We don’t usually hear much about Bulgaria in this country. But right now, tens of thousands of people are demonstrating on the streets of Sofia against a government they only recently voted for in the hope of a better life. Despite the catastrophic economic situation, the current Bulgarian art scene has received incredible and fascinating creative impulses, especially from the young generation of artists.

For the exhibition “People – Photo and Video Art from Bulgaria”, seven Sofia artists were selected to show photo and video installations in the ifa Gallery Friedrichstraße. They are among the youngest and most active artists of the Bulgarian art scene, which they entered very early and energetically. All of them – except for Dr. Gatev – are either graduates of or studying at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia. Dr. Gatev, a physician by training, is entering uncharted artistic territory. In his exhibition contribution, he documents a one-day action that took place in a factory near Sofia. For the duration of one working day, he was appointed production manager of an industrial machinery factory. With a single work order, he had the entire production switched from metal to wood. From this documentation he created an independent artistic installation for the ifa Gallery.

Kosio Minchev’s work “Directed inward” thematizes the search for a missing faith. His installation is about the right to make one’s own choices. The videos of Rassinn Kristev, to describe only a few of the works shown in this exhibition, show his strategy of self-glorification by the means of mass media. The goal of his self-expression is an obsession with the ego; for example, he had a self-portrait published in Bulgaria’s only art magazine as a provocative advertising poster, or invited friends and colleagues to talk about him on camera. The examination of the human being plays a decisive role in all the works of the artists presented and is processed artistically in different ways. The exhibition provides an insight into Sofia’s current virulent art scene.