Author: Stanimir

Lilith Was Here
2012, 13 figures, 12cm. high, white chocolate
Sofia City Art Gallery Collection, Bulgaria

In this work is used the common image of the Madonna caring the child Jesus, represented in variety of souvenirs and vastly recognized as the image of the Holy Mother. The objects were created in series of 13 equal object, referring to the number of people, including Jesus himself, depicted in Leonardo Da Vinci’ s mural Last Supper. After casting the figures in white chocolate the baby Jesus is removed by hand from the arms of the Mother. In this way the image becomes highly ambivalent, as if the Maria (the Madonna) is freed from the role to be a mother, referring back to the much older and not well represented image of Lilith. According to Jewish mythology Lilith was the first wife of Adam, who was created from the same dirt as him. Lilith is often envisioned as a dangerous demon of the night, who is sexually wanton, and who steels babies in the darkness.

photos: Kalin Serapionov

Every Moon is Brutal, Every Sun Bitter
site-specific, collaborative work with the photographer Mihail Novakov
2012 , variouse sizes, print
Sofia City Art Gallery Collection, Bulgaria

The work refers to the myth of Danaë, who was the daughter and only child of King Acrisius of Argos and his wife Queen Eurydice. According to the myth the god Zeus fell in love with Danaë and came to her in the form of golden rain. In that way Danaë conceived Perseus. The photography “reenacts” the classical Greek composition depicting the copulation between Zeus and Danaë, however the image is transformed. In front of the viewer stands a beautiful model on a gynecological chair, improperly pure and sexy dressed for the occasion. The golden rain is substituted by the white, cold and artificial light of the lamp.

Vaska Emanuilova Gallery, exhibition view:

photo: Mihail Novakov

UN CABINET D’AMATEUR, exhibition view:

photo: Mihail Novakov

A True Friend Stabs You in the Face
2012, 21x15cm, Postcard, Stereo Print

Till Life Do Us Part
2012, box, my wisdom tooth, gold

Beauty failed to save the world
2011, used silicon implants

“Beauty failed to save the world” is a work with a poetic title. It is referring to the failure of the ideal, which was the embodiment of unity between truth, good, and beauty. The artist is reformulating the famous Dostoevski words from the novel “Idiot”. She is looking at the notion of beauty from the viewpoint of today’s industry. As if on a window display in the drawer she has arranged silicone breast implants on a light box. The artificial, cold light coming through the silicone is creating the sensation of detached immaterial beauty. Placed in two rows next to each other and “clasped” by the drawer frame, the objects are strangely disciplined. The level of perfection is itself a commentary on the violence of the perfect lack of deficiencies.”

Vladiya Mihailova, curator

Still Life
2010, 1 channel video installation

The English title Still Life is a wordplay with a number of meanings, depending on its translation: dead nature, nature morte or still alive. This wordplay poses questions on the essence of nature, art and culture, even if we do not have clear answers to all of them.
The term ‘still life’ comes from the Dutch stilleven. This is an artificial language creation, originating in artist’s studio. The adjective ‘still’ relates to the state of the depicted objects, meaning that they are motionless, lying still. The noun ‘life’ does not mean that they are alive, but rather that these painted objects have been live in front of the artist. The video adheres to the rules of still life, as well as to those of a peculiar Baroque form, vanitas. This symbolises the Jewish and European idea of transience of all that is this-worldly, earthly, temporarily. It is a direct reference to the Old Testament’s Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas.

Pistolet Gallery, exhibition view: