The internationally acclaimed visual artist Nedko Solakov is celebrated for his story-telling power.
His first CD-Rom 'The Right One' has been commissioned by FACT for Video Positive 2000. It includes an accompanying book of essays by Dr. Alan Bleakley, Neal Brown, Charles Esche and Iliyana Nedkova.
'The Right One' is Solakov's mini Canterbury Tales, unleashing an outcry of subversive narratives and games populated with both fictional and real characters. The CD-Rom features ghosts of classic masters chasing a Curator, a Black Collector purchasing masterpieces of white culture and a Thief of Art ravaging museums, galleries and private collections - all in the quest for the right piece of art.
Based on the original eponymous [non-virtual] exhibitions, Solakov's short stories 'The Curator's Tale', 'The Thief's Tale' and 'The Collector's Tale', 'The Right One' unravels as a highly effective, hugely ironic skewering of the political world of art.
'...Despite the appeal of the joke, on closer inspection it reveals a grim truth: collectors hoard and will pay anything to hoard privately. Is the private collector an art thief in thin disguise?'
'...The art thief creates a new context for the permanence and value of the work, as an act of resistance against the Establishment [he steals from major galleries and even from the Vatican collection, also taking the Pope's left slipper, reminding us that the joy of Solakov's work is in the details].' [Alan Bleakley]
"...Humour is central to 'The Right One', and Solakov works within an eclectic comic tradition that is literary as well as visual. The artist is a wryly self deprecating narrator, whose presence informs all aspects of his world . He makes himself a poignant clown, sometimes defiant, sometimes rueful, but always with a bittersweet, comic sensibility."
His excellent mastery of incorrect English, his eccentrically friable handwriting and his self ridiculing deprecations all make his authorial presence conspicuous as he rolls, romps and sometimes defiantly craps on the lawns of his imagination, always ignoring the Keep Off the Grass signs of the politically or culturally correct.' [ Neal Brown ]
'The Right One' is a project curated by Iliyana Nedkova [Bul/Eng], commissioned by FACT and produced by lakov Chernikhov International Foundation, Sofia.
'The Right One' CD-Rom is edited by Iliyana Nedkova [Bul/Eng] and Catherine Williams [Eng] in collaboration with the cair Editorial Board.
'The Right One' is published by Audio-Visual Research Editions supported by Centre for Art International Research [cair], Liverpool Art School, Liverpool John Moores University.
'The Right One' is funded by the Arts Council of England, London; British Airways, London; Bulgarian Embassy, London; Centre for Art International Research [cair], Liverpool Art School, Liverpool John Moores University; European Cultural Foundation, Amsterdam; Kaleidoscope Programme of the European Union DGX through Innovation in Digital and Electronic Arts, Manchester; Ludwig Museum, Budapest; Manchester City Art Galleries, Manchester; Open Society Institute, New York; Soros Center for the Arts, Sofia; Visiting Arts, London.
New Commission.
[LESS]The internationally acclaimed visual artist Nedko Solakov is celebrated for his story-telling power.
His first CD-Rom 'The Right One' has been commissioned by FACT for Video Positive 2000. It includes an accompanying book of essays by Dr. Alan Bleakley, Neal Brown, Charles Esche and Iliyana Nedkova.
'The Right One' is Solakov's mini Canterbury Tales, unleashing an outcry of subversive narratives and games populated with both fictional and real characters. The CD-Rom features ghosts of classic masters chasing a Curator, a Black Collector purchasing masterpieces of white culture and a Thief of Art ravaging museums, galleries and private collections - all in the quest for the right piece of art.
Based on the original eponymous [non-virtual] exhibitions, Solakov's short stories 'The Curator's Tale', 'The Thief's Tale' and 'The Collector's Tale', 'The Right One' unravels as a highly effective, hugely ironic skewering of the political world of art.
'...Despite the appeal of the joke, on closer inspection it reveals a grim truth: collectors hoard and will pay anything to hoard privately. Is the private collector an art thief in thin disguise?'
'...The art thief creates a new context for the permanence and value of the work, as an act of resistance against the Establishment [he steals from major galleries and even from the Vatican collection, also taking the Pope's left slipper, reminding us that the joy of Solakov's work is in the details].' [Alan Bleakley]
"...Humour is central to 'The Right One', and Solakov works within an eclectic comic tradition that is literary as well as visual. The artist is a wryly self deprecating narrator, whose presence informs all aspects of his world . He makes himself a poignant clown, sometimes defiant, sometimes rueful, but always with a bittersweet, comic sensibility."
His excellent mastery of incorrect English, his eccentrically friable handwriting and his self ridiculing deprecations all make his authorial presence conspicuous as he rolls, romps and sometimes defiantly craps on the lawns of his imagination, always ignoring the Keep Off the Grass signs of the politically or culturally correct.' [ Neal Brown ]
'The Right One' is a project curated by Iliyana Nedkova [Bul/Eng], commissioned by FACT and produced by lakov Chernikhov International Foundation, Sofia.
'The Right One' CD-Rom is edited by Iliyana Nedkova [Bul/Eng] and Catherine Williams [Eng] in collaboration with the cair Editorial Board.
'The Right One' is published by Audio-Visual Research Editions supported by Centre for Art International Research [cair], Liverpool Art School, Liverpool John Moores University.
'The Right One' is funded by the Arts Council of England, London; British Airways, London; Bulgarian Embassy, London; Centre for Art International Research [cair], Liverpool Art School, Liverpool John Moores University; European Cultural Foundation, Amsterdam; Kaleidoscope Programme of the European Union DGX through Innovation in Digital and Electronic Arts, Manchester; Ludwig Museum, Budapest; Manchester City Art Galleries, Manchester; Open Society Institute, New York; Soros Center for the Arts, Sofia; Visiting Arts, London.
New Commission.
