“A Few Ways to Win the World” is a spectacle of looks. It opens with the direct gazes of Slavic fairies whose charms lead men to death in Martina Vacheva Samodivi2019, and the solitary dancer at the top of a snowy mountain in Gery Georgieva Rhodopska Beyoncé (Auto-Ethnography II), 2013, who performs the “Single Ladies” dance in traditional dress from the Rhodope region. There’s no music, just gusts of wind, clanking jewelry, the occasional hand clap, but there’s no mistaking the movements.
Who is watching who? And how do the eyes of the state, the camera, the Western world shape the sense of self? This exhibition brings together highlights of contemporary Bulgarian art through the (slightly) fictionalized gaze of a foreigner: the Center Pompidou in Paris, whose director Xavier Rey recently traveled to Sofia to discuss the acquisition of pieces for his collection. The works on display play with questions of observation, including within oneself, as seen in Luchezar Boyadjiev How many nails in the mouth?, 1992–95. The original sketch of the artist’s mouth stuffed with nearly five-inch-long metal studs comes from an exercise in seeing oneself as the other, a vision that was later realized in the form of mug shots , here displayed next to the drawing. To top it off, curators Vera Mlechevska and Dessislava Dimova also include a small case with the nails used for the photos.
Among other artifacts of contemporary Bulgarian art is a certificate by Nedko Solakov, West view1989. The flagship work was installed on the roof terrace of the Union of Bulgarian Artists and consisted of a bronze plaque bearing the title and a telescope tilted west towards the red star atop the Party headquarters Bulgarian communist, filling the sight of all who looked through it.
Today, more than thirty years after the collapse of Bulgaria’s communist government, views to and from the West still cloud the lens. The question of which Bulgarian works should be presented to a local audience remains unanswered.
