The Other Eye (initiated by Maria Vassileva) is a series of exhibitions where the museum invites in turn an artist, an architect, a writer, an art critic, a fashion designer, a musician, a doctor, a politician and/or a theoretician to conceive and curate an exhibition using the museum collection. We want to offer to our audience alternative views that will not be solely based on knowledge about art history, style, genre or practice. A view instigating a dynamic dialogue with art works featured in the collection, while providing new opportunities for analysis and interpretation of the artistic heritage that is our mission to preserve and promote.

Our first invitation went out to the artist Luchezar Boyadjiev. He accepted under the condition that he will work complying only with his artistic views, talent, imagination, spatial thinking, perception of visual form and ability to tell a story through art works; intuition, psyche, views on art and its place in the world and people’s lives; to work in a way that suits his concept of collegial ethics or lack thereof; his views on the art museum and the latter’s life through the works collected there; his perception of the art audience as well as to work only with similar notions and principles of his choosing…

According to Luchezar Boyadjiev the most important thing about this exhibition is that everything in it is personal. He invites the viewers to think of his exhibition as of an installation of ready-made objects that the artist found in the storage of the museum.

Naturally when he “dares” to freely interpret works from the SCAG collection while treating them as components for his installation, the artist is relying on his art history education as well. Luchezar Boyadjiev is searching to deconstruct the clichés of Bulgarian art history by reconstructing the misleading randomness he witnessed in the way artworks are stored in the museum’s storage. In this he is using his own perspective: “To put it briefly, if you ever happened to wonder whether there is anything that connects artists and their works throughout art history other than the fact that they all make art, this project and this installation will help you realize that artists are connected by the very same things that connect everything and all people around the world in this life – from the pub to the bed, from the paint color of the living room to the ideal for female beauty in the 1930’s or the 1990’s; from career aspirations and sucking up to the powers of the day to the torments and revelations experienced by the spirit of the artist, the saint, the wrestler, the shop owner or the neighborhood key maker”.

Luchezar Boyadjiev is searching for connections between the artworks in a way that „may turn out to be not only ahistorical, but also disturbing” hoping that the dialogue between the various works in the exhibition will be more vital than expected. The artist is convinced that his approach will kick start the collection on a life that is more active and humane, a kind of life that is more artistic, challenging and innovative. He hopes that the viewers will get satisfaction, knowledge and possibly inspiration that will encourage them to think of their museums as part of their own lives and world.

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Luchezar Boyadjiev was born on October 12, 1957 in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 1980 he graduated the National Art Academy, Sofia, majoring in Art History. He is a co-founding member of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia (1995). In 1992 he was the curator of Bulgarian participation in the 3rd International Biennial in Istanbul, Turkey.

Over the last years he has had solo exhibitions with: Feinkost Gallery, Berlin (2007); the Experimental Art Foundation (EAF), Adelaide, Australia (2006); and within the Arte Fiera, Bologna, Italy (2004). His more recent group exhibitions are: “Common History and its Private Stories”, MUSA (Museum auf Abruf), Vienna, Austria; “Wealth of Nations”, within “Cinema City” Film and Media Festival, Novi Sad, Serbia; “Liquid Frontiers”, Europe XXL/Lille 3000, Tri Postal, Lille, France; “Bad Times/Good Times”, Futura – Center for Contemporary Art, Prague, the Czech Republic (2009); “Art, Price and Value”, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy; “Wonder”, 2nd Biennial in Singapore; “The Jerusalem Show”, Al-Ma’mal Foundation, the Old City of Jerusalem; “Eurasia”, MART, Rovereto, Italy; “Lucky Number Seven”, 7th SITE Biennial, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA; “Land of Human Rights: At the Limits of the Thinkable”, , Graz, Austria; “Brave New World…”, IFA Gallery, Berlin/Stuttgart, Germany (2008); 3rd Prague Biennial, Prague, the Czech Republic; “Attitude 2007”, CAMK, Kumamoto, Japan; “Footnotes: on Geopolitics, Markets and Amnesia”, 2nd Biennial, Moscow, Russia (2007).

He has had residencies with the Getty Foundation (USA), KulturKontakt (Austria), the Municipality of Paris (France), the Sharjah Biennial (UAE), etc., while working in New York, Philadelphia, Vienna, Paris, Sharjah, Worpswede (Germany), Novi Sad, and Seoul among others. Over the years he has been presenting widely as well as participating in numerous conferences, discussions and workshops.

Luchezar Boyadjiev is one of the most prominent Bulgarian artists on the international art scene. His works deal with urban issues, construction of audiences as well as with personal interpretation of social and political processes.