28 February 2019 - 07 April 2019

The exhibition is an outcome of years-long research of the work of Nikolay Raynov, one of the most prominent figures on the Bulgarian art scene during the first half of the twentieth century. He earned fame mostly through his literary and journalistic work. He also went down in history as the author of the first history of art in Bulgarian, and the author of one of the first monographs on Bulgarian art. He graduated from the School of Art and Industry, Sofia, in 1919. He defined himself throughout his whole life as an artist and decorator: he created a considerable body of work belonging to the genres of illustration and book design, also completing numerous decoration projects. Yet his signature works, recognized as his most unique and distinguishable, are his stylized paintings created during the 1920’s and 1930’s. These paintings set him apart as an extraordinary phenomenon of the Bulgarian art scene during this period making references to the philosophical system that provides the foundation for all of his work. Each of Nikolay Raynov’s works, from the most insignificant drawing through to his theoretical works, constitutes a fragment of this elaborate structure. Some of his decorative compositions are complemented by an explanation of the theme, yet all of them reveal Nikolay Raynov’s astonishing erudition and multifaceted interests spanning the fields of philosophy, religious history, ethnography, physics, botany, astrology, chemistry, etc.

The exhibition features more than 120 works by Nikolay Raynov divided into two groups. The exhibition is an attempt to look at the artist’s legacy from key vantage points through texts, decorative nature paintings, graphic compositions and illustrations. The exhibition presents early works of the artist from his time as an undergraduate student at the State School of Drawing (1909-1911); more mature works created during the 1920’s; engravings created during his visit to Paris (1925-1927), and decorative landscapes from the 1930’s, including landscapes with lacquer paints on foil, a technique unique to Raynov as far as the Bulgarian context is concerned. The exhibition also features nature drawings whose media include India ink, tempera, colored pencils, and watercolor. They reveal an unresearched aspect of Nikolay Raynov’s work related to the process of stylization.

Works included in the exhibition were provided by the National Gallery of Art, Plovdiv City Art Gallery, Dimitar Dobrovich Sliven City Art Gallery,  Vladimir Dimitrov the Master Kyustendil City Art Gallery, Museum at the National Academy of Arts, Svetlin Rusev Donation-Collection, city of Pleven, National Museum of Literature,  Archives State Agency, Nuance Gallery, Sofia, Philippopolis Gallery, Plovdiv, Bulgarian Art Collection Foundation, art collectors Boyan Radev, Vladimir Iliev, Ivo Dimitrov, Ventsislav Kadiev, Dimitar Indzhov, Fitsov Collection, and other individuals.

The exhibition includes screenings of the films Nikolay Raynov, 1984, writer: Alexander Beshkov, director: Mihail Soykov, and Nikolay Raynov, Tobacco Man, 1989, director: Hristo Valev, writer: Darin Kambov, both provided by the Bulgarian National Television.

Curators: Stanislava Nikolova, Galina Dekova

Exhibition design: Svetla Georgieva

Exhibition catalogue in Bulgarian and English is available.

Exhibition-related events at the Sofia City Art Gallery:

14 March: Lecture by Maria Miteva, Ph. D., senior assistant professor, Institute of Art Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Nikolay Raynov. On Applied Art.

21 March: Lecture by Prof. Svetlana Stoycheva, Ph. D., Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theater and Film Arts. Nikolay Raynov, Portrait of the Artist.

28.03. Lecture by Prof. Ivanka Raynova, Ph. D., Institute for the Study of Society and Knowledge, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Spiritual Aspect of Nikolay Raynov’s Study of Art and his Painting.

3 April, 2019: Jubilee Research Conference commemorating the 130^th anniversary of Nikolay Raynov’s Birth organized by the Institute for Literature, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Events hosted by other institutions:

9 - 10 May, 2019: Philosophy, Art, Literature International Conference commemorating the 130^th anniversary of Nikolay Raynov’s Birth and the 100^th anniversary of Bogomil Raynov’s Birth  organized by the Bulgarian Philosophical Society, Institute for the Study of Society and Knowledge, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, etc. hosted by the Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski

01 February 2019 - 03 March 2019

Borjana Ventzislavova captures the immersion in the game with the somewhat forgotten games from the recent past. The exhibition Real Games is motivated by the artist’s desire to bring to mind the experience and the memories of her generation of the entertainment outdoors with live games, sometimes with simple or self-made toys.

The five-channel video installation shows already grown-up children invited to continue the game of paper blowgun darts or the game of elastics. The protagonists are people of various walks of life invited to play a role by taking part in an enjoyable reenactment, remembering their childhood and the very game with its rules at the same time. In the situations provoked by Borjana Ventzislavova, the participants play while being themselves, in their role of working adults.

The games played in the video installation are linked to the memories of the generations that grew up in the 80s. Team games, in addition to requiring physical presence and contact, unlike the static screen experience, provoke jubilation and certain theatricality, highlighted in Borjana Ventzislavova’s videos by the appearance of the adult players.

The players in the situations staged in the video installation are children and adults, serious and incredulous at the same time, players in their own manner and their own life and playing in someone’s political ambition, who can always give their credit of trust to the game so that it will come off or the other way round, it will lose its magic and end. It is namely those various aspects and meta-levels of the “Games of Fate” that the artist covers in the exhibition Real Games through various types of media such as video, photography, text and objects.

Borjana Ventzislavova often considers the social transformations that concern individual groups of today’s society. Her characters are real people, whom the artist puts in a situation or an environment which reveals the discrepancies between personal expectations and reality, arising namely from the paradoxes of the modern world.

Curator: Vera Mlechevska

featuring:

Vladimir Mishaykov, Georgi Petrov, Doychin Kotlarov, Linda Ruseva, Martina Staneva - Antonova, Sava Bobchev, Garo Ashikyan, Yana Georgieva

cinematographer: Petko Lungov

sound: Veselin Zografov, Stefan Pashaliyski

assistant producer: Elena Radeva

The exhibition is realised with the kind support of the Austrian Embassy in Sofia and the Arts and Culture division of the Federal Chancellery of Austria.

About Borjana Ventzislavova:

Borjana Ventzislavova is an interdisciplinary artist who works in the field of photography, film/video, installations, performance and media art. Her works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions and included in numerous media and film festivals. She has received a number of awards, recognitions and scholarships. In 2017, she was presented with Vienna’s Fine Arts Award, in 2013 – the Austrian state scholarship for fine arts, 2009 – start scholarship, 2006 – the award of the film festival in Cologne, awards for art from Sussman Stiftung, Otto Putscher fund, etc. She was a resident artist at Banff/Canada (Banff Centre), Athens (Snehta), London (ACF), Rome (BKA), Newcastle (ISIS Arts), Berkeley (CEC Artslink), Los Angeles (MAK Schindler), Chicago (BKA), and in 2019 she will be in New York. Her works have been included in a number of private and public collections.

Borjana lives and works in Vienna and Sofia. She gained her MA in Visual Media Art at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. In 2017 she was granted honorable Austrian citizenship for her achievements in the visual arts.