Nedko Solakov

Once upon a time ... : With these words, fairy tales tell of a bygone era and conjure up a different reality that expands our own experience of reality through illusions. They are therefore both disturbing and liberating. This also applies to the "stories" by Bulgarian artist Nedko Solakov, which are created as delicately washed image-text combinations, often in multi-part drawing cycles. Since his participation in the Venice Biennale (2007) and documenta (2007 and 2012) at the latest, Nedko Solakov, who was born in 1957 and lives in Sofia, has been regarded as one of the outstanding figures in international contemporary art.

The visual artist is a gifted storyteller: his drawings deal with everyday occurrences, while at the same time proving to be absurd commentaries on human existence. In his formally diverse oeuvre, Solakov questions not only drawings but also paintings and installations, seemingly collective truths. He himself reflects on failure as a metaphor for human existence and discovers paradox as a prevailing structure in the political course of the world. Capturing current issues in the form of stories that maintain a precise balance between the pleasure of narration and ironic refraction characterizes his work and makes it unmistakable - and highly entertaining.

Being Vallotton, the title of the exhibition at the Villa Flora, shows the artist as a great admirer of his artistic role model. By slipping into the role of his elder, as it were, he creates an unconventional reinterpretation of the classic and integrates his own work into the great art-historical context. Nedko Solakov is also a highly unorthodox conceptual artist who looks at the world, including the art world, with humor and irony and reinterprets the masterpieces of the past from a contemporary perspective - as a grandiose homage to Félix Vallotton.

Curated by Konrad Bitterli

Contributors and additional information:

Nedko Solakov

Félix Vallotton