SHAPE SHIFTERS project @ Bulart gallery (BG)

SHAPE SHIFTERS, curated by Raul Zamudio (USA)

24 November  – 10 december  2015 

venue: Bulart gallery | 22 Shipka st | Varna 9000 | Bulgaria | dorabulart.com

Participated artists
Adolfo Doring (Mexico/ USA), Andriy Bazyuta (Ukraine), Dimitri Dimov (Bulgaria/France), Emma Mccagg (USA), Ivaylo Hristov (Bulgaria), Jaishri Abichandani (India /USA), Lora Azza (Bulgaria/France),Nestor Kovachev (Bulgaria/Austria), Olga Georgieva (Bulgaria/Austria), Paolo Vivian (Italy), Quintin Rivera Toro (Puerto Rico/Germany), Robert Baramov (Bulgaria), Romulo Sans (Spain/ USA), Vladimir Ivanov (Bulgaria)

 

 photocredit : Romulo Sans, Empty Thoughts, c-print, 2014

more about the exhibition

From 24 November to 10 December Bulart Gallery presents the international project ShapeShifters, curated by Raul Zamudio from New York. The exhibition with its rotating dynamic nature has collected the art works by 14 artists from Bulgaria, USA, Italy, India, France, Austria, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Spain. The basis of the concept is enshrined the study of transformations and mutations in life, displayed in the context of collective memory, socio-political and cultural attitudes. 

 Ivaylo hristov. supernatural. LEDinstallation, plant, drawing on paper. 2015

photocredit:  Bulart gallery

The dynamic nature of the exhibition has the function to provoke the audience to participate in the survey through a permanent presence and observations on their own perception of art, such as for example the visitors shall to imagine an art work in the exhibition only through the "sound narrative" of its creator or that the visitor shall to looking at the mirror/light his/her reflections or that the audience have to follow and participating in the process of transformation of the exhibition in every two days ecc. 

 Vladimir Ivanov during his performance "SunDogs at 5 pm""; photocredit Bulart gallery

 Vladimir Ivanov, "SunDogs at 5 pm", mixed media on aluminium plate, 2015; 

photocredit : the artist; Bulart galery

The startup exhibition includes video, photography, drawings and objects of seven foreign guests and obe as the host from the city of Varna is marked by the performance of prof.Vlado Ivanov at the opening. Through step-by-step rotation the art works of bulgarian artists will replace the works of foreign guests and at the end  during official closure of the exhibition to the audience will be presented a collection of seven works by Bulgarian artists and one by the guest of abroad. The 14 art works will not been together in the gallery and only those visitors who follow the process of transformation of the exhibition will get the full picture and information about what is happening.

Paolo Vivian, Good Intentions, wood, 7 cedar seeds,colors, 2015 .detail

  photocredit:the artists, Bulart gallery

Paolo Vivian, Good Intentions, wood, 7 cedar seeds,colors, 2015

  photocredit:the artists, Bulart gallery

With this project the American curator Raul Zamudio explores the role of the artist as a factor in the creation of cultural memory, the role of the curator and his/her capabilities for manipulation and transformation of the messages. The project is asking the interesting questions about the psychological perception of arts today, its social function and the need of new aesthetic models, while at the same time the project is as research about the code of the time and about the place of cultural identity in the face of modernity. The study concludes with the publication, documenting the transformation of the exhibition from the initial to the final phase of the process. The  ShapeShifters project, presented at Bulart gallery is implemented under the Cultural Bridges program of  RGFoundation.

photo credit:Jaishri Abichandani.Spock As Me digital photography, 2011

the concept

Shape-Shifters explores the protean nature of identity in numerous contexts as well as the way some artworks are formally unstable in being hybrids of painting and sculpture or photography and performance, for example. The exhibition explores this via a diverse group of fourteen artists that work in various media including painting, work-on-paper, photography, sculpture, video, installation, sound art, and performance.

  Lora Azza,Invasion,Gummy Bears. photo installation, 2015.photocredit:the artist, Bulart gallery

Apart from the individual works that uniquely address the exhibition thematic, its curatorial structure shape shifts too, for it initially entails the presentation of seven foreign artists and one Bulgarian artist. The initial Bulgarian artist will then select another Bulgarian artist to replace a foreign artist. The substitution of a foreign artist with Bulgarian artist will occur in increments throughout the exhibition’s duration so every other day there will be a new group of artworks. The exhibition will end with the inverse of how it began; that is, with a completely new presentation of artists consisting of seven Bulgarian artists and one foreign artist. 

 

the visitor is listening the audio piece "Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia
- Revolution, Gas, Werewolves", part of the sound installation by Andriy Bazyuta (Ukraine); photocredit: Bulart gallery

This component of Shape-Shifters is to ontologically expand curatorship, the role of the artist, and the exhibition viewer’s experience.

As such, Shape-Shifters will be inherently paradoxical; at what point can the exhibition claim completion: when it opens, during its presentation, or when it reaches its termination date?

 exhibition view .in front: Nestor Kovachev (AT) "Watercolors". 

installation. plastic bottles. water from Yellow Sea.water from Black Sea, mix water from the both seas

photocredit: Bulart gallery

 about the curator

 RaúI Zamudio is a New York-based independent curator and writer. He has curated or co-curated over 100 exhibitions in the Americas, Asia, and Europe including curator, The Lady with the X-Ray Eyes, Contempo: International Contemporary Art Festival, Varna, Bulgaria, 2014; co-curator, Here is Where We Jump! : 2013 La Biennial, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY; co-curator, City Without Walls, 2010 Liverpool Biennial; co-curator, Constellations: 2009 Beijing 798 Biennial; artistic director/curator, Garden of Delights: 2008 Yeosu International Art Festival; co-curator, Turn and Widen: 2008 Seoul International Media Art Biennial; and co-curator, Poles, Apart, Poles Together, 2005 Venice Biennial.  He has contributed to more than 70 art-related books and exhibition catalogs and is corresponding editor, Art Nexus, and written for numerous periodicals including Contemporary, TRANS, Zingmagazine, Journal of the West, Tema Celeste, La Tempestad, Art in Culture, [Art Notes], Framework: The Finnish Art Review, Public Art, and Flash Art.

contact:

Bulart gallery

22 Shipka st| Varna 9000 | www.dorabulart.com

e-mail: dorabulart@gmail.com