"THE WEIGHT OF BEING"

Participants:
Ariel Reichman (Izrael / Germany), Boriana Ventsislavova (Bulgaria / Austria), Desislava Terzieva (Bulgaria / USA), Elena Bellantoni (Italy / Germany), Emil Mirazchiev (Bulgaria), Lachezar Boiadjiev (Bulgaria), Selma Selman (Bosna and Herzegovina / USA), Sevdalina Kochevska (Bulgaria), Venelin Shurelov (Bulgaria), Veronika Tcekova (Bulgaria / Austria).


Curator Galina Dimitrova-Dimova

After Milan Kundera"s The Unbearable Lightness of Being

At the core of the project concept laid the antagonisms: weight and lightness, freedom and dependence, responsibility and passivity.
The theme refers to the desires and longings of nowadays humans, but also the responsibilities and dependencies that they give rise to. Like the desire to free ourselves from activities and cares in order to have more time for ourselves. This is a contemporary obsession to gain time from our everyday activities in order to dedicate or invest it in our health and self-improvement. Although in most cases, we end up consuming something, and thus fulfilling marketing agendas, or wasting calories in pointless movements in the gym...
Here we consider time as a value, as a unit of measurement or a coin of exchange that we use to fulfill our desires. This currency is observed again in the perspective of the human desire to free ourselves - from thoughts, actions, and responsibilities. It is often linked to our seemingly easy abdication of responsibility with the statement "it"s not up to me", combined with a constant sense of frustration turns us into slackers who always have someone to blame for our unenviable fate, or into modern-day slaves who sell their most precious possessions - time, thoughts and ideas - to capitalize them into a comfortable existence.
It is responsibility and the determination to act, however, that gives meaning to our existence, gives significance to our being. As much as this overwhelming burden scares us it can only bring us the feeling of living with dignity.
And the beauty, as the last thing that supports us in this difficult path. "Beauty as error, the last phase of evolution" (after Kundera)
The conceptual framework of the Week of Contemporary Art, Plovdiv 2022 will be the call to reclaim the weight of existence and the poetics of the image that lightens and lifts us from the ground, because "Creativity for humans is like flying for birds"

Dedicated to Plamen Dimov, for the sacrifices we make in the difficult path of realizing the unbearable lightness of being.

The format of the 2022 Contemporary Art Week in Plovdiv will be art in public space and will include temporary artistic interventions in the urban environment in the form of installations, performances or guerrilla actions that refer to the theme.

On September 3, from 6 to 8 p.m., a conference will be held with the motto "Call the city, call the people". It will examine artistic interventions in urban environments, as an artistic practice that seeks engagement or interaction with the public
The opening of the event is on September 3 at 8 p.m., after which the performance "MirroMorphosis" by Irina Stoyanova and Hristo Zhelev will take place.

Week of Contemporary Art is supported by the Goethe-Institut, Municipality of Plovdiv and the City Art Gallery - Plovdiv and the financial support of the National Fund "Culture"

Art Today Association

Presents

ART POSITIVE 2022

Kapana Gallery
Plovdiv, 29 Rayko Daskalov Street

23.03. - 20.04. 2022
Opening: 23.03.22, 18 pm

Work time:
Tuesday - Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00 h
day off: Monday

FREEDOM

The 15th edition of Art Positive shows us again an exciting topic - about freedom, eternal and increasingly relevant in the modern context of the war. Although created and planned before these events, the works in the exhibition seem to add new dimensions that bring us even closer to the meaning of this topic.
With this topic, we hope to shake off our excessive focus on the pandemic and take a full look at the painful, never-ending and complex issue of freedom. With this topic, we hope to shake off our excessive focus on the pandemic and take a full look at the painful and yet eternal and complex issue of freedom. The search, as well as the embodiment of freedom, are primordial human dimensions that should unite and elevate us all. Freedom as a collective, not just an individual phenomenon, carries within itself a conscious responsibility to others, as well as to the social and natural environment. It is actually the key to a better world.
Freedom can be seen through various social, political, cultural, artistic and spiritual thematics - such as freedom and society; freedom and social differences; political forms of freedom; freedom, gender and sexuality; freedom and ecology; spiritual, physical and creative dimensions of freedom, and others. Reflections on the many aspects of freedom will be presented through the innovative approach of Art Positive, which will bring together young and already established artists together to exhibit works to us using all mediums of contemporary art.
Text: Kalina Peycheva

Participants: Aaron Roth, Biser Kirilov, Velina Hristova, Dorian Bolca, Eva Petkova, Elena Savova, Emi Kurtova, Emil Mirazchiev, Women of the Edge, Iva Vacheva, Ivan Ivanov, Ivan Karev, Ivelina Ivanova, Iliana Manukova, Mira Mohsen, Mitch Brezunek, Nadia Genova, Osman Yuseinov, Petar Kochevski, Sarkis Nersesyan, Sevdalina Kochevska, Sofia Grancharova, Harita Asumani, Yana Kostova.

The exhibition is realized with the financial support of the Municipality of Plovdiv and the
National Fund "Culture"

Media partners: BNT2, Radio Katra FM, MediaCafe, въпреки.com, Pod tepeto

Art Positive is a project of the Art Today Association, a member of the international network of German cultural societies abroad at the Goethe-Institut.

Art Today Association

Center for Contemporary Art – Plovdiv

Open Call

Artists working in Plovdiv are invited to present a project for the exhibition FREEDOM, the fifteenth edition of ART POSITIVE, which will be held from March 23 to April 20, 2022. in Kapana Gallery, Plovdiv. If you wish to submit a project, please send an application to office@arttoday.org for detailed information. Projects are accepted until February 5, 2022.

Art Today Association


WEEK OF CONTEMPORARY ART 2021

CONTEXTUS
TEMPORARY ARTISTIC INTERVENTIONS IN A PUBLIC ENVIRONMENT

11.09 - 18.09.2021

Opening 11.09, 18:00, Stanislav Dospevski St., City art gallery of fine arts, Plovdiv .
Johan Lorbeer"s Tarzan performance

Art is not there simply to be understood. ...
It is more the sense of an indication or suggestion.
Joseph Beuys

INTRODUCTION
Art, or more simply, "artistic interventions" in a public urban environment are among the earliest forms of human artistic activity. Practically, the paintings in the caves (the great-great-parents of today"s graffiti) were a form of public communication through art. Chronologically, they precede the gallery and museum formats considered as classicstoday. The modern or more precisely the contemporary understanding of the concept dates back to the middle of the 20th century. Two of the main characteristics of this type of projects are their democracy and social commitment. In this context, the terms democratic and social should be understood in their broadest sense. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of the most influential and significant artists of the 20th century Joseph Beuys. Beuys"s basic concept-idea can be summarized as follows –

„regardless of their origin, culture, sexual orientation, education or profession, everyone is a creative person by birth, they can form and transform their own life and the society in which they exist…“

As idealistic as these thoughts may seem today, artistic interventions in public space directly and/or indirectly influence and change the social environment. It is this characteristic that underlies the idea of the CONTEXTUS project.

THE PROJECT
CONTEXTUS includes a series of art installations and actions of contemporary artists that will be realized in Plovdiv in 2021. The project does not aim to put the authors in a narrow formal or conceptual framework. The aim is for artists to develop their projects in the context of public space (architectural, social and temporal).

The Latin word CONTEXTUS, which can generally be translated as "connection, coherence", illustrates the interdependence sought in the project between the environment (as an architectural and social fact) and intervention-art.

Another important aspect that again refers to Beuys is the inevitable "interactivity." Placed in the public space, the art object/action provokes a reaction.

These reactions can be of different nature:
- direct, when the spectator with his actions directly participates in the artistic process,

- indirect, when changes in the environment lead to a change in behavior,

- on a mental level, when the given art object provokes certain thoughts beyond the object-intervention in its aesthetic sense, etc.

The individual events (installations, performances, etc.) will be realized at different times and places in Plovdiv. This will allow the project to be focused on each individual action and, accordingly, to provoke public attention for a longer period of time.

Text: Yohannes Artinyan

Participants:
7+1 Art group (Yohannes Artinyan, Pancho Kurtev, Ilko Nikolchev, Kamen Tsvetkov) – art installation “XL PROJECT” (Underpass “Chifte Hamam”)
Johan Lorbeer, Berlin – “Tarzan” (Facade of City art gallery of fine arts, Plovdiv) ; video works (Showcases on the main street)
Marina Popska – “The Ideal”, art installation, felt objects (The excavations in front of the Central Post Office)
Sandro Arabyan – “In the beginning”, photo installation (Underpass of the Tunnel – North)
Sevdalina Kochevska – “bad Beuys”, neon (Central showcase of City gallery of fine arts); “Links”, art installation-performance (The excavations in front of the Central Post Office)
Tsvetan Krastev– “Game with the Sea”, video installation (The fountain with the Pelicans); video works (Showcases on the main street)

Guerrilla actions in public with videos of Johan Lorbeer and Kiril Kuzmanov

Curator Yohannes Artinyan

The Week of Contemporary Art is a project by Art Today Association, a member of Goethe-Institut"s international network of German cultural societies abroad.

With the support of Municipality of Plovdiv, Goethe-Institut Bulgaria, National Culture Fund Bulgaria

Media partners: BNT2, въпреки.com, Katra FM, Pod tepeto, Media Cafe, Kapana

Art Today Association

ART POSITIVE 2021

[Un]Reality
virtual tour