Brittle Power
group exhibition and educational program
Rada Bukova, Lachezar Boyadzhiev, Pravdolyub Ivanov, Vikenti Komitski, Rudi Ninov, Nedko Solakov, Mariana Vasileva, Sibin Vassilev
Curators: Rene Block and Veselina Sarieva
5.06.2021 – 5.09.2021
Kunsthal 44Møen, Moen, Denmark
The Open Arts Foundation is pleased to be a partner in the Brittle Power project, which opens the 2021 season at Kunsthal 44Møen, a space for international exhibitions in Denmark.
“Brittle Power” is an exhibition and educational program for the presentation of Bulgarian contemporary art, initiated by Rene Block.
As a co-curator Veselina Sarieva is invited to implement the educational program and to present the activities of the Open Arts Foundation, including the book “Introduction to Bulgarian Contemporary Art (1982-2015)” and the website – archive for Bulgarian contemporary art: Openartfiles.bg . As part of the program, a panel discussion will be organized with the artists participating in the exhibition and the curators, and a lecture tour will be held with the artist Lachezar Boyadzhiev in the exhibition.
Chosen by Rene Block, the exhibition “Brittle Power” will show selected works created in recent years by artists: Rada Bukova, Lachezar Boyadzhiev, Pravdolyub Ivanov, Vikenti Komitski Rudi Ninov, Nedko Solakov, Mariana Vasileva and Sibin Vassilev, including drawings, paintings, sculptures, installations, video works and sound installation.Some of the participants will create specially for the exhibition site-specific works and works on site in Kunsthal 44Møen.
The works in “Brittle Power” give the feeling of swinging between illusion and reality, shaken by dreams, assumptions and constructed bizarre utopias. In the materials and concepts used, they travel from the past to the present and playfully explore the principles, structures and vibrations of different roles, times, positions and characters.
Bulgaria and Denmark, two relatively small countries located in the south and north of Europe, do not have much in common, except for their slightly peripheral location within Europe. Culturally, they have undergone very different developments and created art scenes that are still relatively unknown to each other. While artists in Denmark have received large public and private funding through the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and numerous museums, institutions, galleries and contemporary art spaces, the contemporary art scene in Bulgaria must establish itself against massive political resistance and infrastructure deficits from the 1980s years of the last century. It is this lack of institutions and institutionalization – even after 1989 – that gives rise to extraordinary collective as well as individual creativity, which leads to strategies for self-institutionalization and the creation of various “individualisms.” While contemporary art in Bulgaria is viewed mostly in the context of rebellion and scandal, it won international recognition, starting with Bulgaria’s participation in the Istanbul Biennale in the early 1990s, it led to several endeavors to explore the Balkan region in the early 2000s, namely in 2003. with two parallel large-scale exhibitions: “In the Deep of the Balkans” by Rene Block at the Kunsthalle Fridericianum, and “Blood and Honey / The Future is in the Balkans” by Harald Zeeman at the Sammlung Essl in Vienna.
With Bulgaria’s accession to the EU in 2007, the cultural scene in Bulgaria has also undergone massive changes with increasing liberalization; cultural institutions develop on the principle of grass roots and the collective practices of networking replace those of existential individualization. In particular in Plovdiv and Sofia a lively young and cosmopolitan art scene appears, which is to be opened in the north. The official system in Bulgaria also reflects on these grassroots developments and not even as a consistent policy, the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture initiated several times national participation in the Venice Biennale.
“Brittle Power” aims to show different generations of artists who are an example of the development of the contemporary art scene in Bulgaria since the 80s of the last century and to present for the first time in Denmark developing authors together with established representatives of the first generation of Bulgarian contemporary art.
Curators: Rene Block and Veselina Sarieva
Educational program
5.06.2021 (Saturday), 11: 00-17: 00 – Opening.
5.06.2021 (Saturday), 14:00 – Lecture tour with Lachezar Boyadzhiev in the exhibition “Brittle Power”.
June 5, 2021 (Saturday), 3:00 pm – Presentation and conversation with co-curator Veselina Sarieva and the artists: Lachezar Boyadzhiev, Pravdolyub Ivanov, Mariana Vasileva, Rada Bukova, Vikenti Komitski, Sibin Vassilev.
The project is implemented with the financial support of the “Program for Support of Professional Organizations in the Field of Art” of the National Fund “Culture” and Augustinus Fonden, 15. Juni Fonden and Vordingborg Kommune.
Partner: Open Arts Foundation
More information: http://www.44moen.dk/
Kunsthal 44Møen, Fanefjordgade 44, 4792 Askebi, Denmark
Phone: +45 2883 2483, info@44moen.dk, http://www.44moen.dk/
Working hours: Wednesday-Sunday, 11: 00-17: 00, from 5.06.2021 to 5.09.2021
About the curators:
Rene Block is a curator, collector and gallery owner from Berlin. He has worked with world-renowned artists such as Sigmar Polke, Josef Boyce, Gerhard Richter and Nam June Pike. It is closely connected with the study and dissemination of the Fluxus movement and has one of the most significant collections of works from this trend. He was the director of the Fridericianum Museum in Kassel, Germany. He is the curator of the 4th Istanbul Biennale (1995). Founder of the TANAS space (Berlin), as well as the Block Edition, which was established in 1966 and is one of the oldest such projects for publishing works by contemporary artists in limited editions.
Veselina Sarieva is an author, art manager, gallery owner, curator, art consultant. She deals with contemporary art, literature, urban development, spatial development. She co-founded with Katrin Sarieva a cluster of organizations connected in a common ecosystem: Sariev Gallery, Plovdiv since 2004, Open Arts Foundation since 2007, artnewscafe, Plovdiv – cafe and community center since 2008 and an open mobile art stage and culture – FLUCA from 2016. Famous projects created and developed by Sarieva are the Festival “Night of Museums and Galleries” (2005-2019), educational platform “Introduction to Contemporary Art” (since 2011); “Focus: Bulgaria” at viennacontemporary 2015; The portal www.OpenArtFiles.bg; Artnewscafe newsletter (since 2008).
Kunsthal 44 Møen is an international exhibition space located on the island of Moen in southern Denmark. The art gallery was founded in 2008 by German curator and collector Rene Block in close collaboration with a group of friends who are strongly attached to the island: Danish artist Bjorn Norgaard, Danish experimental composer and Fluxus artist Henning Christiansen. 44Møen presents an ambitious exhibition program involving both emerging and established artists from Denmark and abroad. The exhibition space program reflects the legacy of its founders such as “FLUXUS”, the Copenhagen School of Painting (“Ex-Skolen”) and experimental music from a rich public program including talks, performances, concerts and educational activities.Kunsthal 44 Møen runs a program for residencies of artists, curators and researchers.
Open Arts Foundation
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