The work of Dimitar Solakov „Exhibition View“, intended specifically for the 0gms drawer, refers to our habits of viewing exhibitions and the way these can be changed. The artist uses the means of photography to present a panoramic view of his exhibition iin the gallery of the Institute for Contemporary Art, Sofia. However, the questions as to when this exhibition took place and what exactly it displayed remain a mystery. All that the viewers can see is a 360˚ panorama documentation of the event, on which some of the previously known photographs of the artist can be recognized, exposed on the walls of the Institute gallery. Whether this is a real or an imaginary event, whether the work exhibited in the drawer represents documentation from an exhibition or is an independent work of art, and for what reason the panorama method is used to show an exhibition – these are the topics that focus the author’s attention. In one full turn of the camera lens, the real three-dimensional space of the gallery of the Institute for Contemporary Art, Sofia, transforms into a two-dimensional image that can comfortably fit into the gallery-drawer.

 

Dimitar Solakov started by creating photography series such as Youth, Points of Interaction, (my) Bulgaria, etc. In his most recent work he examines one of the fundamental potentialities of contemporary art. His ability to set up paradoxical situations and to ask seemingly tautological questions which, through the repetition, reveal before the viewer new scenes and ways of perception. 

 

Dimitar Solakov was born in 1987 and graduated from the New Bulgarian University, Sofia. He uses mostly the art media of photography and video. In his works, the artist studies the connection between nature, urbanization, and man placed in the middle. His works can be deeply personal and at the same time quite distant, taken from the perspective of a bystander. His photographs have been on display at a number of international exhibitions, among them: “The Power of Doubt”, Times Museum (Guangzhou, China), Bienal de Cuenca XI (Cuenca, Ecuador), PHotoEspaña (Madrid, Spain).