Miná Minov - Anniversary (mostly sculptural) exhibition

Anniversary (mostly sculptural) exhibition - was held from 17th of march till 13th of april at Goethe Institut Bulgarien.

Exhibition text:

When I was about ten years old child and tried to imagine what kind of artworks, I would be making some decades from now as an adult artist, it seemed to me that they would be exactly the same, only much bigger. So, for the next 15 years, until about 2005 I progressively enlarged my figurative-sculptural work, then I stopped.

Some artists consider their work finished only when it appears in an exhibition, for others it is enough to have done something and then they can safely put it away - store it - forget it and think about other things. For myself, I assume that I have accumulated enough artworks in the past, from which I can construct some kind of alternative, fragmented history (of my art). I use the standard, even clichéd, anniversary format. The exhibition appears as a continuation - a metamorphosis - the next version of "Retrospective exhibition", held 11 years ago at "Vaska Emanuilova" gallery in Sofia. An anniversary exhibition is supposed to mark the accumulation of a certain number of decimally rounded years, but I don't see much sense in that. It's probably a good occasion to quickly start and quickly finish with anniversaries, as I did with retrospectives.

The exhibition reveals a small personal history of art that does not participate in national or global art history, but developed mostly in a domestic, private space. I am showing some new, some older and the oldest sculptural objects - representatives of almost four decades. I am trying to set in motion a process of self-historization. The main criterion for the selection of the works is their incompatibility with each other, as if they were made by different people - like a group exhibition by one author. Usually, by the time an artist reaches a more mature stage in their career, they have already developed a recognizable style of work, long series of gradual development and accumulation. Is such a process noticeable here?

I choose to make art that deliberately refuses to be contemporary, current. I like the old stuff more than the new, and I find it too consumerist to focus on the newest and latest. This is one of the reasons I feel out of place in the "contemporary art" category. I would like, as much as possible, to let my works "age" in peace, then recall them later and maybe show them, eventually.

I think that much of the art that is being made remains hidden, unnoticed, or politely ignored. This happens for various reasons, whether because it’s of poor quality, being outdated, unsalable or inconsistent with the already established image and style of a given author. So, if the history of art is simply left to those privileged to compose and record it, we probably remain unsuspecting of many things.

M.Minov 2023

general view at entrance

detail view from Untitled (lorem ipsum) /2006-2007 /printed text and pencil drawing on paper /84x300cm

Small Talk Workshop /2023 /two channel synchronized video /exhibition view, few excerpts from the full 17min38sec

The author asked some of his mostly artist friends to send him written dialogues of “small talk” conversation, which is supposed to take place at an imaginary exhibition opening. Then the dialogues were “performed” for the camera – as if the two participants are practicing – exercising their “small talk” skills, appearing as two monitors "talking" to each other...

Small talks performed by: Ruud Matthes and Terry Vreeburg, german small talk performed by: Ralitsa Gerasimova and Adrian Nikolov

Small talk dialogue contributions by:Dimitar Stoyanov, Emil Daynov, Mladen Stropnik, Valentina Sciarra, Ruud Matthes, Terry Vreeburg, Lisa Smithson, Lee McDonald, Andrei Ionescu, Miná Minov, Henrik Kröner

"Gaze redirection" AI software was used to make the eyes of the performers stare into the camera...

exhibition view

exhibition view with the performative object from Over the top of Kamen Del /2012 /430cm lenght

Photo and video documentation (shot through a telescope) from the site-specific performance Over the top of Kamen Del, performed on 2nd of june 2012 and again on 2nd of june 2022. By flyer and social media, the audience was invited to observe the Kamen Del peak of Vitosha mountain, with naked eyes or optic devices. The author announced he will be present for half an hour, to be seen at the peak, holding an object of art in his hands. more images and info at: minaminov.com/kamen.html