Vernissage on Thursday, 27 February, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
SAMCA, 2, Cherni Vrah Blvd., Sofia
‘As a form of existence of matter manifested in the naturally regulated coordination of alternating phenomena, and everything that happens and is done in esse, measured in seconds, minutes, or hours, reaching a result in a certain period or historical moment (a suitable or ripe moment when something must happen or be done), and each of the rhythmic units of equal duration that form the measure, without determining the relation of the verbal action to the moment of speaking between two meridians, as well as the weekly forecast, ВРЕМЕ (a word contained in the title of the exhibition) is difficult to translate into any other language.’
Kamen Startchev
The exhibition includes the artist’s latest works, created in recent years in his idiosyncratic style: large-format compositions of geometric, graphic elements building momentary states of time and place. Kamen Startchev is laconic in his commentary on the current temporal continuum of political cataclysms: military conflicts, looming dictatorships, and ideological clashes against the backdrop of global environmental concerns involving sweeping hurricanes, fires and earthquakes.
‘Weather Deterioration’ does not offer an apocalyptic existence of humanity today; it does not stigmatise, or condemn, but builds almost invisible states of the here and now in our everyday lives. The artist extracts those details from reality that are devoid of concreteness, functionality or heavy symbolism. Their additional purification in terms of form and colour, and their inclusion in a common compositional rhythm, deprive them of any possibility of subject matter and didactic narrative.
Media partner: BTA / Bulgarian News Agency
Nadezhda Dzhakova, PhD, exhibition curator
Kamen Startchev was born in Sofia, where he lives and works. He graduated in Sculpture from the National Academy of Arts.
He has held many solo exhibitions, including:
2023: ‘Afterimages’, KO-OP Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria;
2021: ‘Border of the Moment’, LITTLE BIRD PLACE Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria;
2019: ‘Without Sound’, KO-OP Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria;
2018: ‘Daylight’, Rakursi Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria;
2017: ‘Final Report’, Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria;
2016: ‘The Body of Orpheus’, U-P.A.R.K. Gallery, Plovdiv, Bulgaria;
2015: ‘Diversification of the Moon, Goethe Institute, Sofia, Bulgaria;
2013: ‘Wastewater Treatment Plants II’, Rakursi Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria;
2011: ‘New Land’, National Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Over the years, he has taken part in many group exhibitions:
2016: ‘Instead of a Head of a Poet’, REMONT Gallery, Belgrade, Serbia;
2016: ‘Grayscale: 20 Contemporary Bulgarian Artists’, Chedomir Krastich Gallery, Pirot, Serbia;
2015: ‘Save the Dreams’, IMAGO MUNDI: Luciano Benetton Collection. Mappa dell’arte nouova’, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy;
2015: ‘Graphics. Why?’, Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria;
2015: ‘Fortress’, Sofia Arsenal – Museum for Contemporary Art, Sofia, Bulgaria;
2015: ‘Image and Likeness’, National Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria;
2015: ‘Grayscale: 20 Contemporary Bulgarian Artists’, Art 55 Gallery, Niš, Serbia;
2015: ‘What Do You See?’, Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria;
2014: ‘My Name is Artist’ Art Center Hugo Voeten, Herentals, Belgium;
2014: ‘BULGARIAN PRINTS’, Akademija Centre for Graphic Arts and Visual Research, Belgrade, Serbia;
2013: ‘Kaleidoscope: Contemporary Art from EU Member States, Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin, Ireland.
2014 Winner of the Grand Prize at the 7th International Print Art Triennial in Sofia, Bulgaria.
