Art Today Association
Center for Contemporary Art - Plovdiv
The Ancient Bath

WEEK OF CONTEMPORARY ART 2016

THE EDGE MUSEUM

The Edge Group is a complete phenomenon that exemplifies the strongest manifestations of Bulgarian conceptualist art at the beginning of the 1990ies. Formed in January 1989, the group is a synthesis of the two main principle used to form artistic groups in the country at the time – the territorial and the conceptual. The artists who founded the group are: Albena Mihaylova, Veneta Marinova, Dancho Grigorov, Dimitar Grozdanov, Dimitar Kelbechev, Dimitar Mitovski, Emil Mirazchiev, Ivaylo Grigorov, Igor Boudnikov, Kolio Karamfilov, Monika Romenska, Nadia Genova, Pavel Albert, and Roumen Zhekov. The larger part of the founding members of the newly established group was already known to the Bulgarian audience with their work in non-conventional idioms.

By establishing the Edge Group the artists were reacting to the crucial political events of the time, but also to the possibility to state clearly their radical position concerning the change in the artistic practices in Bulgaria. Participating artists claimed a strict aesthetic and ideological position that outlined the future development of the group. It was based on clear cut concepts, materialized in new artistic ways, with strong social engagement and adequate creative attitudes towards the political and artistic reality in the country. The unpublished program of the group states clearly that the group refuses to partake in the “mechanized, centralized, ideology-ridden, pseudo-cultural system”. The Edge Group stated that they stand in defense of the new type of communicating the art work, of the new types and genres in art, and of artistic realization, which is “different from the old societal mechanisms and political conformism.” Among the main goals of the group was the meaningful exchange with the international art and the inclusion of Bulgarian artists in the global cultural dynamics. They also stated that while counting on experimentation and uncompromising defense of their ideas, they will build up the image of the group and will affirm it as an active unified organism.

There is another reason for the appearance of this strong regional phenomenon – the fact it came to life in Plovdiv is not a coincidence. The springing forth of the Edge Group in the city precisely at the time of the crucial years of the changes is rooted in the indirect but strong link to that generation of artists from the 1960ies, which left the traces of revolutionary change in the artistic process.

The radical involvement of the April Generation of artists (who came to the fore at the time of softening up of the communist regime after April 1956) in the early 1960ies blew up the burden of the socialist-realist artistic cannon and won the plastic freedoms that opened the doors for socialist modernism. Although that happened only within the confines of traditional media, those artists became the standard bearer of the artistic revolution analogous to the one from the end of the 1980ies. Vastly different in the substance of their artistic search, the two generations were fighting for the qualitatively new functions of the art work – the former stood by the art work as an expression of the autonomous creative process in its formal and aesthetic aspects; the latter, the Edge artists became synonymous with the notion of braking down those formal boundaries at the expense of the autonomy of the idea. Even if we only consider the openly rebellious substance and the revolutionary approaches of the April Generation of artists from Plovdiv we will still see that more than twenty years later, and within the tracks of historical continuity, the city was nurturing the next generation in the spirit of open defense for creative freedom.

At its early stages the Edge defined their conceptual direction and clarity in informal talks where the artists got to know each other. They would find and define their shared views; they would coordinate their world view; they would encourage each other in inspiration and daring; they would plan and debate their ideas. The members of the group felt their strong ideological bond based on shared thinking about the change in the artistic structures, about the new functions of the artwork and about the new type of communicating with the viewer brought about by the new situation. The aggression, the irony and playing with the viewers were definitely the main thread in the conceptual direction of the group. Those were also defining to a large extent the visual embodiment of concrete ideas.

The founding and the creative trajectory of Plovdiv’s Edge Group is a stand-alone history within the history of contemporary art in Bulgaria.

The members of the Edge Group are:
Albena Mihaylova, Veneta Marinova, Dimitar Kelbechev, Dimitar Mitovski, Emil Mirazchiev, Ivaylo Grigorov, Igor Boudnikov, Kolio Karamfilov, Monika Romenska, Nadia Genova, Pavel Albert, and Roumen Zhekov.

virtual tour

Art Today Association
Center for Contemporary Art - Plovdiv
The Ancient Bath

LUMMIX Light Art Festival 2016

Art Today Association
Center for Contemporary Art - Plovdiv
The Ancient Bath

OPEN CALL LUMMIX Light Festival

Dear Artists,
Details about the open call you can find at our web page: lummix.eu/index.html#opencall
You can send your submissions at: office@lummix.eu
Deadline for submissions is 30.01.2016.
You are welcome to apply and feel free to forward to those, who might be also interested!
Best regards,
Emil Mirazchiev
director of LUMMIX Light Festival

Art Today Association
Center for Contemporary Art - Plovdiv
The Ancient Bath

21st edition of the WEEK OF CONTEMPORARY ART 2015

Opening: September 9th 2015, 7pm, Center for Contemporary Art - Plovdiv
The Ancient Bath, 179, 6-ti septemvri Blvd
The exhibition will be hold until October 8th 2015.

Artists: Luchezar Boyadjiev, Nemanja Cvijanovic, Jos Diegel, Juliane Ebner, Vasilena Gankovska, Pravdoliub Ivanov, Dejan Kaludjerovic, Daniela Kostova, Angelika Krinzinger, Luiza Margan, Emil Mirazchiev, Ivan Moudov, Olaf Osten, Oliver Ressler, Susanne Schuda, Kamen Stoyanov, Miryana Todorova, Borjana Ventzislavova

Curator: Boris Kostadinov

MATURE AND ANGRY

There are two very significant historical facts that in present days are the main reasons to use the term “X generation.” These historical facts are separated in the time by almost 20 years: one is political, the other is economic; but these facts have proved crucial for the generation of today’s 40-year-olds.

The first fact is the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, when today’s 40-year-olds were in high school. This generation bears the stamp of this change. Born and raised in a system of confrontation, these individuals were 20 years old when they had to adjust to a new political model. In the late 1990’s, unlike their parents, they were young and optimistic, and they saw the positive aspects of living in a globalized world with more opportunities.

The second important fact in their lives is the occurrence of the global financial and economic crisis of 2007. At that time, they were in their mid-30s. That severe crisis became the reason for the end of their utopias. The failure of the Western globalization model prompted them to seek opportunities in the non-Western world - in the Arab world, Asia and Latin America. But they realized that their lifetime was already half over and as a result, the economic crisis was largely the reason for their midlife crisis.

Today the consequences of this historical framework can be analyzed. In 2003, the Anonymous gave the perspective of the new activism of the disaffected. In 2010, the Middle East and North Africa were in the midst of the Arab Spring. In 2011, Occupy Wall Street launched a wave of protests that swept across North America and Europe over the course of several years. The protests from New York to Athens, and from Madrid to the bloody clashes in Kiev are a metamorphosis of the ideas of one generation: without utopias and illusions, but politically active enough to want radical change.

This generation (of course, along with their younger fellow citizens) calls for a new political system, transparent policy, and the participation of civil society in the governance. Their protests are organized entirely through the internet and social networks.

All this social, economical and political chaos coincided with personal chaos in the mind of a person in the middle of his/her lifetime. The term “midlife crisis” was introduced in 1965 by Elliott Jaques, but its principle is enshrined in Freud’s theory of the fear of approaching death. Even so, the midlife crisis has lately received more attention in popular culture than serious research.

The midlife crisis in the field of contemporary art is a different species altogether. The system of the so-called “art world” is largely undemocratic and a product of the commercial dictates of the late 1980’s. Just like in cinema or pop music, this system idolizes the young star. For many years we have been witnessing a continual process imposed by galleries, foundations, museums, art fairs, and biennials, which launches increasingly younger names. The terms “emerging artist,” “mid-career,” and “established” are major landmarks in the contemporary art world. Today major institutional support is directed exclusively to artists under the age of 30 or a maximum of 35 years old.

The project Mature and Angry collects viewpoints, theories, critical commentaries and analyses of various artists between the ages of 33 and 55. This group is precisely the generation that has formed their beliefs and viewpoints, their personal and career plans in the period from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the global financial and economic crisis.

The concept of the exhibition aims to strike a balance between private and general. On one hand, Mature and Angry presents personal narratives and mythologies, specific phenomenology of life, and some special cases. On the other hand, it represents the public in its most important events: politics, economics, technology, social environment and social theory, ethics, and economics of art. The participating artists have life experience and the distance of time, so they understand their development in different contexts. At the same time they are sufficiently active and young, which allows them to seek and offer alternative concepts for new “future contexts.”

“Week of Contemporary Art” is a project by Art Today Association in partnership with Municipality of Plovdiv and Goethe-Institute Bulgaria.

The exhibition has been supported by: Bundeskanzleramt ?sterreich Kunst und Kultur, Austrian Embassy in Sofia, Gaudenz B. Ruf Award For New Bulgarian Art.

Media partners: BNT, BNT2, Radio Katra FM, Mediacafe, Pod Tepeto, Kapana, въпреки.com.

PLOVDIV – EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE 2019

WORKING HOURS
Tue - Sun
10.00 – 13.00, 13.30 - 18.30
Entrance fee: 2 lv. / 1 lv. for students and pensioners/
Thursday - Entrance free