The exhibition is a joint project of Nina Kovacheva and Valentin Stefanoff, following an invitation from the Fotofabrika and produced by the Festival specially for the Sofia City Art Gallery. The event will display thirty large-scale photographic images and five videos. The works are part of several sequences that show the two artists’ individual quests. Most of the photos are exhibited for the first time in Bulgaria. Nina Kovacheva’s cycles “The Hidden Face of Fragility” (2010) and “Five Bible Stories” (2011) lead us through different stages that depict characteristics of man and of traits of human nature while Valentin Stefanoff’s series “Organon” (2011), “Primordial Soup” (2011) and “Plastic Romanticism” (2018) take us into the world of inanimate matter and enable us to peep beyond the large form and to focus our attention on details that he has chosen.

Nina Kovacheva and Valentin Stefanoff graduated from the National Academy of Art in Sofia in 1985. They have been living in Paris since 1995. Their distinguished artistic careers comprise plenty of exhibitions in galleries and museums in Bulgaria, France, Austria, Germany, China, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and elsewhere. They employ a variety of art media like drawing, painting, and photography, in addition to video, video installations, objects and sound instillations. The two artists are well known for their individual aspirations and performances and for quite a number of joint projects that are intended mostly for museum façade and public space and that they sign NINAVALE.

Nina Kovacheva was born in Sofia 1960 in Sofia.

Some exhibitions:

The Temptations of ninavale, the Sofia Arsenal – Museum for Contemporary Art (SAMCA), Sofia, Bulgaria, 2018 / Aging Pride, Belvedere Museum, Vienna, 2017 / The Temptations of ninavale, National Gallery of Macedonia, Skopje, Macedonia, 2017 – Guo Zhong Art Museum, Beijing, China, 2017 / Gold and Niles, Galerie Heike Curtze, Vienna, Austria, 2016 / The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain (MAMC), Saint-Étienne, France, 2015 / Art for Change 1985-2015, Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2015 / The Naked Man, The Museum of Modern Art (Lentos Kunstmuseum), Linz, Austria, 2012 / The Crying Game, Galerie Heike Curtze, Vienna, Austria, 2012 / Close Encounter, Jeju Museum, South Korea, 2010 / Surplus Enjoyment, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan, 2010 / Art Project, Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris, France, 2007 / Face, ZONE: Chelsea Center for Contemporary Art, New York, USA, 2007 / Desire and Resistance Determine the Motion, Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg (MAMCS), France, 2007 / Au-delà de ce qui est visible, National Museum of Contemporary Art (Muzeul Național de Artă Contemporană MNAC), Bucharest, Romania, 2005 / Wet Contact, Kunsthalle, Hannover, Germany, 2002, inter alia.

Valentin Stefanoff was born in 1959 in Sofia.

Some exhibitions:

The Temptations of ninavale, the Sofia Arsenal – Museum for Contemporary Art (SAMCA), Sofia, Bulgaria, 2018 / Le Musée a 30 ans! Musée d’art moderne et contemporain (MAMC), Saint-Étienne, France, 2017 / National Gallery of Macedonia, Skopje, Macedonia, 2017 / Art for Change 1985-2015, Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2015 / Close Encounter, Jeju Museum, South Korea, 2010 / Surplus Enjoyment, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan, 2010 / Micro-Narratives, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain (MAMC), Saint-Étienne, France, 2008 / Contemporary Art Biennial, Quebec, Canada, 2008 / European Attitude, Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China, 2008 / Desire and Resistance Determine the Motion, Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg (MAMCS), France, 2007 / ASIA – EUROPE Mediations, National Museum (Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu/MNP), Poznan, Poland, 2007 / Micro-narratives, October Salon (Oktobarski Salon), Belgrade, Serbia, 2007 / Play for Two Hands and Black, the façade of the National Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria 2006 / Phases of Accumulation and Extraction in a Limited Space, National Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2005 / Phases of Accumulation and Extraction in a Limited Space, Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg (MAMCS), France, 2006 / Currency, Galerie Mabel Semmler, Paris, France, 2003 / Open – Closed, Museum of Contemporary Art (Muzej savremene umetnosti), Belgrade, Serbia, 2000, inter alia.