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Kalin Serapionov

Kalin Serapionov, Sofia

Kalin Serapionov was born 1967 in Vratsa. He lives and works in Sofia, Bulgaria.
He graduated from the National Art Academy, Sofia.

 

His works have been exhibited in: Hilger Contemparary, Vienna (2004); ATA Center/ICA-Sofia (2005); LCB Depot, Lester, the UK (2008); Neon Campobase, Bologna, Italy (2010); Olivier Boissiere / Un Cabinet d'Amateur, Sofia (2012, 2013), ICA Gallery, Sofia (2013); Contemporary Space, Varna, Bulgaria (2014); One Night Stand Gallery, Sofia (2016); Contemporary Space, Varna, Bulgaria (2016)

 

He participated among others in: Bulgariaavant-garde, Künstlerwerkstatt Lothringerstrasse, Munich (1998); After the Wall: Art and culture in post-communist Europe, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1999); Manifesta 4, Frankfurt am Main (2002); Blood & Honey. Future’s in the Balkans, Essl Collection, Vienna (2003); In the Gorges of the Balkans, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel (2003); Neither a White Cube nor a Black Box. History in Present Time, Sofia City Gallery, Sofia (2006); Heterotopias, Biennial of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (2007); Zero Gravity, Center for Contemporary Art, Plovdiv (2008); Sounds & Visions. Artists’ Films and Videos from Europe, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv (2009); Techniques, ICA-Sofia Gallery, Sofia (2009); Indefinite Destinations, DEPO, Istanbul (2010); Roaming Images, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (2011); Site Inspection, Ludwig Museum, Budapest (2011); Sofia Contemporary Festival, Sofia (2012); On Suspense of How to hide a Bomb under the table, Vaska Emanuilova Gallery (2013); Prehod for Sale, ICA Gallery, Sofia (2014); Grammar of Freedom / Five Lessons: Works from the Arteast 2000+ Collection, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, in collaboration with Moderna Galerija in Ljubljana (2015); Art for Change, Sofia Art Gallery, Sofia (2015); Focus Bulgaria at viennacontemporary. Exhibition Variofocus (2015); Let Them Draw, Sariev Contemporary, Plovdiv (2016).



Contact

Phone: +359 887 867 174

Email: serapionov@gmail.com





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Kalin Serapionov

Photo: Dimitar Dilkoff

Kalin Serapionov
installation, video, photography
Contemporary Space, Varna
02 - 20.11.2016

Kalin Serapionov’s solo presentation at Contemporary Space showcases three works of various contexts and exhibition histories. It is an exhibition about the spaces in the life of today; about the hope and the sharing, the security and the loneliness; about phantasms and the virtual. Each work is not only a stand-alone statement but reveals the scale of the artist’s visual thinking where the artistic approach is substantiated by the expressive means of the video, the photograph, and the object. 
 

“Installation Look” from 2016 is a series of photographs and computer project-drawings intermixed with images. Constructed entirely from the same material used for the preparation, the research and the working process of the artist, this piece is equally a personal “manifesto” and a window opened up for the viewer.

Although the works of the artist are musings on reality, on life here and now, they are in no way documentary. In most cases the he is framing some detail while giving us the option to observe from a distance so that we may reflect on it and allow ourselves to be erotically attracted by the power of its autonomy. The video work “Displace (no wig, no lipstick, no phone and no cigarettes)” from 2016 is precisely such kind of distancing and disrobing the image – it is devoid of substance and morphs into colorful curves and linear mutations that are indicating movement, time and space. For the first time in his work the artist is using 3D which awards the image with almost cosmic depth, which is saturated by the fluctuating color waves and the sound composed by Angel Simitchiev.

The third work is titled “I am Safe” (2016) and it is a red neon sign, which is repeatedly giving us the same phrase. The text has the character of a hash tag but the letters are composed in such a way that there is neither beginning nor end; it seems the words go on to infinity. The artist has used here an often repeated post in Facebook that people are using while under a terrorist attack or natural disaster. “I am safe” also means “I am real”, “I am present”, which refers back to the reality and materiality of bodies beyond the virtual space. At the same time this is the kind of sign for the presence of the human being, which is the main focus of interest for the author.   


Vladiya Mihaylova