Voin de Voin was born in 1978. He lives and works in Sofia. He holds an MA from DasArts, Amsterdam, and diploma from Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, Goldsmith College,School for New Dance Development, London, EICAR –International School for film and cinema of Paris. Voin de Voin works in various fields of the visual arts, ranging from performance to installation, incorporating his research in collective rituals, psycho-geography, sociology, psychology and new media.
Among his solo shows are “SUR(REAL)RENDER”, Sariev Contemporary, Plovdiv (2018); “How Do You Picture It?”, The Fridge, Sofia (2016); “Disconnecting Intergod”, Vaska Emanouilova Gallery, Sofia (2015); “ἀ-μετά-καλύπτω,” Sariev Project Space, Plovdiv (2015); “33° North – 33° East”, Sariev Contemporary, Plovdiv (2012); “Retrofuturo”, France fiction gallery, Paris (2012). Group exhibitions and projects include “Thought for Food”, WILD GALLERY, Brussels (2014); “Doubt, Connection, Sufferance, Aisthesis, Eros”, ArtInternational, Istanbul (2014); “Contemporary Modifications”, Espace Wallonie, Brussels (2014); “Moon Voyage 36” (as curator), The Fridge, Sofia (2014); “Bulgarische Arbeit”, geh8 Kunstraum & Ateliers e.V., Dresden (2014); “Аnn and the Giant Appel”, lecture performance, De Appel Institute for Contemporary Art, Amsterdam (2014); “Let’s Twist and Cross”, Gallery Bertrand Jordan, Paris (2014); “My Friend, the Artist”, Coexistences Art Space, St. Petersburg (2014); Sofia Queer Forum 2014 – “Manifestations of the Personal”, Vaska Emanuilova Gallery, Sofia; “120 Minutes to Paradise”, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK), Berlin (2013); “If Not, Tomorrow”, Artitude V.E., Berlin (2013); ParaDice, Kunstverein Ausgburg (2012); “Radical Languages” (curators: Maaike Gouwenberg & Joanna Zielińska), Cricoteka Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor, Krakow (2012); “Round Robin” (performance, part of Critical Art Ensemble Program), dOCUMENTA (13), (2012); Sofia Queer Forum 2012 – “The Creation of Myth”, Sofia Arsenal – Museum of Contemporary Art, Sofia; “Poor but Sexy”, Sariev Contemporary, Plovdiv (2011); “Ai Wei Wei is in China”, Тhe Bunker, Berlin (2011); “Presence is the Artist”, Berlin (2011); “Holly Shit”, PSM Gallery, Berlin (2010); “Dr. Strangelove” (installation/performance), Batiment d’art contemporain (BAC), Geneve (2010). He has also participated and shown in numerous international art institutions and events such as Documenta 14, Athens (2017) (off space); Manifesta 11, Zurich (2016); Venice Biennale 2015 (off programme); Melbourne International Art Festival (2009); MoМА, New York (2007); Hetveem Theatre, Amsterdam; Tanja Leighton Gallery, Berlin; France Fiction Gallery, Paris; Kunstverein Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe; MuseumCartier, Vienna; Living Art Museum, Iceland; Atelier de Vertus, Paris / Berlin; Szene Art Lab, Brussels; Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair; and De Appel Art Centre, Amsterdam. He is also a freelancer in the field of organizing and curating events and exhibitions: ÆTHER programmation; Nordic Biennale (Doma arts Fest, 2015); Manisensations, Leap gallery Berlin; Dutch fashion Biennale Performance programme, Arnhemand others. Voin de Voin is the recipient of awards fromthe Mondrian Fondation for Visual Arts, Amsterdam(2008) and Das Arts Stichting for the Arts (2006-2008). Since July 2016 he is running an independent art space in Sofia called ÆTHER. Since 2018 a sibling space Æther Haga in the Netherlands, together with Marie Civikov. He is the initiator of Sofia Art Week SAW, since 2018. Currently Voin is a fellow at Solitude Akademie Stuttgart, with whom Æther will partner for the next couple of years in exchange fellowship program for artists exchange between the two countries together with Swimming pool and Radar Sofia. Voin de Voin is represented by Sariev Contemporary since 2011.
Voin de Voin’s videos and performances examine the high demands on the performativity of our lives. They mixelements of social and psychological analysis of systematic society designs with its irrational manifestations.The events are accompanied by the entire symbolic apparatus that sometimes has precise meanings, butother times has more independent and aesthetic qualities and it is composed from individual tastes of theirparticipants. – Edith Jerabkova