Venue: Gallery Kula (Kralja Tomislava 10, 21000 Split)

NEDKO SOLAKOV - "WISHES"

Opening: Thursday, May 19, at 07:00 p.m.

The exhibition remains open until August 28, 2022.

The Cultural Institution Gallery Kula presents Nedko Solakov’s site-specific installation Wishes, as the first showing of this renowned Bulgarian multimedia artist in Split. Nedko Solakov’s artistic intervention transforms the Kula Gallery, originally conceived as a space that safeguarded life in Diocletian’s Palace (Kula is a Croatian word for tower), into an inspiring environment that encourages the visitors to think about themselves and the reality that surrounds them.

With his drawings, paintings, performances and installations, Solakov presents himself as a self-conscious and witty artist focused not only on questioning the art system, but also the general social problems rooted in the contradictions of human existence. In the Kula Gallery, Solakov showcases a distinctive reinterpretation of the art discipline of drawing, which critics consider to be the starting point of his striking, diverse and multimedia practice.

Non-linear and multi-directional narrative basis of the display activates the entire space of the Kula Gallery, connecting its architectural properties with the artworks just like it connects words and ideas, at the level of medium, in the tradition of Eastern European post-conceptual art. Solakov applied the same artistic strategy in his recent solo exhibitions A Cornered Solo Show #1 at the MUDAM, the Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg and an upcoming A Cornered Solo Show #2 at MAXXI, Rome where otherwise completely neglected and unused corners of the exhibition space are introduced as the focus of attention and meaning.

By encompassing the walls, fissures and the floor through the concept of total spatial design, the exhibition at the Kula Gallery follows this unusual practice that deconstructs the established expectations about exhibition space and content. Instead of the rigid concept of the white exhibition cube as a general container for all manner of exhibition content, Solakov presents an interpretation of the exhibition space and turns it into a platform that conveys to the audience his bitter-sweet thoughts about reality. As he says: My messages are never pessimistic, and even if they are somewhat, it is always in the name of reality.

More information about the artist and the exhibition is available at https://www.facebook.com/events/730476651303786?ref=newsfeed.