The exhibition presents Ivan Mudov’s latest works, which again and again face us with the (eternal) questions of what art is and what powers of impact it employs, does art establish connections or does it provoke reactions, where is art positioned in society… The entire artistic work is sprinkled with a considerable amount of irony, which doesn’t spare you the judgement of the ‘artist’s persona’, and of the work of art’s authorship and uniqueness.

The artist continues to surprise the viewer with his mixture of art-cocktails, which contain astonishing ingredients; again, he does not meet the audience’s traditional expectations and subjects its habits to suspicion. He uses a range of expressions and demonstrates his liberal outlook with both the traditional styles of artistic work and with the new technologies and techniques, which are particularly popular nowadays.

Ivan Mudov is one of the most active Bulgarian artists within his generation. He has an impressive biography of exhibition shows and individual displays with the most renowned art institutions around the world. Irrespective of the fact that most of his large-scale projects were accomplished abroad (unfortunately), those familiar to the Bulgarian audience range amongst the brightest manifestations of contemporary art. Among these we can list ‘Fragments’ (2002), an impressive collection of the world’s contemporary art ‘pieces’, created from amassed stolen parts of the works of famous artists, as well as the staging-up of the ‘official opening’ of a Museum of Modern Art in the building of the Poduene Railway Station, MUSIZ (2005), the provocative simulation of the construction of a business building resembling the demolished Mausoleum of Georgi Dimitrov and located on the same site (2012). These do not merely represent some of the most interesting achievements of modern Bulgarian art, but they also contribute to shaping the audience’s frame of mind and its perceptive attitudes.

Curator: Yara Bubnova

Ivan Mudov was born in 1975, he graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Sofia. The list of some of his individual exhibitions includes: Certificate of Authenticity, Tranzitdisplay, Prague,

Turbo Conceptualism, Kunstverein Milano, Milan

Certificate of Authenticity, Tobacna 001 Cultural Centre, Ljubljana, Air Drawing Contest, MUMOK, Vienna

“Stones”, Casa Cavazzini Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Udine, Performing Time”, prometeogallery di Ida Pisani, Milan

The Glory Hole, Alberta Pane Gallery, Paris, France, 2012; %, W139, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2011; Wine to discover, Zürich, Switzerland, 2010; Ivan Mudov, Binz 39, Zürich, Switzerland, 2010; Trick or Treat, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany, 2008; The 1st at Moderna: Ivan Moudov, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, 2008. Mudov participated in the 52nd Venice Biennale, Italy, 2007, in the 1st Moscow Biennale, 2005, as well as in the Manifesta 4, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 2002. Selected participations in group exhibitions: OFF- Biennale, Budapest; Grammar Of Freedom / Five Lessons: Works From Arteast 2000+ Collection, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow; Cote Interieur, Tiroler kunstlerschaft – Kunstpavillion, Innsbruck; Unexpected Encounters, Camera Austria, Graz; The Intransigent Ticket – The Artist as a Filter”, Fine Arts Gallery, California State University; Doppio Gioco – Double Game The Ambiguity of the Photographic Image, Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation, Venice, Italy, 2012; Rearview Mirror: New Art from Central & Eastern Europe, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 2012; Site Inspection – The Museum on the Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, 2011; Beziehungsarbeit – Kunst und Institution, Künstlerhaus Wien, Vienna, 2011, etc. Mudov was awarded with scholarships by the resident programmes AIR by BINZ 39, Zürich, Switzerland, 2009; KulturKontakt, Vienna, 2008; Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany, 2008; Recollets, Paris, 2006, etc.

In 2006 he won the Young European Artist Award Trieste Contemporanea, and in 2010, he received the Gaudenz B. Ruf Award for contemporary Bulgarian art in the Advanced Artists Category.