21/4/2011
Kamen Stoyanov
1646, Den Haag
Out There. The performances portrayed in these works are often absurd from an economical point of view. While hinting to the far kinship of art with street performance, the works offer the chance for a reflection on the artistic work and its lack of economical value; on the relationship between high and low culture; on social reality.
Kamen Stoyanov’s work deals with that impossible artistic position which is located outside of high culture.
His work on this topic had started with a series of video portraits of street artists met at different places, on different residencies for artists or during his travels.
The performances portrayed in these works are often absurd from an economical point of view. While hinting to the far kinship of art with street performance, the works offer the chance for a reflection on the artistic work and its lack of economical value; on the relationship between high and low culture; on social reality.
In recent works on this topic, the activity of the artist is examined as act of transportation of banal, everyday objects or activities into the realm of art (the exhibition space, the studio or the residency).
In an ironic switch of role, Stoyanov takes up the export of a brand of yoghurt by the eloquent name of Cultura from Sofia to Maribor for sale in a show; or that of the producer by cultivating tomatoes in the framework of his recent residency in Hungary.
Against a backdrop of changing cultural and social values, while mass communications and social networks allow everyone to present photos, videos and texts in ways that are very similar to post-conceptualist artwork and the masses claim artistic or immaterial activities, the artist critically goes back to material production in order to talk about role reversal, production and transportation, transfer and reflection.
1646 is an artists’ initiative/project-space in the centre of The Hague, The Netherlands, which promotes the exchange between local, national and international artists and art spaces, and works as platform for discussion, research, production and presentation of autonomous visual art.
1646 is run by a Netherlands-Based group of practicing visual artists: Nico Feragnoli (Italy), Johan Gustavsson (Sweden), Clara Palli Monguilod (Spain) and Floris Kruidenberg (The Netherlands).
1646
Boekhorststraat 125
2512 CN - Den Haag The Netherlands
Opening times:
Thursday to Saturday from 13.00 to 17.00