homelands: from personal to national. This is happening in different ways and layers. The films consists of documentary shots showing the changing of the environment through the construction works. A performative layer based on the traditional Karagöz shadow play structurs the movie. This layer opens a space of an imaginary and activist movement. The sound includes records from the construction side and the surrounding area, as well as a questionary of the IGA (Istanbul Grand Airport company). This is answered by an inhabitant of the village Akpinar an. There are also records from people from the villages around the airport talking about their dreams and wishes connected to their home. The movie ends with a special adaptation of a popular song by a lokal turkish band in the setting of the airport.

6 New Istanbul Dream, video stills

7 New Istanbul Dream, video stills

8 New Istanbul Dream, video stills

9 New Istanbul Dream, video stills

10 New Istanbul Dream, video stills

11 Powerfull Vocabulary HD, 2.45 min., 2017 Kamen Stoyanov studies two political leaders of our time, Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, closely investigating how their media image has been constructed. According to the artist, these politicians are actually artists themselves. Trump often appears in public wearing the typical American baseball cap, behaving like a character in a Hollywood movie. Erdoğan wears sunglasses and uses gestures like the actor Tom Cruise in the iconic feature Top Gun. In order to gain power and control, today s politics borrows the language and aesthetics of the show business. Using the most effective weapons - the Internet and TV - these new artists are able to control, manipulate and dictate. And since politicians have long usurped the roles of artists, the artist (Kamen Stoyanov) now turns the tables and attempts to slip into their roles. Boris Kostadinov

12 Powerfull Vocabulary, video stills

13 I am going to kill you installation. video, 4 min., paper framed, bullet, 2017 camera: Katharina Swoboda Is it possible to kill a threat? Can a policy of violence solve problems of violence? In the beginning of the video the artist goes backwards and forwards on an abounded parking lot in Los Angeles. This represents a movement from the present to the past and than back to the present. The artists: Five years ago, I went to this abounded parking lot at West Olympic Blvd. in Beverly Hills. I found this sheet of paper in the watch cabin. I thought it was scary, but interesting. I took it, although I did not know what to do with it. Now I know what to do with it. In the second part of the video is placed in an indoor shooting range in Downtown Los Angeles. The artists literally tries to shoot, to kill the message on the sheet - I am going to kill you.

14 I am going to kill you, video stills

15 I am going to kill you, video stills

16 I am going to kill you, video stills

17 I am going to kill you, video stills

18 ART IS A WEAPON performance, video min., 2017 In the performance ART IS A WEAPON Kamen Stoyanov promotes for the art and painting production instead of the production of weapons. In 2015 and 2016 the production of weapons in Bulgaria growed over 100 percent and weapons for more than 700 millions euros have been exported mostly in the countries in the middle east. Arsenal is the biggest weapon producer in Bulgaria. The factory is situated in the city of Kasanluk, which is also known as the main city in the rose valley in Bulgaria. Bulgaria produces over 20 percent of the rose oil in the world. Kamen Stoyanov proclaimed Artenal instead Arsenal. In the performance he insists that Art is a good weapon. First he painted an rose-target image, than he demonstrated how a ping pong ball gun made out of wood remains from his studio functions. At the end he invited the audience to set an end point at the painting shooting at it. The best shooter, as the artist announced at the beginning of the performance, toke the painting home.

19 ART IS A WEAPON, stills from the video

20 ART IS A WEAPON, stills from the video

21 Phantasy is more important HD., 7.30 min, 2016 Phantasy is more important shows guest houses and their surrounding in the mountain village Marchevo in Bulgaria. The video starts with a close up of a realistic figure of Einstein looking out from a balcony. It stays as an attraction/advertising for the House&SPA Einstein. This sculptural silence continues during the whole video, which is composed by still sequences. The culmination point is a house, which at the first view appears skew. It is slowly becoming visible that it was built upside down. The last sequence shows the village from above, rotated in 180 degrees.

22 Phantasy is more important, video stills

23 Phantasy is more important, video stills

24 Impossible HD video, 39.35min., rubber boat, hand written text, 2015 A rubber boat is moving in the sea living white traces, which dissolve afterwards into smaller waves. One realizes slowly the sense behind the not linear movements. The boat tries to write again and again letter after letter, the word Impossible. It is several days trial to make the impossible possible.

25 Impossible installation views, Center for contemporary Art Plovdiv

26 Operantium 24 Stunden Performance start: 11 am end: 11 am This project is realized in the frame of the artist-in-residence program Gleis 70 Zurich and discusses the artistic work in general, the speed and the quantity of the artistic production. A five - months residency culminates into an action of the duration of 24 hours. The time prior to the event is dedicated to preparations for this kind of artistic marathon. Emerging questions concern the relation between necessity and possibility, between production and accumulation or rather accumulating production, working hours and optimisation, and velocity and delusion. A display of drawings, hanging in the space were created during the performative-sketching process. The display resembles a box for scientific experiments like the ones that were used in the field of behaviourism for the practice of psychological research. Operantium discusses the art market as a conditional field for artistic practice. The artists have the choice between working frenzy and as an opposing strategy regarding the prevalent market demands idleness. In total, a number of over 1000 DIN A3-sized drawings were produced. The performance was recorded on video over its entire duration. In addition, the individual drawings are assembled into a one-minute film.

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30 Operantium artist book, A4, 1100 pages, edition 10+1AP, 2016 installation view, das weisse haus, Vienna The artist book Operantium combines all drawings from the same titled performance in June 2016 at Kunstverein Gleis70 in Zurich.

31 installation view, das weisse haus, Vienna

32 Operantium#2 24 hours drawing performance at the opening of the solo exhibition Restless, , das weisse haus, Vienna Restless Kamen Stoyanov s exhibition features current works of the past two years, dealing on many levels with issues of artistic production. The physical and temporal effort is crucial in his work and visible in all the works on display. The central project of the exhibition is the performance Operantium#2. Kamen Stoyanov thematises during the 24 hours the artistic production in relation to time and quantity. His work is questioning the relationship of necessity and possibility, production and accumulation (or accumulative production), working time and optimization, time and delusion. Operantium#2 thematises the art market as a conditioning field of artistic practice, leaving the artist to choose between work mania and laziness as a strategy of refusal to ruling market conditions. During the 24-hour performance Kamen Stoyanov will produce 1440 speed-drawings in A3-format. The individual drawings will be digitized at the set and combined into a three-minutes movie. An earlier performance of this kind, Operantium#1, was staged in June 2016 in Zurich. The artist book combines all drawings and will be presented for the first time in this exhibition. Investigations is the title of a further work of Kamen Stoyanov, which he produced during his stay in Zurich. The work deals with the figure of the artist in the studio and thematises the creative process. The video work shows graphic activities as a storyboard. Scripture and drawing appear as an instrument of planning and the development of ideas as well as autonomous acts. The video-work Impossible is also dealing with scripture and the process of leaving a trace. It shows the three days continuing attempt to draw the word Impossible in the sea with the trail of the wake water. In this exhibition the impossible seems to be - at least within the language of art - possible.

33 installation view, das weisse haus, Vienna

34 Ask me a Question open drawing series,each 30x40cm, In this project the artist answers any question that may come up drawing blind and fast.

35 What did you want to become before you decided to be an artist? How would you start a new life if you are a 41 year old and just have had your second divorce?

36 How does the soul look like? Is the life self-determined, or determined by other?

37 What did you want to become before you decided to be an artist? How would you start a new life if you are a 41 year old and just have had your second divorce?

38 What are you going to do later? What is happiness?

39 What is the most stupid question you were asked today and you did not want to answer? Where do you want to be next das, next week, next month, forever?

40 What is boredom? What is love?

41 Malen, malen, malen... Malen, malen, malen In den Raum malen Den Raum bemalen einen Quadratmeter ausmalen sich einen Quadratmeter aussuchen und diesen ausmalen schön in weiss malen Malen, malen, malen sich Zeit lassen und malen sich Zeit lassen und ausmalen alles andere vergessen schön in weiss malen endlich sinnvoll malen malen, malen, malen. Malen, malen, malen... song on wireless headphones, brush, white color in a bin, 2016 installation view, Inda Gallery, Budapest

42 At Shablenska Tuzla, c-print, 100x150cm, 2015 Kamen Stoyanov did the work At Shablenska Tuzla together with Timo Koester. We see again the sea mirrored in the window of a white bungalow. Left from the old and picturesque bungalow a Lada in an almost perfect condition is shining. Its proud owners an old couple, are sitting in the bed inside the bungalow and appear in the image literally melted with the reflection of the sea. This image looks so idealised, so constructed which makes it in a way very unreal. It can be seen as a time traveling which makes us rather nostalgic than happy.

43 Greetings performance, Austrian Cultural Forum Budapest, video, min., 2015 The performance is based on the Greetings on the Murmurs of Earth, the Voyager Interstellar Record from The artist is starting with performing in a golden robe the greetings from Voyager Interstellar Record to the audience. In the second part he is performing the speech of Kurt Waldheim in his role as a secretary general of UN from the same record in a other rather militant costume which comes up under the golden robe. The piece ends with the Beethoven Quartet Cavatina performed by Kammeramusicquartetts Presto which underlines the tragic awareness of the Greetings concerning the past and the present.

44 High Voltage Fence, neon, 80x80cm, 2015 installation view Inda Gallery Budapest High voltage Fence blinds the viewer and confronts him/her immediately with the question of marking and overcoming a border. The work embodies the danger in many ways. On the one hand the high voltage electricity sounds frightening, but on the other the fence itself is an extremely fragile piece of glass done with an impressive effort and precision.

45 We own this shit neon, photography, each 80x120 cm., 2014 We own this shit is based on a discarded piece of paper with the same handwritten text. The artist found the piece of paper in a lookout cabin of a parking lot in Beverly Hills. Kamen Stoyanov first re-created the text as a neon sign, then used it in an action in front of an new shoping mall building that was on sale before it opened. In this piece the artist carries around the sentence in the form of the neon sign, as a messenger and refers to problems like failed investments and speculation. On the other hand the piece deals with art immanent questions like its own dilemma of belonging and also this of the artist. For whom is he producing? The meaning of the art is connected inevitable to the question to whom it belongs.

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47 At Hotel 1000 Columns two photographies, each 80x120cm, 2015

48 Museum Socket electrical socket, wires, video 2.30 min., 2015 An old electrical socket from a museum (Sofia City Art Gallery) has been exhanged by the artistwith a new one. The Museum Socket got throught the years many layers of paint, tape etc. and looks in itself as a piece of painting and sculpture at the same time. In the video one can see its demontage and the montage of a new socket and the short talk between the artist and the electrician. In the final installation the Museum Socket is put on pedestal and connected to the electricity in the new space in order to give a power for the projected video of its replacement.

49 Sign of Exclamation 50x55x50 cm., 2015

50 GOOD-BAD-ARTIST neon, 2015 Throught the switching on and of, of the three words and elements of the work and the combination between them all possible aesthetical judgemnt are appearing and disappering again.

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54 Time for Sale, 26 baseball caps, 2014 This year is the 25th anniversary after the fall of the Berlin wall and the political and economical change in Еastern Europe. The period after 1989 is known as a period of transition. On every cap is printed a different year from 1989 till The colour of the years changes in the same proportion of four percent from year to year starting from 1989 in red and moving to 2013 (2014) and blue.

55 GET-FOR-GET neon, 35x50 cm, 2015

56 Learning from Angel installation, wooden self-made football table, photography, video 2014 The installation entitled Learning from Angel consist of a photography of wooden self-made football table, a replica of the same table and a video in which one can see the artist giving a background and and a comment of the work and a documentation of plaing children on the first table. The artist was inspired for the creation of this object by a man with a roma origin from a small village on the bulgarian-turkish border. His name is Angel. He built for his grandchildren a small feriss wheel and a football table. Kamen Stoyanov went to visit him and to learn how to built such a table from a garbage. He filmed on video his plaing grandchildren and the other kids around. Kamen Stoyanov built his table in a more minimal way as it purpose is to be shown in exhibitions. In the popular game the movements of the human body are going trought the static figurs to the ball. The figurs in the Stoyanovs object can be seen as a methapor for the audiance - active as well as passive. Learning from Angel, video still Learning from Angel, installation view, geh8 Kunstraum & Ateliers e.v, Dresden

57 Learning from Angel, installation view, geh8 Kunstraum & Ateliers e.v, Dresden

58 THE PRICE OF THE PRIZE lecture performance project by Kamen Stoyanov, with the participation of Fanni Futterknecht 2014 The Price of the Prize is a confessional performance-lecture dealing with the invisible side of artistic activity, which is often fraught with misunderstandings, embarrassing situations and incidents. The performance happened in september 2014 in the Evangelical Congregational Church in Plovdiv in the frame of the night of the gallerys and museums. Four images were placed in the slots at the back of the church pews, where Bibles and prayer books are normally kept, unlocking stories for public that chooses to view them. Fanni Futterknecht was dressed in Kamen Stoyanov s clothes, he bought for different official occasions of his artistic practice as recieving of awards or important openings. She introduced herselfs as Kamen Stoyanov, made a short talk and than started to read four of his artist stories. Kamen Stoyanov was listening, interacting mostly silent and moving around the space. The stories are connected to his position between Vienna and Sofia. In the The Sovereign Prize for example he mentions and compares with the story Grillparzer Prize by Thomas Bernhard. LA Story tells a story which happen s in the frame of MAK-Schindler residency in Los Angeles. The Otto Mauer Prize is about the austrian prize of the same name and One of the first stories end s with the announcement of a travel to Austria.

59 VW- blessed installation, video 10 min The artist exorcises the demons of a Volkswagen Golf Mk1 and drives in it to Plovdiv, where he parks it in Otets Paisiy St. A video running in the parked car starts with a scene in which Stoyanov is pushing the thirty-three-year-old VW towards Sofia s Central Cemetery, where he has its evil spirits exorcised, turning it into an object of art.

60 VE-ICTOR a project in collaboration with Wolfgang Sator, 2014 in the frame of KUNSTGASTGEBER GEMEINDEBAU, KOER (art in public space) Vienna Kamen Stoyanov developed a performance piece for the project KUNSTGASTGEBER GEMEINDEBAU, KOER (art in public space) Vienna which was presented in the yard of ROBERT-UHLIR-HOF in the second district of Vienna. He worked together with Wolfgang Sator- an engineer who develops an electric car in his own workshop near Vienna. The special presentation of the car was a ritual, which reminded to the Christian practice of baptism. The car was covered in silver textile and two assistents dressed also in silver overalls pushed it toward the artist. Kamen Stoyanov dressed in black trousers and black t-shirt gave a speech about the new vehicle. Gray smoke came out of a smoke mashine. At the end of the speech Stoyanov gave the name VE-ICTOR to the car. Two bottles of champain were opened simultaneously. He greeted Wolfgang Sator and invited the audiance to make a test drive in the yard. video, 4.28 min. stills

61 video, 4.28 min. stills

62 Zuzanna Janin & Kamen Stoyanov Meeting Halfway. Warszawa-Sofia. (47 33 N & 22 19' E), 2014 Zuzanna Janin & Kamen Stoyanov Meeting Halfway Warszawa-Sofia. (47 33 N & 22 19' E) ca. 20 min / 30 min/ 35 min, video triptych table, 2 chairs, 2 mineral water bottles, installation view at Gallery lokal_30 Warszawa on the right: Zuzanna Janin MAP. Meeting Halfway Warszawa-Sofia. (47 33 N & 22 19' E) ca. 22 cm; paper Meeting Halfway Warszawa-Sofia. (47 33 N & 22 19' E) is is the multiple screening installation realized in collaboration of Polish artist Zuzanna Janin and Bulgarian artist Kamen Stoyanov. The artists met in the halfway point from Warsaw to Sofia, on the field in Romania (47 33 N & 22 19' E), where they sat down at a table constructed on place from two parts of half tables brought by the artists from their hometowns - one half from Warszawa and one half from Sofia - and tried to understand each other talking in they own languages: Janin in Polish and Stoyanov in Bulgarian. The artists made two meetings one at midnight when they both arrived to the point from their sides of Europe and one the next day; at midday they continued a talk at the same place. Zuzanna Janin & Kamen Stoyanov Meeting Halfway Warszawa-Sofia. (47 33 N & 22 19' E), installation view

63 Zuzanna Janin & Kamen Stoyanov Meeting Halfway Warszawa-Sofia. (47 33 N & 22 19' E) Midnight, video still

64 Zuzanna Janin & Kamen Stoyanov Meeting Halfway Warszawa-Sofia. (47 33 N & 22 19' E) Midnight, video still Zuzanna Janin & Kamen Stoyanov Meeting Halfway Warszawa-Sofia. (47 33 N & 22 19' E) Midday, video still

65 Zuzanna Janin & Kamen Stoyanov Meeting Halfway Warszawa-Sofia. (47 33 N & 22 19' E) Midday, video still work presentation by artists: Kamen Stoyanov: INDA Gallery, Budapest, Sept-Oct 2014 (group show curated by Kamen Stoyanov) Zuzanna Janin: lokal_30 Gallery, Warszawa, Oct-Nov 2014 (solo show curated by Agnieszka Rayzacher) Zuzanna Janin: Sala ASAB, Bogota/Colombia, Nov-Dec 2014 (solo show curated by John Angel Rodriguez) Warszawa / Sofia 2014 Courtesy Gallery lokal_30 Warszawa

66 The longest distance is the one that separates us A project by Anne Glassner, Franziska Koppensteiner und Kamen Stoyanov 2014 The project deals with the premises of the Galerie Cella in Opava in the Czech Republic, trying to connect two places communicatively. The basic element is telecommunication, which does not only take place within the work of art and the artists but also between the work of art and the audience. The installation also represents a synergy of the different performative, side specific and actionist working methods of Anne Glassner, Franziska Koppensteiner and Kamen Stoyanov, which stimulate and inspire each other. The title of the project The longest distance is the one that separates us goes back to the 80s song Телефонна любов (telephone love) by the Bulgarian singer Vasil Naydenov. The installation in the gallery alludes to the spatial aesthetics of the original video. The futuristic telephone booths that appeared in the video are being replicated and will be placed, upside down, on the floor of the gallery as objects. Visitors can use these as benches or lie down areas. A headphone will appear from the inside of the booths. At the very moment, when somebody puts them on, Kamen Stoyanov will start a telecommunicative talk, animating the participant to relax and share his experiences. The artist will be situated in the second exhibition place the phone booth and observes what is going on in the gallery on a monitor. At the same time, Anne Glassner, wearing a silver dress, offers massages with the installed receivers. Franziska Koppensteiner is located in the second phone booth. At the beginning of the performance her booth will be closed with a sheet of acrylic glass, which she paint in black. She transforms all that happens into a text on that surface. The artist will write mirror-image so that the audience can read her writing. The more she writes, the more visible she will become just as in the course of a phone call.

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68 Nein zur Abschottung Installation (Fotografien, Video, Wahlkabine), 2014 Nein zur Abschottung (no to compartmentalization) is an installation about the migration issues respectively about the right of free movement and work. The title comes from the citizens initiative in Switzerland of the same name Nein zur Abschottung, which was born as a reaction against the initiative of the Swiss Peoples Party Gegen Masseneinwanderung (against mass migration). Through circumstances I was asked to produce a photography for an advertisement poster. The image should show, as the legend of the example image I got said, a wild hairy man in a landscape. The subject was a traditional folks dance figure from Bulgaria, which dances annual in the beginning of january in order to drive out the evil. The installation I present is a voting cabin including the photography I had produced as an order, a video in which I talk about the circumstances of the case in which I had failed. Because of this in the speech I take the responsibility for the tight negative result of the referendum and and give the people the possibility to vote. installation view, Projektraum Viktor Bucher, Vienna

69 installation view, Projektraum Viktor Bucher, Vienna

70 Something From Nothing performance, 2013 Rousse Art Gallery Project of Kamen Stoyanov devoted to the 80th anniversary of the Rousse s Art Gallery The project focuses on the Rousses s Art Gallery and the attitude of the artist born and raised in the town. This is the first solo show of Kamen Stoyanov in this gallery. The 80 anniversary of the Rousse s Art Gallery is an occasion that provides the opportunity to reconsider the space in the view of its concreteness and contemporary art response. The project is exposed at the right wing of the gallery in a small space separated by a door. Main topic of the exhibition is the emptiness and how it could be filled in. That acts as a comeback to the starting point of the gallery and to the main problem that the artist has when facing the white canvas. When entering the right wing, right in the middle, the visitor spots a big rectangular space built up out of four big white canvases representing a gallery within the gallery. The walls, on which exhibits are usually hanged on, are left empty, fitting robes hanging in expectation. The main focus of the installation a performance, is based on a dream of the artist that repeats on a constant basis. In his dream the artist arrives for his solo show to notice the lack of whatsoever exhibits. To solve this problem, he tries installing his old works found in the gallery by chance, and thinks how he could possibly reverse the situation into something meaningful. This is the situation represented in a conversation between Kamen Stoyanov and the psychologist Dessislava Liasova. The conversation is held within a closed space a cube upholstered with mirror folios. In the middle of the space, on sculpture plinths, there is a place to sit. The image and the conversation are projected in real time on a screen outside the cube.

71 Something From Nothing performance Rousse Art Gallery, installation views

72 Noise Trial action in Sofia, September 2013 video 10 min., photograhy 100x150cm. video stills The work reflects the daily demonstrations in Sofia going on for more than three months untill the moment of the action and the impossibility to achive a political change. The artist produced a monumental whistle and mounted it on top of his car. By driving the car from the city of Pernik to the center of Sofia on a highway, the whistle is constantly producing an unidentifiable noise. During the demonstrations people are using amongst other noise devices whistles in order to emphasize their discontent with the current situation and to struggle for a societal change. The performance by Kamen Stoyanov enhances this political gesture into an absurd hypertrophic statement. The artist drove the object into the City Art Gallery, which is just 500 meters from the gouvernment house, and exhibited it in a show.

73 Noise Trial, installation view, Sofia City Art Gallery Nose Trial, installation view, Klaipeda Museum, Lithuania

74 Noise Trial, photography and hand written text on paper, each 100x150cm.

75 Boxing Farm performance in Ellias Canetti Society, Rousse, 2013 Two eras, two political systems, two forms of commitment: Kamen Stoyanov s project links the 80ies with the present. In the background of the exhibition room, there s a projection of Dobril Hristov telling the story of him smuggling the then forbidden classic Animal Farm into Bulgaria. In the foreground, participants of a performance taking their (politically motivated?) anger out on punching bags which they created themselves, while the artist walks around and reads out passages of Orwell s book.

76 Boxing Farm, installation views, Ellias Canetti Society, Rousse

77 Future Idea air action in the sky of Sofia and light installation (Christopher Columbus Blvd),two hours viedeo, 2013 A flying human in flex wing with motor is pulling a banner with an arrow on it over the city of Sofia. One can also say that the arrow which represents the idea is pushing the airplane. The two hour air action realized by Kamen Stoyanov for Near, Closer, Together Exercises for a Common Ground is a response to the current political climate in Bulgaria. In his work, Stoyanov criticizes the hegemonic narratives of culture manifested in the urban and the architectural. His curiosity about the transition or passage between what is art and what not shapes the means and gestures he chooses to create in order to destabilize the associations and concepts of coherent cultural orders. The Future Idea expresses his wish for a move beyond, for an expansion of the horizon and a search for a direction. What looks like a line might appear as a circle depending on where and how long you stand, in which direction and how fast you move. According to the artist, it is a sign of hope and absurdity at the same time. Övül Durmusoglu

78 Future Idea light installation (Christopher Columbus Blvd, Sofia), 2013

79 We love u, light box, 80x120cm, 2012

80 Untitled street sign, pot of flowers, viola flowers, miror, 2012

81 Out There Kamen Stoyanov 1646 Hague, Netherlands Kamen Stoyanov s work deals with that impossible artistic position which is located outside of high culture. His work on this topic had started with a series of video portraits of street artists met at different places, on different residencies for artists or during his travels. The performances portrayed in these works are often absurd from an economical point of view. While hinting to the far kinship of art with street performance, the works offer the chance for a reflection on the artistic work and its lack of economical value; on the relationship between high and low culture; on social reality. In recent works on this topic, the activity of the artist is examined as act of transportation of banal, everyday objects or activities into the realm of art (the exhibition space, the studio or the residency). In an ironic switch of role, Stoyanov takes up the export of a brand of yoghurt by the eloquent name of Cultura from Sofia to Maribor for sale in a show; or that of the producer by cultivating tomatoes in the framework of his recent residency in Hungary. Against a backdrop of changing cultural and social values, while mass communications and social networks allow everyone to present photos, videos and texts in ways that are very similar to post-conceptualist artwork and the masses claim artistic or immaterial activities, the artist critically goes back to material production in order to talk about role reversal, production and transportation, transfer and reflection.

82 The artist at residence with 0,1 % Cultura on the bonnet, c-print, 109x165cm, 2011 The artist at residence with Tiger on the bonnet, c-print, 109x165cm, 2011

83 Guys, this is not LA, but it is a cool place too! light box, 120x80cm, 2010

84 Self-portrait with a roll of paper acrylic plaster, clouths, 175x165x35cm, 2010 Self-portrait with a roll of paper from 2010 is an acrylic cast of the artist. The figure is hidden behind a big empty roll of paper, which it holds in his hands. Here the gesture of the medial representation and the disappearance of the artist are melting together. The act of holding the paper and the interminable process of the production of a cast from a living person contrasts with the emptiness of the image. installation views, lokal_30, Warsaw

85 New Piece of Art peformance An aboundoned billboard in the fields near the Sofia Airport was overpainted with black color by the artist. The action happened on the place and had a duration of about an hour. The artist was fighting with the size of the image and also with the wind. The second part of the project was an opening speech for the New Piece of Art in the frame of Sofia Contemporary, a festival for Art in Public Space. Here the artist took the role of somebody from the municipality or from the festival and talked about the artists intention and the means of the work.

86 New Piece of Art video stills

87 New Piece of Art video stills

88 New Piece of Art, installation view, Czech Center, Prague

89 Synchronisation light box, 80x120cm, video 5.25 min, 2010 Kamen Stoyanov used for his action an empty billboard construction placed next to the Sofia airport. The artist climbed on it, fixed a hammocks and finally placed himself on it, replacing the missing advertisement. He communicated with the arriving people by observing them and in this way aweked their interest.

90 Synchronisation, video stills

91 Subway Yard Bratislava two digital prints on baryt, 93x120 cm, handwritten text, 2007 I am traveling with a friend of mine who is a photographer from Vienna to Bratislava. He knows there is a tunnel in the periphery of the city in the neighbourhood Peterzhlaka. The tunnel is approximate 200 meter long and it is a blind tunnel. At the begin of the tunnel there is water and garbage. My friend is interested in it and takes pictures. I am filming him with the video camera. If one crosses the 50 meters of water there begins a dry part, but after another 20 meters there is total darkness. I am curios what is there? Next week we decide to go again. Same actions.this time we have rubber boots and we can walk easily in the cold water. I go deep into the darkness, but than I hear strange sounds. I get scared and turn back very fast. I think if I only had have a light. Next time I will be prepared. We come again. This time with a light and we move slowly into the tunnel. We both hear noises as if some thing is moving. We turn and I decide to take the pictures from the distance. My first wish was to take a photo from the wall at the end of the tunnel. I am arranging the large format camera and suddenly a man emerges from the darkness. I begin to talk with him. I am trying to communicate with him in slovak using my knowledge in russian and serbian. It works. His name is Dushan. The meaning of the name in slavonik is soul. The soul of the tunnel. This is his territories he said. He tells us he observed us from the darkness and he knows us from the last three weeks. It is not the first time that people come here to take pictures. Even there have been shots for a gangster movie. He tells me that the tunnel is built for the Subway which construction stopped with the end of the socialist time. Nowadays there are prostitutes and immigrants around and the police hides with the car in the tunnel in order to catch them. I am asking him to allow me to take pictures from the wall at the end of the tunnel and we go there. He lives there and he has some clothes, candles and a radio on.

92 Subway Yard Bratislava, two digital prints on baryt, 93x120 cm

93 Expand your business, DVD, 14 minutes, 2005 The video shows an empty billboard construction that circles around its own center with varied velocities. Without the usual images that laminate the billboard contruction, it has its own life. It probably circles through wind power and waits for better times, in which it presumably can fulfill its proper function again.

94 Stoyanov s Tomato Products (digital video 14min., scatches, 23 color photographies, canvaces, tomato soup in glass jars, inflatable vinyl tomato, song, artist book) 2012 Soup stopped being just soup in 1962, when Andy Warhol showcased for the first time his portraits of the Campbell s tomato soup in the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. Today even in the grocer s around the corner the legendary little box is much more Warhol s than Campbell s, as it holds, in preserved state, a real revolution in our interaction with art. Exactly 50 years later Kamen Stoyanov planted, in the yard of Schindler House in Los Angeles, the tomato seeds he had brought from Bulgaria. The artist spent his sixmonth residence in the U.S. farming in this popular monument of modern architecture aiming at producing a limited amount of tomato soup following his own recipe. Drawing on the concept of the ready-made, he transposed a tradition from his motherland the household preparation of winter s reserves into an atypical context. He used the peculiar architectural setting, the legendary Hollywood charisma and its hidden social dramas to reposition a simple domestic gesture and, through it, his own cultural identity, which he transformed into an art statement. Kamen Stoyanov started his work as homage to Warhol, but ultimately left no stone unturned in pursuing the idea of deconstructing the art object. What should he take back to Bulgaria? A can or a jar? He solved his conceptual dilemmas by taking back, together with the soup, his painterly originals, which originated in his farmer s produce but in a purely art and, let s say, intuitive way. Kamen Stoyanov has delved into social layers that go beyond the problem of the uniqueness of the work of art and the product status that Warhol has won for it. Through the artist s experiences and in the contrast between the environment and his actions, there is a direct reference to the life of the immigrant population in the Mecca of beautiful illusions and to migration in general. Stoyanov tried to enrich this contrast by sabotaging reality and performing his art in the popular cooking show format, where he reveals the secret/recipe/his concept. He built his Farmville simulation not in a virtual but in a reallife yard ending up creating art out of soup and soup out of art. Svetlana Kuymdjieva Kamen Stoyanov Tomato Song Dear Andy, I brought the seed, will I succeed? Near La Brea grows an idea. Build a construction, is there a function? It is not so hard to make some art. In Hollywood they cook the soup. The Tomato grows, the time flows. In half an year they will appear. Upside down in the middle of the town. Where should I put the Bulgarian fruit. Should I plan to do the can or use the jar? What to take then home exept this song? The sort is giant is there a client?

95 from Stoyanov s Tomato Products, photografies, each 30x45cm

96 from Stoyanov s Tomato Products, photografies, each 30x45cm

97 from Stoyanov s Tomato Products, photografies, each 30x45cm

98 from Stoyanov s Tomato Products, photografies, each 30x45cm

99 Stoyanov s Tomato Products, installaton views, Credo Bonum Gallery, Sofia

100 Stoyanov s Tomato Products, artist book, edition of 10+1AP Stoyanov s Tomato Products, installaton view, Credo Bonum Gallery, Sofia

101 Untitled (L.A. 2012) video, 1min In this video Kamen Stoyanov intervenes in the cityscape in the City of Santa Monica, California. In a very precise composition of a discovered couch on the street and the highway on the background the artist uses his body as a counterpoint to the constant horizontal movement of the endless vehicle lanes. He plays with the moment of surprise and the absurd and demonstrates his appearance and artistic arrival in Los Angeles.

102 Be scared or be square Neon sign, video, 2012 Be scared or be square is a piece in which I transformed an abandoned place in Beverly hills for about a half-hour. I turned a hand written sentence on a paper A5, which I found in a cabin part of the abandoned building, into a white neon sign. The building was used before as a parking lot. Afterward I installed the neon sign on the cabin, switched it on using a car battery and walked around the cabin in a squere for about half-hour. The police had arrived just after the action had finished and I was taking the neon sign into the car.

103 A Hyphothesis performance in Wittgenstein House Vienna, video 7 min., 2012 Ludwig Wittgenstein did not like the classic curtains. For the house he build togheter wirh the architect Paul Engelmann he designed moving metal plates, which have the function of curtains for the large windows. The philosopher claimed that by designing these details, he displays the principles of his philosophy. This architecture is used as a means to exercise the logical thought. The performance of Kamen Stoyanov uses the same architecture not like exercise of the thought, but to exercise the body. He build an installation in order to use the metal plates of Wittgenstein as a part of fitness machine. The performance shows how the rhythmic raising and lowering of the curtain can be a perfect bodybuilding tool. Before the exercise, the artist reads a part of the chapter called object from Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle: Conversations Recorded by Friedrich Waismann devoted to the hypothesis. Then he shows his own hypothesis about the use of this architectural object.

104 Impossible Message video 17,50min., text and drawing on the wall, Seiji Inamine has been speaking his messages every week for the last ten years in the city of Nagoya. I was the first one who dared to talk to him. I asked him to perform his speech on a stage - scale wodeled balcony in one of the exhibition venues of the Aichi Triennial. He agreed under the condition to show the video in Europe. The director of the Triennial was scared of Inamine and of his presence at the exhibition therefore he and the chief curators met him in a coffe shop before the shooting. It was unusual expirience also for me that they were present during the shooting hiding themselves behind the corner in the cold space.

105 Cyclingtransportdemonstration oil on canvas 80x120cm, video 140 min., In Cyclingtransportdemonstration Kamen Stoyanov uses a pre-existing image to stimulate processes, stories and reflections, by revisiting a painting he did in 2002 which shows a scene of everyday life: people riding and demonstrating on bicycles. In 2011 the artist transported the picture by bicycle back from a gallery in Upper Austria where the painting was kept after it wasn t sold in an local artfair in order to send it to another artfair, this time with a video.

106 Forget it, we can t afford this neon, approx. 25x300cm, 2011

107 Running around the corner, neon, dimension variable, 2011

108 Yes Neon, 60x40cm, 2012 The artist s head, made by neon, shakes to the left and the right. It is placed opposite the Wittgenstein relief in the entrance of the house. It is an image of the philosopher, who was exploring the logic of language. Therefore it expresses clarity, while Stoyanov s head - ambiguity. Yes provokes the visitors deliberately in different ways. How can one read this movement? Is it an artistic play or is it a reference to the fact that the Haus is the Bulgarian Cultural Institute? Bulgarians nod their heads to the left and right to say yes. This movement is exactly the opposite of the movement for yes in other European nations.

109 Bringing Cultura performance, 2010 Kamen Stoyanov uses in his project for Fondatja Sonda the methapor of the transportation and the production of art goods and of goods in general to point out curent problems in the cultural poltics in his country and in Europe. Bringing Cultura is a performative work starting in Sofia and having his culmination in Maribor at the opening of his show where he takes the role of advertisier and seller. Text of the performance: Hello! As you see I have just arrived! I am coming direct from Sofia for this exhibition. I am very excited. This is my first time in Slovenia. I hope the 12 hours long trip was worth. You may wonder why I enter the gallery by car. Let me tell you that the car is full with CULTURE. Yes, culture. Bulgarian culture. Here in the boot. Come here, I am going to show you. Look, I brought you a full boot with bulgarian joghurt CUL- TURA. Just to understand the importance of this product I am going to tell you that 3 week ago a monument has been inaugurated. The Joghurt Monument. It represents the face of Stamen Grigorov who discovered the bacteria in the milk and which is called by him Lactobakterium Bulgaricum Grigoroff. He made this Bulgarian product famous in the whole world. One can read nowadays in the word bakterium a negative meaning, but let me remember you something. There is no bad advertisement! The same one can say of this monument. It might look for you a bit old fashioned in modernist style. But who cares. This monument had been inaugurated by the minister of agriculture, but I think that it should has been opened also by the minister of culture. In his short speech the minister said, that we have to give a new vitality to the image of the Bulgarian yoghurt worldwide. Just three weeks ago. I was already working on this project. Such an Intuition! Well I came to this from a different perspective. I must tell you that the bulgarian culture suffers a lot.

110 The budget for culture has been cut again. I am not a specialist to go into details in the different segments of the cultural production and how the things look like. I could just shortly tell you about the visual arts. In Sofia, there are about 3 off spaces and 2 or 3 institutions exhibiting contemporary art and not even one commercial gallery for this kind of activity. So you can understand why I am mostly not in the country, but traveling around Europe with some culture. Since there is no interest and money for art production in Bulgaria I decided to take the initiative and to start with this simple essential product with the hope that one day the circle will be closed and I will have something back for my hard work! Artists nowadays are businessmen traveling all over the world. Some are big, others, like me, just small ones. And you as cultural consumers have the possibility to support this circle as well. I paid for a can of yoghurt about 50 euro cent. I have to add the trip costs. The taxes for the highway and the money I paid for the fuel; all together 150 euro. And I am not counting my working time. So we come to a price of about 1 euro for a can. Look at me. After 13 hours of traveling I have still a lot of energy. Why? Because I have been only consuming the Culture. No pleskavica, no aivar, just Kultura. Please, take! The yoghurt contains almost everything you need. 1 euro for a piece. And if you want to have it with my signature with Latin or Cyrillic letters by your choice, it will only cost you twice the price. So you can choose: 1 euro just the yoghurt or 2 euro for the yoghurt with the artists signature. Thank you! Bringing Cultura, stills from the Video

111 Cultural Moussaka video 9.45min., photos, 2 oil paintings, each 30x40, 2010 When you want to approach the cultural politics of different countires and to connect them to contemporary artistic practices, there are different ways to do so. Kamen Stoyanov uses in his video work Cultural Moussaka the format of a TV cooking show in order to attract the spectators attention to the different aspects of the artistic work. The video he produced for the Aichi Triennale 2010 in Nagoya, treats different layers dealing in a subtile way with the cultural representation, cultural politics of Austria and Bulgaria and the figure of the artist in between. Stoyanov shows us how to prepare Moussaka, a famous meal in Bulgaria, which is by chance the favourite meal of the Bulgarian sumo fighter Kootoshu, a big celebrity in Japan. There are different elements which Stoyanov uses in order to tell us the story about the failed attempt to be supported by the Bulgarian Embassy in Japan for his participation in the Triennale. At the first place this is the story itself: the embassy lacking money, proposed to send the embassy chef to cook for the opening of the exhibition, but soon, also this idea failed as the chef had been dismissed from work, due to lack of money. So the Bulgarian embassy missed the opportunity to represent the country also on the culinaric level. As a compensation Stoyanov made a trip to Bulgaria, met the mother of Kootoshu and took the recipe for the famous Moussaka. An artist takes the role of the chef in front of the camera in order to tell us in between how the cultural politics in his country of origin functions, but also tell us that an artist always relies on himself. The art of cooking and the sports are very important part of the Bulgarian culture of everyday life, so big, that these became the main export cultural products of the country, where even the traditional Bulgarian yoghurt is named Cultura as we see in Stoyanov s Cooking Show and the most important figure is the one of the Bulgarian fighter. Vasilena Gankovska Cultural Moussaka 9.45 min., still from the video, 2010

112 Cultural Moussaka 9.45 min., stills from the video, 2010

113 Cultural Moussaka 9.45 min., stills from the video, 2010

114 Cultural Moussaka two photos in real size mounted on cardboard

115 Formula photogarhy and hand written text, each 80x120cm, 2011

116 On 27th of August 2011 I decided to make a short trip from Sofia to Borovetz in the Rila mountains. There was a rock festival in a village next to the resort Borovetz. A friend of mine had a birthday. She likes rock music and I like to make trips. A perfect combination in the hot summer. After I started the day with a coffee around 1pm I went to pick her up from the flat. She was a bit nervous and was preparing a special pizza. The time was running and I also became nervous because I wanted to see the mountains and to swim in a nice hotel pool. My wish to cool a bit was very strong, hers not so much. She wasn t a swimmer. Finally around 3pm, after we ate the pizza, left the apartment and started the trip. On the way to Rila mountains one passes by the Iskar reservoir - the biggest one in Bulgaria. It supplies the water for Sofia. I just visited it with friends some weeks ago. They showed me a nice place next to the road where one can swim. I was ensnared by the idea to stop shortly. It was around 4 pm. May be just a short refreshing swim and then straight to the rock festival. After many tries to find the same place I knew and I liked, finally I saw it and we parked the car next to another one. We took the swiming accessoirs, the camera and the documents and went down to the water. It was behind the trees, not more than 50 meters away. The water was warm, the wind was fresh and made very nice waves. I had swum for about 10 minutes. Than we looked at the landscape and took some pictures of it and ourselves.then we went up to the car to fulfill our plan. I was thinking how nice it is to drive with wet hair and cool mind. We discovered that somebody has unlocked the car. All of the doors and the booth as well. Nothing was missing inside. Very misterious. The electric cabel, the fire drencher, my sleeping bag, they were all there. Strange. Than I turned the key. Ups...The battery was stolen! Shit. We can t move... We saw the broken window of the next car. Another was with an open one. We ran down to say to the other people to check their cars. A boy jumped and ran as fast as possible. His Pegeout wasn t touched. It was a new one, with alarm and protection sticker! My car is old, without kasko insurance and alarm protection. Either one pays to the insurance and security companies or have to pay in case of steal! There is no way in between.these people invited us to take something from their barbecue. One of the girls had also birthday. We had some beer. I ate some sausages to calm down. At the same time a car was fighting to come up and made a lot of dust. It was parked very close to the water. There were stones and ground. It wasn`t a place for cars. This guy wanted to avoid the danger of thiefs. His present problem was big, but sure smaller than mine. I decided to go to the next village to look for a battery. It was saturday and almost 6 pm. The boy with the Pegeout was so nice to drive me there. On the way close to the first village we stopped in a restaurant to ask the owner for advice. He said there is no car service in the village and that we should go to Sofia. We left disappointed. Suddenly the owner screamed to us to wait. There is a battery in the restaurant! They use it in the winter. It belongs to a guy called Angel and he was sitting inside right now. Angel was so nice to borrow me the battery for a day till I buy a new one. I was saved. We can go to the concert. A real angel. The concert was not worth. Those Bulgarian rock musicians sang faulty and we decided to return to the city.on the next day I bought a new battery and started again the trip to the Iskar reservoir in order to return the car battery to the Angel. It was again hot, but this time I was prepared with tools and I took the new battery with me to the water.

117 ARTZIONE-TIMEZONE video, photos, text on the wall, t-shirt, diary 2009 In his newest project, Artzone-Timezone, Kamen Stoyanov goes into the 798 Art Zone in Peking in order to get to know the works of art there in through a game and to understand the imported Western marketing mechanisms. From this he develops a hip-hop song sung by two Chinese musicians to show where art and entertainment intersect. Elsy Lahner

118 ARTZIONE-TIMEZONE, exhibition view, Salzburger Kunstverein

119 ARTZIONE-TIMEZONE, exhibition view, Salzburger Kunstverein

120 TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY Instruktion für ein Spiel, Flizschtift auf Papier, A5, 2008

121 Which one should I buy? video, two printed and framed chats 2008 The video work Which one should I buy? models the process that takes place between collectors and gallerists when a work of art is purchased. Throughout the experiment two gallerists, Gábor Kozák and Margit Valkó, compete against each other in making the collectors, Zsolt Somlói and Katalin Spengler, buy the piece offered by them. The participants, however, remain incognito to one another, and even the artworks up for sale remain unseen by the collectors. Communication is conducted through chat, using only written verbal communication in a dialogue about visual phenomena. But is a work of art exclusively visual? The collectors prying questions and the strategies used by the gallerists tell a lot about the principles governing the art market. Meanwhile,visuality is successfully - or unsuccessfully - translated into linguistic structures before our eyes. The exhibition presents a video documenting the two bargainings and the encounter/exposure, as well as a photograph representing the text of the chat talks. Tijana Stepanovic Which one should I buy?,exhibition view, Salzburger Kunstverein

122 Which one should I buy?, Stills aus dem Video

123 Which one should I buy?, chat between the gallery Kisterem (Budapest) and the collectors Katalin Spengler und Zsolt Somlói

124 Which one should I buy?, chat between the gallery Godot (Budapest) and the collectors Katalin Spengler und Zsolt Somlói

125 A small story about KULTURA silk screened text on newspaper, 2010 Hello Kamen, the story with the nephew. I needed a couple of minutes to get what are you talking about. I totally forgot this story. As far I remember he was tree years old and we were passing by a newspaperkiosk in Sofia. The other nephew, she is a bit older wanted to buy her a dvd and the nephew, who wasnt interessted in dvds at that time wanted a newspaper. I asked the seller just to give me any newspaper, which she din t manage to sell and she didn t need and which she is going to trow away or to give back. And she gave me the newspaper KULTURA. I was dieing from laugh. My nephew was happy, I wasnt reading Kultura for long time and I was also satisfied. That is the storry. I am very curious waht are you going to do with it. Best, Ilina Kamen Stoyanov shows in his current project for 0gms the newspaper KULTURA, with a short story printed on the front page. Through some small interventions, deleting the original text and then pasting the new information, Stoyanov reverses the empty space in ironical way leaving the spectator enough space for interpretation. But indeed, there is nothing to think about, as the emptiness of the pages shows enough that the KULTURA in Bulgaria moves between the surplus and the lack.

126 A Painting you cannot hang crooked acrylic on canvas, mathematic formula, video, 2010 A Painting you cannot hang crooked, 2010, the artist again creates a particular game like situation, one step follows the other, leading to the creation of an art piece, namely a black and white canvas as a direct reference to Malevich s iconic work. The narrative story of the making of the black and white composition begins in the museum in Cetinje, where Kamen Stoyanov set straight the canvas of the work by Velio Stanisic, entitled Crisis in the Balance. The short, only thirty seconds long, intervention in the museum, turns into a task for the artist to improve as if the idea / convention of the canvas. Making comment on the Black Square as a work - manifestation simultaneously of simplicity, artist s supremacy and total completeness, abstraction and perfection of the art peace, Kamen Stoyanov creates a round canvas. A canvas never could be hanged askew. The work breaks not only the convention of the form of the canvas itself and the practices of exposition, but the very convention of the art historical narrative patterns, where the artist is an absolute figure, a unique creator of the art piece. In Kamen Stoyanov s work the particular creator could be anybody (although in this case the instructions are to the people in the gallery, who will sell the art peace as well), the artist himself takes a position of an authority, who gives an instruction how the work to be painted. The instruction takes the form of the formula the face of the black circle should be equal to the rest of the white canvas. As if the artist s makes shift in the idea of the abstraction abstraction which is not in the created image, but in the coded language of the instruction, the very sign system of the formula. Vladiya Mihaylova

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129 Disneylend Express stickers, light box, 2008 A sticker Disneylend Express appears in the four Manifetsta 7 venues without to be mentioned that this is an art work, part of the biennial. A blinking luminous advertising with the same text is exhibited in Rovereto in ex- Peterlini, which is open 24 hours. It blinks every two seconds in biennale rhythm. With this work I would like to emphasize on the authorized and not-authorized participation in an art exhibition as a projection surface for different ideas and desires and also for the assimilation and the commercialization of the aesthetics of anarchist practices.the stickers could be taken from the ManifeStation- an manifesta exhibition project on the railway station in Rovereto. The station appears as a binding spot of one theme park to the next, of one Manifesta-station to the next. Disneylend Express, exhibition view, Rovereto trainstation, Manifesta 7

130 Disneylend Express, Dokumentation, Rovereto, Manifesta 7

131 Underground Butterflies Installation, composed of 36 color slides & a paper butterfly, gold-plated, 2007 In his slide projection and video work Underground butterflies (2007), Stoyanov documents a man selling artificial butterflies in a subway passage in Rome. The slides follow the order, in which the man puts piece by piece onto the wall until he asfinally produced a rectangular pattern of meticulously ordered objects. Here, it is the photographic sequence, which is turned into a proto-filmic scenario to articulate what can only be perceived over a longer period of time. Walter Seidl

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133 La vie en rose Installation,video, wood, ligcht, 2008 Diese Videoinstallation geht der Frage der unkonventionellen Raumerfahrung nach. In einem Tunnel in Paris, der nur sonntags für Flaneure und Radfahrer zugänglich ist, habe ich einen Strassenmusiker aus Paris in diesem ungewöhlichen Ort zu spielen, gebeten. Der düstere und dampfige Tunnel entlang der Tuilerien ist einen Kilometer lang. Über ihn befindet sich der Louvre. Es ist nicht nur eine neue Erfahrung für den Musiker, sondern vor allem für die vorbeigehenden und fahrenden Leute, die auf diese Weise den Raum akustischer und sinnlicher wahrnehmen. Die romantische Musik, die er normalerweise bei der Saine spielt, steht im Kontrast zu dem dunklen und grauen Tunnel. Diese Situation weist auf die präkere Situation der Straßenmusiker hin. Das Video wird in einer Tunnelartigen Konstruktion gezeigt und hängt von der Decke. Man wird vom Ton und Licht animiert in den Tunnel reinzuschauen. Die Konstruktion wird von aussen mit blinkenden Lichtern bedeckt, ähnlich wie der Eiffelturm in der Nacht. La vie en rose, stills from the video

134 Move Your Hands video, 5.30 min, 2007 The video Move your Hands shows a bulgarian woman playing a folk instrument in front of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. The fiddling noise, which does not really produce a melody is contrasted with the city cleaners work to undo graffiti next to where the woman is sitting. With stubbornness, the woman does not even move out of the way when the water splashes into her direction. Instead, the noise of the instrument and the cleaners coalesce with the static poses of the involved people. Move Your Hands, still from the video

135 Move Your Hands, Stills aus dem Video

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137 Phantom video, min, 2007 Kamen Stoyanov s works revolve around the social realities our time: migration, uses of public space, urban life. For his photographes and videos Stoyanov selects emotionally charged imagery full of narrative allusions. On a black wall we see only a section of a shirt with a fly, hands and an accordion. Just as fleeting as the sounds. like a memory that is vanishing, a faceless person plays here. In this reduced video the fate of all street musicians seems captured in a black space, confirming the exchangeability of all streets. Sabine B. Vogl Phantom, still from the video Phantom, exhibition view, trainstation Rovereto, Manifesta 7

138 Persona 2 canal video, 80 min, 2008 Kamen Stoyanov s videofilm Persona was shot in a cinema in Sofia in which foreign language films are not shown dubbed or with subtites but are translated by a live interpreter. She sits ina acabin, watches Ingmar Bergman s Psychodrama Persona and simultaneosly interpretes the dialogue. Persona is famous for its psychological understanding of an exchange of roles. A successful ctres suddenly refuses to talk and a nurse takes care of and entertains her. In the process the two women exchange identities: the actress becomes the silent observer and the nurse, who is otherwise the attentive listener, becomes the active talker. Both of them are fascinated by the unfamiliarity and strangeness of the other. Starting from Bergman s film, Stoyanov shows a simultaneous translation and transfer that takes place on a number of levels. The basis for this is a complex shift of identity, is a figure that also appears whenever a film is viewed. One has to be in the film, to assume the identities, in oreder to understand the film at all. That goes so far that Stoyanov s interpreter has similarities with the actress in Bergman s film. In addtion these shifts are accentuated on the level of translation: from Swedish into Bulgarian and the into written German and English. Mathias Michalka

139 Persona, stills from the video

140 Hello Lenin 5 c-prints, each 40 x 30 cm, 2003 The series of photographs Hello Lenin (2003) is a documentation of a performance Kamen Stoyanov did in his hometown Rousse in Bulgaria in the summer of It shows him climbing on an empty pedestal, whose statue had been removed 13 years ago. Formerly, the statue of Lenin was placed here. Stoyanov wanted to demonstrate how the statue had disappeared but not its ideology; it has just been replaced by a new one.

141 Hello Lenin, 5 c-prints, each 40 x 30 cm, 2003

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143 The small eiffel tower meets the big one, still from the video

144 Paris, I was there, c-print, 150x105 cm

145 Untitled c-print, 250x160 cm, 2007 The photograph Untitled from 2007 confronts us upon first glance with a rather common view of a huge fashion billboard. Upon second glance we recognize the perverse fact that this picture of a model in a chic raincoat covers the clearly eroded courrugated metal roof of a house, actually a dingly little shack or barrack with a narrow oven pipe jutting out of it. First of all, we are clearly forced into the position of a motorized passeerby, whose fleeting reception registers only the image that illustrates its context*. It would come as no surprise if some of those street artists and souvenir peddlers viewed as competitors and kin to artistic praxis in public space in Stoyanov s works come from living conditions just like these. Christian Kravagna * The picture was taken from a heavily trafficked arterial road in an outlying district of Rome

146 Tiger Steps dall, photographs, objects, sound 2007 This project deals with the cafeteria and pastry shop Tiger Steps in the TZUM (Central Department Store) in Sofia. The TZUM is one of the most exclusive shopping malls in Sofia. It is situated in the very center of the Bulgarian capital. It has already been known a so-called shopping paradise during socialist times. Even Sundays, one can buy goods here which cannot be found elsewhere. The new owners of the mall built a new cafeteria and pastry shop that displays a real tiger in a cage of glass. The female tiger named Schakti has spent already four months of its life in here. A tiger-doll tells this curious story of the tiger from its prospective in a very ironic way. Objects and photographs are proof to the truthfulness of the story. Tiger Steps, Ausstellungsansicht, MUMOK, Wien Spoken text by the doll: My name is Shakti. I am a siberian tiger. I was born in a zoo in the Czech republic. I hardly remember anything about the time I spent there. I was taken away from there by Mister Georgy Gerov. He was very kind to me and promised me a new and better home. That`s how I came to Sofia. My home is not somewhere at the end of the city with the other animals like me. It is in the very center of the Bulgarian capital on the third floor of the department store called CUM. CUM is not just some kind of a department store. It was the shopping paradise of Bulgria.People from all over the country used to come here. Nowadays most people who come just take a look around, and many of them actually come to see me. My place is the pastry shop called Tiger Steps. I live there behind a glass wall under perfect conditions. My house combines modern technology with the old traditions. Everything is furnished in the style of a Buddhist temple. It is safe, comfortable and air-conditioned. From my place I can watch the two large TV flatscreens showing nice videoclips and commercials. Within the same building, which is very big, is the chair of the Bulgarian government. The residency of the President is on the opposite side of the street. I am a symbol. I am the tigress of the Balkan. I have heard that they intend to put me back into the Zoo. But why?

147 Tiger Steps, installation view, MUMOK, Vienna

148 Tiger Steps, 3-cprints, each 21x28 cm, 2 coaster