June 19 – July 30, 2021
Hall 7, Museum of Humor and Satire – Gabrovo
Opening: June 18, 6:30 p.m.
The opening of the exhibition “Georgi Chapkanov through the eyes of Ivan Bakalov” will take place on Friday, June 18, at 6:30 pm in Hall 7 of the Museum of Humor and Satire. Between June 19 and July 30, the audience will enjoy 31 black-and-white photographs by journalist Ivan Bakalov, some of which follow the creation of sculptures by Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in Humor Park. In the hall will be arranged 10 sculptures by Georgi Chapkanov from the collection of the Museum.
An artist and a journalist are intertwined in the magic of creativity and documenting the creative process. For years, the journalist Ivan Bakalov photographed the sculptor Georgi Chapkanov in his studio, chasing the signs of the imperishable in life, capturing through his lens emotions, memories, associations, questions and thoughts. The sculptor Georgi Chapkanov does the same, but more slowly, in the style of carefully constructed handwriting. They both examine the small detail that encodes the truth about the whole picture. Sometimes they are in the company of companions and judges, accomplices and supporters.
In the long years of their acquaintance, Ivan Bakalov left markers for significant meetings with that outgoing bohemian of skeptics, thinkers, sages, who jokingly and ironically cross contrasting territories. The unintentional negligence of his photographs are like notes under a line of an unwritten story about an entire epoch, through which Georgi Chapkanov’s creative life passes with hard work and philanthropy.
And he is probably the most productive Bulgarian sculptor, says Bakalov. Famous and lesser-known personalities pass through his studio – writers, artists, rich people, diplomats. Chapkanov creates small sculptures and monumental sculptures, plaques, bas-reliefs, coins, medals, coats of arms, ceramics, bronze portraits, graphics, paintings, sculptures from secondary raw materials; figures on the squares in Bulgaria, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Germany.
The current exhibition, created by the eighth PhotoFactory and UniCredit Studio festival, is without a doubt part of the Bulgarian memory and a shared homage to the talent of a generously gifted person.
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