Archives for “gallery” tag

Though the entrance to the Institute of Contemporary Arts is at the back of an otherwise inconspicuous apartment building, this is one of the oldest un-institutional contemporary art institutions in town.

ICA is an association of some of the best known Bulgarian artists, curators and theoreticians that have more or less been the face of the country in this area. It moved into this place of its own three years ago, which was great news as spaces dedicated to contemporary art in the city are sparse.

So far ICA averages about 5 exhibitions per year, but if you don’t happen to be in town during one of them, it also has the ambition of keeping an archive and those who may be interested in Eastern European contemporary art may just ask around – the gallery host is enthusiastic about conversing with visitors.

ICA also hosts what hopes to be the world’s smallest gallery – “a gallery in a drawer”. It’s a good chance to get acquainted with the  scene, and also visit this unpopular albeit central area in the city.

The format of the gallery is also a révérence to “apartment” exhibitions in the communist block where any art practices other than socialist realism were to be hidden.

From April 21st the Institute will host an event from Sofia Contemporary – Sofia’s biggest and youngest contemporary art forum (April 19 – May 12), where you can also get info and program for all its activities scattered around interesting spots in the city.

The Gallery of Modern Art opened its a couple of years ago. It focuses on 20th century masters such as Picasso, Miró, Shagal, but also post-war American art. It’s the only gallery of modern art in Bulgaria and one of the few in Eastern Europe with such a focus. There is usually a temporary exhibition on the ground floor and a permanent exhibition on the second floor.

Once you enter, you are immediately welcomed by a friendly and smartly dressed lady, who would provide you with thorough information about each piece of art – a short biography of the artist, stories about the respective period of life and events in world history, which provoked or inspired the creation of his work.

Since its mission is to reinforce the interest of art enthusiasts and to make modern art more accessible to public, the gallery organizes regular educational seminars with art experts from notorious universities in France, US and Germany. The gallery also conducts a weekend art school for kids, where they develop their ability to observe, perceive and interpret the surrounding reality and environment – involving emotion and imagination.

The current expostition is the first independent exhibition of the young artist Kaliya Kalacheva, called “Where do you go?” The exposition is part of the series “Artists on Focus”, which presents the finalists of MOST competition, and it is open until 14th of April. 

The Socialist Art Museum is a small step towards accepting our nearby past. The opening was accomplished with lots of scandals and critics, but it is common for tension to rise when it comes to that part of our history.

It shouldn’t be called museum, but gallery. In the garden there are numerous statues. Some of them are quite impressive in size. Most of them were on significant places in the cities – on main squares or important buildings. The red star of the former Party House finally got a place to call home.

Inside the main building are some paintings showing the ideology of the period. There’s a small souvenir shop and a video hall. A coffee house is about to be opened soon. The main problem was about the artists – who’s in and who’s out. Another was the mixture of styles and not fully covering the period’s artistic history. For sure this shouldn’t be mistaken with a communist museum.

There’s a general problem with the information exposed – simply author and work, no further background information. What I like about it is that this place exists. The ideology was the moving element of the period. The scale of the art is a representation of the thinking and it shows that socialist art is not only straight gray and plain. The most important is that you will be able to bring your children and tell them who is Lenin and why they used to build all those enormous monuments of him.