Radoil Serafimov: drawing has never been a decision so much as an extension of self.
📷 Boryana Pandova
For Radoil Serafimov, drawing has never been a decision so much as an extension of self. From early childhood, it existed as a natural motion – quiet, constant, and unquestioned. There was never a dramatic pivot toward art, no sudden realization. It was always there, simply unfolding along with him.
He studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Veliko Tarnovo, and after graduating, returned to his hometown of Gabrovo. The first couple of years back were marked by uncertainty: a stretch of time defined more by absence than direction. No income, no formal work, no studio. To sustain himself, he began creating paintings with commercial potential. Even in that space, he remained attentive to the integrity of the image, steering away from decorative clichés or cheap sentiment, committed instead to maintaining a sense of internal coherence and aesthetic seriousness.
Eventually, with support from his family, he secured a small attic space that became his first proper studio. In just a few months, he produced around twenty new paintings and began submitting them to competitions and open calls – many of which, at the time, still offered significant opportunities for young artists. Most led to silence. His early efforts were regularly overlooked, especially in the more centralized and saturated circles in Sofia.
📷 Boryana Pandova
But in 2014, something shifted. Though his application for the BAZA Award wasn’t selected, one of its jurors, curator Maria Vassileva, noticed his portfolio. Through the Stoyan Kambarev Foundation, she was then initiating a new award specifically for young painters. Serafimov received the 2014 prize, and with it came an opening – more invitations, more visibility, more recognition. What followed wasn’t a breakthrough in the cinematic sense, but rather a slow, steady unfolding of possibility.
For the next nine years, Serafimov balanced his painting practice with full-time work as a scenography technician in the local Gabrovo theater. It offered financial stability, but more importantly, it allowed him to maintain a consistent presence in the studio. Every free moment, before rehearsals, between productions, after hours, he returned to his canvases.
Over time, his work has evolved in form, palette, and tone, but its core has remained anchored in a particular way of looking: careful, considered, open to ambiguity. Some images are born from direct observation, others from fleeting impressions or visual memory. The subject matter ranges widely – figures, landscapes, fragments of architecture, imagined spaces – but what holds it together is a persistent desire to touch on something beyond the visible.
He rarely begins with a defined message or conceptual frame. Sometimes a painting arrives with urgency, completed in a day, responding to a specific sensation or internal spark. Other times, the process unfolds more slowly in days of looking, doubting, reworking. His more recent practice favors this latter rhythm, marked by intervals of reflection, hesitation, and quiet resistance. What compels him most are forms that resist simple interpretation – shapes or images that contain multiple readings, that suggest rather than state. The symbolic emerges not through theory, but through texture and tone. “I’m drawn to the spaces in an object where something else is hiding,” he says. “Something layered, something not immediately legible.”
📷 Boryana Pandova
When Serafimov was offered a studio at the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center in Gabrovo, his response was cautious. He had grown attached to his previous workspace, and relocating meant disrupting a familiar rhythm. It took months before he fully moved in – months in which the studio existed more as a potential than a place of work. Eventually, that shifted. The space settled around him. He began painting there consistently, finding his own pace within the new architecture. Today, he describes his studio at the Center as a functional, focused environment, less romantic than grounded, less about inspiration than about permission.
The building itself, once a textile school and now in transformation, holds a certain ambient charge. While Serafimov doesn’t directly use found objects or industrial remnants in his work, he responds to their quiet presence. To him, they are not resources to be repurposed but witnesses to time: objects that carry history without needing to explain it.
Though his practice is deeply individual, Serafimov recognizes the subtle value of proximity to others. The artists at the Center each work in distinct mediums, with different temperaments and trajectories, but over time, an organic form of community has begun to take shape – not one based on collaboration, but on presence, on shared effort, on parallel lives unfolding under the same roof. It is not a collective in the conventional sense. There are no joint projects or formal frameworks for exchange. But the slow accumulation of conversations, the gentle weaving of familiarity, has created a quiet current between the studios, one that Serafimov finds grounding, even if he remains mostly inward in his focus.
When asked about the connection between his practice and the Center’s namesakes, Serafimov is reflective but firm. He admires the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, their dedication, the magnitude of their vision, their insistence on impermanence. He sees value in the ephemerality they pursued, in the idea that an artwork can be both monumental and momentary. But his own work speaks in another register. It unfolds slowly, endures materially, resists spectacle. He does not seek to mirror their legacy, nor does he feel obliged to. What resonates is their conviction – their unyielding commitment to making, regardless of reception or reward.
In a cultural moment where painting is often asked to justify itself, where trends favor interdisciplinarity, political urgency, or social engagement, Serafimov continues to trust the quiet labor of the image. He is not indifferent to the world, but believes that complexity can live within the frame, within the act of looking, within the relationship between pigment and surface. Not every day in the studio results in a painting. Some are filled with silence, with music playing softly in the background, with notes, books, sketches, and pauses. Others begin with no plan at all: a brushstroke, a line, a movement that slowly unfolds into something more.
There is no fixed concept or unifying thesis behind his work. He avoids declarations. His approach is intuitive, exploratory, porous. If there is a theme, it lies in the attention he gives to things – his commitment to seeing, to lingering, to allowing meaning to arrive without force. As for the future of his place in the Center, he remains open. If the atmosphere shifts too far from the conditions that allow his practice to thrive, if the rhythms change, if the demands overtake the quiet, he may choose to move on. For now, though, he is here. And in this moment, that is enough.
Gergana Lazarova-Runkel isn’t one for simple categories.
Gergana Lazarova-Runkel in her atelier at the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center, photo by Boryana Pandova
Gergana Lazarova-Runkel isn’t one for simple categories. In her atelier at the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center, she is reshaping her role as an artist, blurring the line between stage and textile art, with a mix of ambition and grounded humility. Originally trained as a scenographer, Gergana has developed her craft around the visual and emotional impact of live storytelling. With a Bachelor’s in Scenography and a Master’s in Digital Arts, her work has crossed over from traditional theater into digital projection, staging productions like Arabian Night at Sfumato Theater Workshop and Under the Yoke – 1894 at Gabrovo Drama Theater. Yet in her stay at the Center, she’s finding herself pulled toward something closer to home – literally and figuratively: textile art.
Drawn to tufting, Gergana describes the process of working with fabric as “grounding,” a way to reconnect with the physicality of her craft and the history embedded in the walls of the former textile school. She speaks about this new direction as if it’s both a rebellion against, and a continuation of, her theatrical roots. “Working with textile offers a calm presence,” she says. The result is something intimate and tactile, a deliberate shift away from the monumental visuals of her scenographic work.
Gergana Lazarova-Runkel presenting decor prototype, personal archive
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s influence is here in spirit, if not in form. Gergana admires their fearless approach, their way of transforming the public space with such bold gestures. “What they accomplished was incredibly brave,” she says, a sentiment she holds close even as her own work stays more introspective. Yet, the weight of self-doubt lingers. “I’m still caught up in how my work will be seen,” she admits, a vulnerable edge that keeps her tied to the present and its messiness, rather than soaring to monumental heights.
Life at the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center has been a journey of discovery, offering both freedom and moments of introspection. While the community is vibrant in bursts, the shared direction among artists feels like an evolving work in progress. “There’s room to grow here,” Gergana reflects, her words carrying a tone of optimism rather than critique. For her, genuine collaboration feels tantalizingly close, and the potential is undeniable. Despite the challenges, she believes the Center provides a unique and supportive environment for artists to explore and thrive.
Gergana Lazarova-Runkel’s work isn’t about polish or presentation. It’s about discovery, about rooting through the layers of fabric and memory, and piecing together something that feels honest and raw. Her art asks questions instead of delivering easy answers. Blending her theater experience with this newfound textile practice, Gergana is crafting something both beautiful and uneasy, the kind of art that’s grounded not only in skill but in the willingness to show what lies beneath. It’s a reflection of an artist finding her way, step by vulnerable step, in a world where honesty often takes a back seat to spectacle.
For an intertwined artistic community: hosting Ivelina Ivanova (BrumBur)
The Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center, following the artistic duo’s inspiring legacy of creation through vast public engagement, aims to build an intertwined artistic community to foster within it’s premises, turning this primarily tribute space into a dynamic, living platform for contemporary art production. The center currently hosts 7 artists, each connected by heart or practice with the values and work ethic of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, exploring creative possibilities and the resources of the former Textile Technical School of Gabrovo.
Interviewing Iva in her atelier at the Center, photo by Ilina Peneva
Ivelina Ivanova ’s path into the world of embroidery is anything but conventional, though it is deeply rooted in the craftsmanship of her family. Describing herself as a “craftswoman,” she brings an individual approach to the craft, blending tradition with contemporary aesthetics. Her journey began long before her formal training at the Textile Technical School, which she completed in 2001. Growing up in a household where her parents ran a small embroidery business, Iva was immersed in the depths of her craft from an early age. Her mother, a trained embroiderer, guided her through the art of handcrafting with a sewing machine, an essential tool she still uses today. “I am self-taught in many ways,” Iva reflects, yet her work is always intentional, deeply personal, and rich in history.
The transformation from a family-run business to Iva’s solo enterprise was not without challenges. After the sudden loss of her father during her university years, Iva and her mother faced financial and administrative struggles that ultimately led to the closure of their family business. However, the seeds of creativity were already planted. After raising her two children, Iva’s desire to return to her roots in embroidery grew stronger. In 2017, she registered as a freelance designer, and her creative practice began to take shape.
Iva showing a recent comission, photo by Ilina Peneva
Iva’s work today is a reflection of her dual commitment to preserving traditional techniques while questioning the consumption-driven demands of modern fashion. Her embroidery is deeply connected to the idea of reusing and recycling materials, contributing to a slower, more mindful approach to creation. She explains, “Every material I work with—be it fabric or denim—is an opportunity to give something old a new life.” Her platform, which she refers to as “BrumBur” (a name inspired by the sound of the sewing machine and sometimes the one in her head), is a space where discarded materials are transformed into heartfelt, handcrafted products, including accessories, personalised items, clothes and bags.
Second-hand materials from Iva’s collection, photo by Ilina Peneva
“I believe in circularity, in making less but creating more meaningful things,” she says, underscoring her commitment to sustainability in her practice. Her materials often come from second-hand donations or discarded textiles, which she then imbues with new meaning through intricate embroidery. This process is more than just technical; it is a way of engraving personal memories into the fabric, transforming the old into something that tells a new story.
As an artist having an atelier at the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center, Iva is continuously inspired by the history of the building itself. The Center, once a textile school, has reawakened a sense of connection for her. “Walking these halls again, where I once studied, is not about nostalgia, but a reminder of the life that once filled these spaces,” she says. Her experience in the Center has allowed her to delve deeper into her practice, exploring the intersection of tradition, memory, and sustainability.
A shot from Iva’s work table, photo by Ilina Peneva
Iva’s journey is a testament to the power of art in reinterpreting the past while creating something timeless. Through her work, she continues to honor the legacy of craft while embracing the possibilities of contemporary practice. At her atelier in the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center, she finds not only a space for creative experimentation but also a community that supports and encourages the evolution of her work. As Iva looks toward the future, she sees her practice continuing to evolve, with a commitment to producing work that speaks to the importance of sustainability and the preservation of craft in an increasingly disposable world.
Through embroidery, Iva reimagines the possibilities of forgotten textiles, turning them into objects that are both beautiful and meaningful—offering new life to materials that might otherwise be discarded. Her story is a reminder that art is not just about creating for the sake of creation, but about transforming what already exists into something new and full of purpose.
Anamnesis of the Avant-Garde: performance-installations at the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center
Installation by Ivelina Ivanova and Emilian Gatsov – Elbi from October 2023, photo by Ivelin Penchev
On December 8th, the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center in Gabrovo welcomed the next chapter of Anamnesis of the Avant-Garde, a project that stitches together memory and experimentation in a space where history and art collide. Originally conceptualized by Stephan A. Shtereff and introduced during the Center’s opening in October 2023 by artists Ivelina Ivanova and Emilian Gatsov – Elbi, this iteration brought the creative interpretations of Ina Valentinova and Martian Tabakov into the spotlight.
Ina Valentinova, triptych „Light Patches”, photo by Ivelin Penchev
Ina Valentinova reimagined the tactile legacy of the space with her textile triptych Light Patches. Installed on the staircase windows, her fabrics interacted with light, casting vibrant reflections and shadows that resonated with the Center’s history as a place of skill, creativity, and production.
Ina Valentinova, triptych „Light Patches”, photo by Ivelin Penchev
Ina Valentinova, photo by Ivelin Penchev
Martian Tabakov’s audio-visual performance, By Prescription, merged musical instruments with found objects from the former Textile Technical School. The resulting soundscapes echoed the mechanical rhythms of industrial labor, blending them with abstract dissonance in a live performance.
Martian Tabakov, audio-visual performance „By Prescription”, photo by Ivelin Penchev
Photo by Ivelin Penchev
Photo by Ivelin Penchev
Photo by Ivelin Penchev
Photo by Ivelin Penchev
Photo by Ivelin Penchev
Photo by Ivelin Penchev
Photo by Ivelin Penchev
Photo by Ivelin Penchev
The event opened with thoughtful reflections from Margarita Dorovska, who shared insights into the journey of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center, alongside Stephan A. Shtereff, who spoke about the project’s vision and future potential. Pieces from the October installation, including the iconic textile machine sound installation, returned to further connect the threads of past and present, enriching the narrative. The day was a celebration of transformation – of spaces, traditions, and artistic expression. It was an exploration of how the avant-garde persists, not as a relic of nostalgia, but as a dynamic, living force.
Photo by Ivelin Penchev
Photo by Ivelin Penchev
Photo by Ivelin Penchev
Photo by Ivelin Penchev
Photo by Ivelin Penchev
//Anamnesis of the Avant-Garde is supported by the Ministry of Culture.
//The Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center’s 2023–2025 program is supported by the America for Bulgaria Foundation.
Five projects in the public space that can be seen in the area of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center
In recent years, the area of the Center has become a hub for cultural innovation and art, hosting several inspiring projects in the public environment. Now, five exceptional artworks enrich the urban landscape and invite you to a unique experience.
1. Nevena Ekimova:
Trash to Treasure is a project by artist Nevena Ekimova, featuring sculpture and video. The project presents the audience of Gabrovo with an environmentally conscious way to contemplate issues related to waste and recycling. The exhibition includes a sculpture made from household and industrial waste, displayed in the courtyard of the former Textile Technical School, as well as a video series, dedicated to the environmental strategies employed by six local enterprises. The Trash to Treasure project traces the fate of waste and its connection to the environment and society, emphasizing the importance of recycling and sustainable waste management.
Stoyan Dechev is a multidisciplinary artist working with various artistic media and materials. His work focuses on the combination of historical and mythological themes with current issues such as nature, feminism, and others. One of his projects, Access, restores the pillars of the Textile Technical School building and artistically integrates the connection between the history and the future of the location.
3. Hans Hamands:
Hans Hamands is an artist who contemplates the importance of rivers and their influence, using the textile industry as inspiration for his works. He examines how the textile production practices of the past affect the environment and the rivers, highlighting the harmful consequences but also the potential beauty created by this process. The artwork is located in the Yantra River, near the bridge of the Museum of Humor and Satire.
4. Pia Rognes:
Pia Rognes is a sculptor specializing in textile materials and techniques, allowing her to express inner conflicts and destructive behavior. She combines sensory and emotional aspects, exploring the tension between positive and negative objects. Her sculpture in the courtyard of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center symbolizes change and raises questions about pain and its meaning.
5. Martin Penev:
Martin Penev is a Bulgarian artist working with various artistic media and themes. He combines childlike naivety and imagination with objects and installations that prompt viewers to contemplate identity, politics, history, and humor. One of his installations, The Ancient Mammoth, which is set to be unveiled on Friday at 7:30 PM, satirizes forgery and identity crises in society. His works are creative, socially engaged, and provocative.
The Trash to Treasure project is produced by the Museum of Humor and Satire with the financial support of the Municipality of Gabrovo and is part of initiatives dedicated to the European Commission’s European Green Leaf environmental award for 2021. The project is implemented with logistical support from the Regional Innovation Center Ambitious Gabrovо. The project is carried out in partnership with: Plastform Ltd., Terahim 97 Ltd., Vizo Ltd., Mak Ltd., LS Tubes Ltd., STS Pack Holding Ltd., Eco Project Ltd., Regional Non-Hazardous Waste Depot – Gabrovo, Cap Gabrovo Initiative.
PERSONAL REALITY – photographic explorations
Within RADLAB’s annual program, six authors were invited to explore the theme of Personal Reality. Now, we present six photographic series, hand-printed in the studio base located in Gabrovo, using 23 alternative photographic techniques. These processes often involve the creation of images through photosensitive chemicals and DIY tools. The photographers invent their own mediums and methods of work to emphasize the importance of the creative process. Artistic production is an alchemical experiment, a systematic chronicle of exploration that combines disciplines such as chemistry, physics, and psychology with the artists’ own thoughts, attitudes, and relationships as a collective.
This is photography today!
Participants:
Vladislav Lepoev
Vanessa Lu
Ivelin Penchev – Ivicha Lilyana
Karadjova Nikola
Dyulgyarov USHA
RADLAB Studio
Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center, former Textile Technical School – Gabrovo Floor I 15:00 // October 7, 2023
The exhibition PERSONAL REALITY is realized as part of the project “Alternative Photography in Contemporary Art and Education” with the financial support of the National Culture Fund.
RESIDENCE FOR BALANCE – The Ancient Mammoth, Martin Penev
Martin Penev (born 1985) lives and works in Sofia. In 2009 he took his MA in Theology from the Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski and in 2012 – MA in Digital Arts from the National Academy of Arts, Sofia. Since 2010 he has participated in group and solo projects in a number of festivals and events in Bulgaria and abroad. He has interests in object, installation, interactive design, performance.
The objects created by Martin Penev are both direct and mysterious in a kind of child-like way. They remind us simultaneously of the defenselessness but also of the unconditional freedom of fantasy confronted with the unknown and the unexplainable.
His hybrid forms neglect the rational and push forward the empathy. The references to toys and to something primordial in the shape of the object, as well as the “buildup” of the installation are attracting the grown up viewers to the “naiveté”; the deformations and the obsessive presence of his objects in the space are pushing the viewers into a labyrinth of interpretations.
Luchezar Boyadjiev
The Ancient Mammoth About to be Created
The installation is an ironic look at counterfeiting, substitution, demagoguery. The mammoth did co-exist with the human race after all, and we probably have an innate, unconscious memory of our life together, of what happened. An extinct species is mock-recreated in a space reminiscent of a natural history museum. The museum institution serves for the conservation, restoration and display of historical artifacts, but in this case the “historical” is yet to be created.
In sociopolitical terms, “creating an ancient mammoth” can be a mystification of history, ideological shaping of the past, appropriation of achievements and successes of past societies and cultures. All matter of populism, propaganda, political demagoguery and extreme nationalism.
On a personal level, “creating an ancient mammoth” can be used to describe identity crises. The individual creates urgent imitative constructions to define oneself in an aggressive world or, through the projection of the personal inner fears, creates an external enemy, in the struggle against which one finds one’s own identity.
The installation can also be thought of as an irony of kitsch, fakery, and the surrounding aesthetics in general.
Two music bands from Gabrovo receive support and encouragement for development at the Christo and Jean-Claude Center
The punk rock band Visoko Krvno consists of three young people from Gabrovo who will graduate from high school in less than a year. The boys started playing music as children, and four years ago they formed a band with the desire to share their original music with the world. They describe their style as DIY punk rock.
Just about four months ago, on May 19th, the band participated in the Koaka concert, which took place at the Christo and Jean-Claude Center during the Gabrovo Carnival. This was their first performance in their hometown. They shared that when they received the invitation to perform at the Center, they didn’t hesitate much because, for them, it is the ideal space for concerts and rehearsals.
Guitarist Marian Avramov says that the cafeteria of the former Textile Technical School reminds him of the place where the iconic Nirvana song from the early ’90s, Smells Like Teen Spirit, was filmed. The boys have different musical idols, but their favorite bands include Linkin Park, Nirvana, and Godsmack.
The vocalist and guitarist of the band is 19-year-old Marian Avramov, who is currently studying at the Raycho Karolev High School. After graduating, he plans to continue his studies in Sound Engineering at the New Bulgarian University.
The young musicians have also formed a second relatively new band called Agastopia, and their style can be described as alternative grunge. On September 15th, their first album titled Meltdown was released on streaming platforms, and a few days later, they performed live at the rock bar The Pit in the capital.
Marian recalls passing by the former Textile Technical School and dreaming with his friends of playing music there. “The building has a special atmosphere,” he shares, insisting that there are other Gabrovo bands that would rehearse in the cafeteria. In the four years since Visoko Krvno started, the boys had to travel to Sofia to rehearse in a rented studio on the weekends because they couldn’t find a suitable space in town.
The musicians dream of the Christo and Jeanне-Claude Center becoming a thriving place that attracts artists and contributes to the development of the musical and cultural scene in Gabrovo. The center gives them hope that future generations of musicians will have more support and motivation for development.
Photo: Visoko Krvno (2022) Photo: Agastopia (2023)
Nevena Ekimova is among the first Gabrovo-based artists with a studio at the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center
📷 Boryana Pandova
The author presented two monumental installations in the courtyard of the former textile school, part of the project Тrash to Treasure, even before the building was transformed into an art center.
She defines herself as a creator who loves to experiment and create objects of varying scales. She seizes projects through which she always learns something new, she says, and we would confirm that each time she chooses increasingly challenging tasks on the edge of time and resources, surprising both her surroundings and possibly herself. We are having a conversation with her in her old studio, a few days after the opening of three exhibitions featuring her work within one week.
She shares that from a young age, she was surrounded by women engaged in clothing production and can’t remember when еxactly she learned to sew. She loves working with textiles, and she says it comes naturally to her. She admits to being a passionate collector of fake furs and uses them to create a tactile and visual sensation. She often works with waste materials. Her artworks include a huge creature with an unclear shape between an amoeba and a bear, created from bottle caps, adhesive tape, and car wash brushes, which climbed onto a column in the courtyard of the Center Christo and Jean-Claude in 2021. When it appeared there, the building was still the former Textile Technical School (with ambitions for more). She is also the author of the GardenTown exhibition at the Museum of Humor and Satire—a scaled-down model of a city that children can change (just like real cities, where adults seem to have forgotten they can make an impact and thus mostly grumble). She also designed and executed the mythical but nonexistent (before 2020) Mirror Hall at the Museum of Humor. It was mythical because thousands of visitors were convinced they had entered it before and were very upset that it no longer existed, as is often the case in Bulgaria when something nice exists – it gets demolished. And it (the hall) simply never existed before Nevena. Still, it’s wonderful that this riddle of collective memory was erased with a leap into the rabbit hole (and quite a bit of courage).
Nevena completed her secondary education at the Aprilov High School and later enrolled in Scandinavian Studies in Sofia. She received a scholarship that allowed her to study “Liberal Arts” in Sweden and Norway (sounds like a major created especially for her), where she met incredible teachers and became an artist.
Upon her return to Gabrovo, she dreamed for years of a place with large spaces to accommodate her outrageously ambitious projects and vast quantities of materials she tends to collect. When she learned that the former Textile School building would become an art center, she turned out to be the most active artist in organizing studios and transforming the old dusty classrooms and workshops there. She remembers how as a child she looked at newspapers and magazines with works by Christo with eyes full of admiration, and she herself wrapped everyday objects and observed the transformation of the artwork with curiosity.
She sees the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center as a place accessible to both artists and art enthusiasts. The studio she now occupies will finally match the scale of her work. She envisions the center as a vibrant space where various cultural and creative activities take place, in which everyone can participate. Such a place is needed not only for today’s artists but also for future generations who will have the opportunity to unleash their imagination and creative skills. Described in this way, the Center sounds exactly like the place for her.
See Nevena’s art live at the following exhibitions:
The New Collection – Center CJC, part of “New Weavers for Gabrovo,” only on 30.09.2023.
Dream Home – Co-op Sofia, until 8.10.2023.
Contemporary Art in the Collection of the European Parliament – nominated works – SAMSI, Sofia, until 21.10.2023.
Tchotchke – Positano Square 1, Sofia – foryouandyourcustomers office, until May 2024.
Access
On August 25th, the sculpture installation Access by Stoyan Dechev was unveiled on the first day of the Rivers of the City Festival – Gabrovo 2023.
Access is a work of art by Stoyan Dechev, created for the façade of the Christo and Jean-Claude Center in Gabrovo, a former building of the Textile Technical School in Gabrovo. The work consists of several parts and is located in multiple places, starting from the external service staircase that remains on one side of the building. By restoring the staircase through artistic intervention, public access to the history and future of the building is also restored.
The work interacts with the architecture and scale of the building, delicately taking over its silhouette and extending the staircase onto the roof of the building, as well as onto a nearby abandoned concrete structure and into the bed of the Yantra River.
The additions to the rooftop access column resonate with the transformation or collapse of architecture and the numerous changes, interventions, or alterations of form and purpose, turning this technological building into a cultural institution, as well as setting new directions for the city’s development as a whole.
The illuminated sculpture is visible in the night sky, softening the strict vertical lines of the column with a chaotic, dispersing manner that extends from the horizon to street level and descends into the river.
Access is the first in a series of installations in the urban environment as part of the Residence for Balance project, carried out by the Museum of Humor and Satire in partnership with the Gabrovo Municipality under the FestivalNO in the Neighborhood project, within the Cultural Entrepreneurship, Heritage, and Cooperation program.
In his work, Stoyan Dechev focuses on long-term projects, large-scale sculptures and installations, drawings, animation, and video within the context and specificity of different materials and certain locations. He brings artifacts from history and myth to current themes such as time, nature, astronomy, feminism, languages, resources, activism, or the role of the sculptor and his creativity in society.
