↳ Exhibitions

Pravdoliub Ivanov at Sarieva

July 8, 2023

Artist: Pravdoliub Ivanov

Exhibition title: I Don’t Know What You Are Talking About

Venue: Sarieva, Plovidv, Bulgaria

Date: May 5 – July 29, 2023

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Sarieva, Plovidv

Sarieva / Gallery is pleased to present Pravdoliub Ivanov’s solo show I Don’t Know What You Are Talking About, featuring the artist’s latest works. The exhibition will be open between May 5 and July 29, 2023 and will be accompanied by events and meetings with the author at the various gallery venues in Plovdiv.

Pravdoliub Ivanov shares his thoughts about his project: “I recall a famous quote: ‘To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric’. In that sense, the present exhibition is immoral, it is an escape from reality into projects and topics which excited me before 24.02.2022, and which further helped me outlast this reality after that particular date.”

The artworks from the exhibition deal only with themselves, their material and the artist’s reflections on contingency in art and problems such as: Do the words follow the images or vice versa? Why cannot the visual be read verbally? Why is the product of reading not an image?

The idea for this exhibition originated from a photo image which Pravdoliub found in his camera four years ago. Unbeknown to him, his five-year-old son had photographed everything around himself. The photo in question showed part of the living-room with a TV set broadcasting and unknown feature film with subtitles. Engraved onto the TV screen, a dialogue caption said the following: “I would like to draw a picture of you. – I don’t know what you are talking about”. This small dialogue became an inspiration for one of Pravdoliub’s artworks and the title of the exhibition itself.

The artworks presented in the solo show constitute an attempt to explore found objects, images and visualized prejudices, whereas all their interpretations are equally truthful.

Pravdoliub Ivanov (1964) is an artist based in Sofia, Bulgaria. He holds a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from National Academy of Arts, Sofia (2015). Ivanov participated in many international shows as Double Up, Neues Museum, Nürnberg, Germany (2022), The Restless Earth, Fondazione N. Trussardi, and Fondazione Triennale di Milano (2017); Symptoms of Society, The Guangdong Museum of Art, China (2017)The Travellers. Voyage and Migration in New Art from Central and Eastern Europe, Zachęta-National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (2016); Sport in Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, Poland (2012); Who Killed the Painting?, works from Block Collection, Neues Museum, Nuremberg, Germany (2009); No New Thing Under the Sun, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2011); L’ Europe en devenir, Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris, France (2007), His solo exhibition, “The Life of Others is Somehow Easier,” (2019) was shown in the Museum of Contemporary Art “Arsenal”, Bialystok, Poland. Ivanov took part in the following biennials: Manifesta 14, Pristina (2022); 52nd Venice Biennial, Italy (2007); 4th Berlin Biennial (2006); 14th Sydney Biennial, Australia (2004); 3rd Manifesta, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2000); 4th Istanbul Biennial (1995). Ivanov’s works are part of public collections as Neues Museum, Nürnberg; Museum ARTER, Istanbul; Museum Arsenal, Bialystok, Poland; EIBank, Luxembourg; Kontakt-Collection, Austria; Art Collection Telekom, Germany; Erste Bank Collection, Austria; Art Collection Deutsche Bank, Germany, City Gallery Sofia and others.

Pravdoliub Ivanov, I Don’t Know What You Are Talking About, 2023, exhibition view, Sarieva, Plovidv

Pravdoliub Ivanov, Useless Constellations or When “Connecting Dots Theory” Gets Tired, 2022, Wood, artificial silk, metal, plastic, 80 x100 x 7 cm

Pravdoliub Ivanov, Feature Film, 2023, (— I would like to draw you. — I do not understand what you are talking about.) Pencil, tempera, oil on 300g Arches, TV wall stand, 65 x112 cm