The backstory of Ivan Paskalev’s exhibition at 0GMS-cabinet started in Munich. Under the working title Prototype, he embarked on a new piece which marked a change in his work so far. The artist’s work from 2003 to date can be described as a continuous experiment with the generation and occurrence of the image, and also with the methods of its perception when the visual reality of our environment is juxtaposed to that projected from technological devices. He puts the visible and the invisible, the real and virtual on one level. Unlike many others, he does not make use of the latest technologies as an end in themselves, but is always tempted to walk the borderline between science and magic. In his earlier works, he studied for a long time the capacity of one type of monitors – he literally disassembled them and sabotaged their core function, their capacity to reproduce pictures. After that, with the parts of the disassembled monitors he created moving installations, which featured the functions of video and sculpture at the same time. With one of these works, he won the award for videoart at the second VIDEODOX biennial in Bavaria in 2017.

Ivan Paskalev’s images are not directly narrative. They oscillate between the abstraction and the objects from the contemporary visual environment. However, the narrative emerges between the meaning of what one sees and what one understands. The meaning of the visual fragments corresponds to that of the very form of expression. In Prototype, the new method of generation of pictures, just like the previous one, is almost impossible to be reproduced or documented. It depends entirely on the viewer’s attendance. In accordance with the area of 0GMS-cabinet, the exhibition is formed in a way that it comments on the ideas of the visible and the invisible, of concealing and revealing, of full and empty, of appearance and disappearance. The motion in the opening and closing of the four layers changes the image, or more precisely creates infinitely many images. The viewer, however, has to participate and model them by him or herself. Frankenstein will not jump out of the open cabinet, but it is possible that recognisable objects appear in the abstract forms. Everything depends on how the drawers are handled.

Ivan Paskalev was born in 1980 in Sofia. In 2011, he competed a degree in Fine Arts and Art History at LMU, Munich. From 2010 to 2013, he was a co-organising partner of VLKV, Vlaykova Club, Sofia. In 2014, he was a research associate in the Digital Visualisation Concepts project of Art Education Institute LMU and eUnivercity LMU, Munich. In 2011, he participated in the K-R-T creative residency in Krakow, Poland. In 2003, he joined the Volksmop Royal video art collective. In 2004, he participated in Double Feature at ZKMax, Munich; Bubu Nation project of Aiko Okamoto (2006-2008); Sofia Spionage, PLATFORM3, Munich (2009); Vice Photo Tour, Bulgaria (2009). In 2014, his solo exhibition WIN-WIN-DOWSE was held at DotDotCommaArt, Munich. Auf Papier, KARL PFEFFERLE gallery, Munich (2016). In 2017, won the award for videoart at the second VIDEODOX biennial in Bavaria, Galerie der Künstler BBK, Munich. In 2018, with his work futuro chaos he participated in an exhibition dedicate to the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Futuro House by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen, at Pinakothek der Moderne, Die Neue Sammlung, Munich. Prototype is Ivan Paskalev’s first official solo exhibition in Sofia.
https://ivanpaskalev.com/