In September 2020 Sariev, Plovdiv and Office for Art, Berlin, are launching an initiative to found a Circle of Friends for Bulgarian Art.

The aim of the association will be to create a common platform for experts and art lovers, to focus on certain topics, issues and areas in art, to provide knowledge and educational mediation, to give support for art, artists, initiatives, institutions and to network internationally. Its initial focus is the Bulgarian contemporary art scene. The Circle of Friends for Bulgarian Art is organized independently by Vesselina Sarieva (Sariev, Plovdiv) and Rainald Schumacher, Nathalie Hoyos (Office for Art, Berlin) and manages itself. It is only responsible to its members.

Over the coming months, the initiative will be accompanied by exhibitions and encounters with artists, works of art and actors in the cultural field and will lead to the legal and official founding of the Circle of Friends. All such encounters will take place in compliance with all health regulations and rules of personal conduct. But we are convinced that it is even more important to support art, artists and initiatives now, in this fragile situation.

The first steps on the path are marked by the exhibition series Force of Attraction.

Why should an artist create new works for a solo exhibition opening on June 21, 2020, after the lockdown? Artwork by Berlin-based Kasia Fudakowksi to be displayed in the exhibition 'Now More Than Ever' in Plovdiv from 18.09. – to 31.10.2020 is presenting 80 statements to answer this question. However, the text of the Fudakowksi’s art work goes far beyond the threatening topicality of the pandemic. It raises fundamental questions about the role of art and the role and responsibility of the artist towards herself and towards society. 'Now More Than Ever' also means that in the current situation there is the chance, if not the need, to rethink the entire system of the art market, artist studio and gallery operations and the presentation of art works in general. In parallel with the woodcut prints by Kasia Fudakowski, the exhibition aims to lay stress on the attraction of historic lines in the language of art. A few of the beautiful and important visual poems from the early 1990’s by Vesselin Sariev will be displayed and create a bridge between the early beginning of free and contemporary art in Bulgaria and the recent discourse about the role and function of art.

Curated by Rainald Schumacher and Nathalie Hoyos

The exhibition presented at SARIEV gallery, Plovdiv, Bulgaria in co-operation with the Open Arts Foundation.

Courtesy of the artists and SARIEV gallery
Photocredit Maria Djelebova