Plovdiv 2019: FORCE OF ATTRACTION I
Now More Than Ever
​Exhibition

Kasia Fudakowski – Vesselin Sariev
Curated by Rainald Schumacher and Nathalie Hoyos
‪18.09.–31.10.2020
Opening ‪18.09.2020, 17:00 – 20:00 
еxhibition presented at SARIEV gallery, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
in co-operation with the Open Arts Foundation

In September 2020 Sariev, Plovdiv and Office for Art, Berlin, are launching an initiative to found a Circle of Friends for Bulgarian Art.

The aim of the association will be to create a common platform for experts and art lovers, to focus on certain topics, issues and areas in art, to provide knowledge and educational mediation, to give support for art, artists, initiatives, institutions and to network internationally. Its initial focus is the Bulgarian contemporary art scene. The Circle of Friends for Bulgarian Art is organized independently by Vesselina Sarieva (Sariev, Plovdiv) and Rainald Schumacher, Nathalie Hoyos (Office for Art, Berlin) and manages itself. It is only responsible to its members.

Over the coming months, the initiative will be accompanied by exhibitions and encounters with artists, works of art and actors in the cultural field and will lead to the legal and official founding of the Circle of Friends. All such encounters will take place in compliance with all health regulations and rules of personal conduct. But we are convinced that it is even more important to support art, artists and initiatives now, in this fragile situation.

The first steps on the path are marked by the exhibition series Force of Attraction.
 
Why should an artist create new works for a solo exhibition opening on June 21, 2020, after the lockdown? Artwork by Berlin-based Kasia Fudakowksi to be displayed in the exhibition 'Now More Than Ever' in Plovdiv from 18.09. –  to 31.10.2020 is presenting 80 statements to answer this question. However, the text of the Fudakowksi’s artwork goes far beyond the threatening topicality of the pandemic. It raises fundamental questions about the role of art and the role and responsibility of the artist towards herself and towards society. 'Now More Than Ever' also means that in the current situation there is the chance, if not the need, to rethink the entire system of the art market, artist studio and gallery operations and the presentation of artworks in general.

In parallel with the woodcut prints by Kasia Fudakowski, the exhibition aims to lay stress on the attraction of historic lines in the language of art. A few of the beautiful and important visual poems from the early 1990’s by Vesselin Sariev will be displayed and create a bridge between the early beginning of free and contemporary art in Bulgaria and the recent discourse about the role and function of art.

Kasia Fudakowksi was born in 1985 in London. She lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Vesselin Sariev (Sarieff) was born in 1951 in Plovdiv and worked as a poet, historian and publisher. He died in 2003 in Plovdiv. 

The first exhibition of the Force of Attraction series in Plovdiv marks the official founding of the Circle of Friends for Bulgarian Art by Sariev gallery, Plovdiv and Office for Art, Berlin. 18.09.–31.10.2020, Opening ‪18.09.2020, 17:00 – 20:00, еxhibition presented at SARIEV gallery. The Event in FB.

The project is a co-operation with the Open Arts Foundation and is supported by IFA Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.

Circle of Friends of the Bulgarian Art is a project by Office for Art, Berlin in co-operation with the Open Arts Foundation and is supported by IFA Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen and Plovdiv 2019

More info: https://plovdiv2019.eu/