Stoyan Dechev

Recent works

Event Horizon, 2019, aluminium and inox, 270 x 250 x 250 cm.

Event Horizon

Event horizon is the moment when you can’t foretell anything from your own knowledge

This image - a cloud with thunders - so recurrent in our culture to the extent of being a sign, a pattern, has travelled easily through time due to its simple and representative form, attached to differ-ent beliefs and religions bearing similar meanings. By doing so, it ceases to illustrate and starts to represent.

If in the past it used to represent the Mighty (from Zeus or Jupiter to Perun or Thor to St. Elias), it is now a symbol of virtual-ity (cloud computing, cloud storage, etc.) Myths are a general way of having a reason behind the surrounding world, cycles of nature and life itself. Myths are not the truth, myths are above the truth.

We see the world through our own perception, understand-ing that we have no possibility to see the total truth, from modern times we have used scientific evidence to understand the world through rational means. Despite all this, the strange feeling of looking in the past as well as in the future, through Astronomy and Astrology is why we are still fascinated by the widely unknown cosmos. It is a way of melting the physical and metaphysical side of our Self.

In Physics, event horizon changes the spacetime in a similar way as Mighty characters live in no-time, parallel with our time. Reality and virtuality become the reality and the myths of the past making use of the same patterns - the same symbolic representa-tions.

‘Event Horizon’ is questioning our perception of reality and truth using shapes and symbols from dialectical polar cultures.

XYLOTHEQUEKARDIA

Kardia is a sculpture installation based on a wood sample piece (a found piece of wood in the shape of a human heart). It is displayed at the same hight and position as the core of a no longer existing tree. This animistic association, considering plants and trees as conscious living forms, is suggesting that nature has no hierarchies, and humans can identify with trees and harmoniously dissolve themselves in nature.

Xylotheque, Kardia, 2019, wood, 27 x 18 x15 cm.

Cette histoire n’est pas fantastique, study for a knife, to be used for plant grafting as well as a film splicer.

Cette histoire n’est pas fantastique, 2018, grafting and splicing iron knife, 15 x 12 x 5 cm

Cette histoire n’est pas fantastique

The cast iron knife is an ambivalent tool for plant grafting as well as film splicing. A key element in Olivia Mihaltianu’s project Cette histoire n’est pas fantastique, an analogy between grafting and film editing; nature and science; old and new technologies.

Idol, 2018, mosaic (stone, ceramic), 12/90/90 cm.

Transcript, 2018, mosaic (marble, black limestone), 50/ 90/ 90 cm.

Transcript

The development of our human society was possible because of many circumstances, some of the major ones are the ability of communication and the historical memory. The idea of passing on the knowledge to your heirs, through script, was a serious step further.

Just as the Rosetta Stone was the keystone for understanding the civilizations in the past, “Transcript“, looking as a stone monument, is an attempt to connect the oldest translated text in the history (the story of Gilgamesh from the library of Assyrian king Ashurbanipal) with latest tools for encoding (the QR Code).

Library

The work, made from 400 ceramic tiles, brings up the subject of language and understanding and the issue of communication between generations. In fact “Library” is refreshing the oldest library of Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, made of ceramic tiles including digital circuits - the language of our contemporary society, questioning the possibilities of our memory.

Library I, 2018, fine ceramic with metallic glaze, 400 pieces 10 x 10 cm. each

Library I, 2018, fine ceramic with metallic glaze, 400 pieces 10 x 10 cm. each

Icon, 2016, wood, gold leaf, 75/45/8 cm.

Sculptor 1, 2016, granite, 180 x 220 x 340 cm.

Sculptor

The relationship between stones and sky might have been observed from the early times of humanity and stone carving has always been spiritually related to the celestial activity.In the “Sculptor” project, the ancient activity of stone carving, that consists in the controlled removal of stone material (clear evidence of some form of stone work can be found even in the earliest societies), is put forward in an attempt to ob-serve and reinforce the intense physical and mental labor of such work. Until recently celestial maps showed allegorical figures which encompassed the imagination of people, related to the form the constellations were perceived from different regions of the planet. “The Sculptor” was created by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, a French astronomer, originally as “L’Atelier du sculpteur” (Apparatus sculptoris), situated on the southern sky. It was shortened in 1845 to “Sculptor”. The transposition of the “Sculptor” constellation into a large granite stone, re-membering a meteorite, is a process of restitution using ancestral sculpting methods: drilling, cutting, breaking. This process is also reminding the fact that each stone potentially contains an infinity of forms and that only the creator (the Sculptor) can reveal one or more of them, and the rest is transformed into dust. The rock, the plans, the map schemes, the tools and rock remains can be seen through the perspective of knowledge or the intuitive sense of understanding. The different perspective and perception of the sculpting action and process, in time and space, facilitate new meaning and purpose, expanding the field of ‘here and there’ and narrowing it in the same time.Sculpture as an artifact can connect imaginary and materiality, inducing the idea that everything is made out of stardust - a scientific, philosophical and poetical debate.The strange feeling of looking in the past as well as in the future, through As-tronomy and Astrology, of star observation is why we are still fascinated by the wildly unknown cosmos. Prehistoric megalith observatories, menhirs, dolmens or cromlechs reveal the importance of astronomical observation in all societies, a fatal topic important no matter of time and energy, limitations or even human life costs. The work is looking at this from a contemporary perspective, in the search for a meaning, realizing the crisis of the rational intellect, with the belief that all mys-teries can be understood through rational reasons and scientific methods - an idea introduced by Galilei.

Sculptor 1, 2017, work process http://www.idea.ro/revista/?q=ro/numarcurent

Water Tower, Garden Mechanics, 2016, Tranzit Garden Bucharest, wood, tin, barrel and irrigation pipes, 350/150/150 cm.Water Tower, Garden Mechanics, 2017, ink, pencil and tempera, on paper, 21/ 29.5 cm.

Garden Mechanics (2016-2017) is observing different occurring organic, mechanic and social structures of the garden. A project in colaboration with Olivia Mihaltianu

Garden Mechanics, 2017, drawing for project

Garden Mechanics, 2017, (wood sticks, plastic wrap, video projection, sound installation), Olivia Mihaltianu & Stoyan Dechev, On Words, Water and Things in Borderline Art Space Iasi.

Garden Mechanics, 2017, (wood sticks, plastic wrap, video projection, sound installation), Olivia Mihaltianu & Stoyan Dechev, On Words, Water and Things in Borderline Art Space Iasi.

Trophy, 2016, aluminum, 70/150/30 cm.

King, 2017, toreutics, brass with traces of gilding, 30/ 21/ 5 cm.

King

A replica of an antic Thracian bronze mask of king Teres, recently discovered in Bulgaria, is schizophrenically confus-ing our sense of time and truth, throw it’s resemblance to a powerful politician of Bulgaria today.

King, 2017, toreutics, brass with traces of gilding, 30/ 21/ 5 cm.

Engolpion, 2016, marble (Sandansky, Thassos, Estrremoz and Velingrad), graphite, concrete, 60 / 25 / 20 cm.

Engolpion

The selection of four prehistoric figurines made from various types of marble are challenging our knowledge of art history, geology, geography, archaeology and history. Going back to the oldest ever found sculpture, to cultures spread out in the, Asia, Balkans, Central and Eastern Europe and stones that can be trace around the Mediterranean.The various connotations, believes and mysteries associated with this type of sculptures (Venus) has travel through civilizations, time and space, saving its information and might just as the magical powers of the engolpion.The work is connected with Winyan Kipanpi Win / The Woman Who Was Waited For, Olivia Mihaltianu’s project reflecting on the current woman-artist’s position and practice, focusing on her visit to the prehistoric matriarchy symbol Venus of Willendorf.In prehistoric time the woman was a keeper of life and future, the four statuettes observing different regions and styles of sculpting are adding new kinds of symbols to the womb.

Artificial Skin, 2015, charcoal on paper, 185/80 cm.

Artificial Skin is an autobiographic project inspired by the working garments of the artist, seen as a second skin which has borrowed some of the energy and features of the artist as it is molded and worn out on the working body. A glove made of granite five times bigger than the real size and an overalls made of pink silicon in real size are the two components of the project.

Artificial Skin, 2015, Vaska Emanouilova, Sofia Art Gallery, Bulgaria.

Artificial Skin, 2015, silicon, 185/80 cm.

Artificial Skin, 2015, granit, 135/80/20 cm. Collection of Sofia City Art Gallery, Bulgaria

Black Sea, 2019, petrol on canvas, 120/160 cm.

Black Sea, 2019, ink, on paper, 70/10/10 cm.

Black Sea, 2014, ink, tempera, zinc on paper, 86/180 cm.

Meteorite, 2014, ink on paper, 180/86 cm.

PLAYFLY, Credo Bonum Gallery, 2018

PLAYFLY, Full HD, black and white, sound, 8:10 min, 2016-2018

PLAYFLY is large ongoing installation conceived as a continuous change during the course of the exhibition.Including an animated film and an action based sculpture, the work refers to the unseen laborious work hidden behind seemingly pointless actions such as flying an endless amount of paper planes and drawing each frame of an animated film.Reflecting upon the necessity and the value of hard work behind anything worthwhile, as well as its game-like, pointless counterpart Dechev aims at overcoming the idea of separation of art and work, in the same time not limiting to this sole understanding.

https://vimeo.com/164916865 pass: asd345f

Iron, 2016, ink and pencil on paper, 30 x 20 cm

Sculpture project, Iridium 77, 2105, (porcelain, Iridium black glaze)

Iridium 77 (2015, work in progress) a project set on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, the first part of an extended rock surveillance. A project in colaboration with Olivia MihaltianuThis artistic visual research aims to look at different aspects and behaviors related to rocks; to explore different geological formations in connec-tion with the local history, social, economic, political, cultural and scientific specificity, starting from this very location where traces of iridium and fossils can demonstrate the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, the demise of the dinosaurs juxtaposed with the new social economical boom of the area.

Iridium 77, 2015, video stills, Full HD

Dendrochronology attempt (Byala), 2015, wood, paint, 430/140/120 cm.Collection of The City of Byala, Bulgaria

Dendrochronology attempt (Byala)

The wood work commissioned by the city of Byala is directly referring to Byala’s unique landscape which offers a natural stratigraphic exposure making visible layers dating back as late as Mesozoic Era.Dendrochronology is the scientific method of dating based on the analysis of patterns of tree rings. This technique is used to determine certain aspects of climate, archeology, art history and architecture.

Dendrochronology attempt (Ahtopol), 70 Years, 2016, wood, steel, 250/85/80 cm. Collection of Ahtopol City Gallery, Bulgaria

Dendrochronology attempt (Ahtopol) 70 Yearsis continuing the artistic research based on the scientific method of Dendrochronology.The 70 year old tree (the average lifetime of a man) is put side by side next to the millions of year old rocky formations of the Black Sea shore.

Reserved, 2015, metal, wood, 400/160/160 cm.

Reserved is a site specific installation consisting of a thin wire delimitation of 400/160/160cm, seen as a free pass for creation - delimited of any confines of age, gender, nationality, social, po-litical and economic position in the contemporary art discourse.

Reserved, 2015, metal, wood, 400/160/160 cm.

Disposable, 2012, acrilic, spray on paper, 20/15 cm.

Smoking Kills, 2014, ballpoint pen on paper, 40/40 cm.

DisposableThe project is looking at the discarded items of our society: wrap-ers, containers, packaging, etc., parts of the single use mentality that rules our consumer society. The aesthetic value of these enlarged dead objects, which can be seen as artifacts of the Antropocene Age, is forcing the questioning of the economic, social, cultural and political forces that are producing them.

Disposable, 2013, porcelain, 40/25/25 cm.

Disposable, 2013, porcelain, 40/25/25 cm.

Disposable, 2013, porcelain, 40/25/25 cm.

Captured Light, 2010, concrete and raw glass, 37/37/37 cm.

Captured Light, an installation of six concrete cubes with raw lighted glass inside, is a hint to raw man - made materials who are shaping our world today, through architecture, in an attempt to capture the natural light and bring nature closer to man.

Negative purification, 2014, white granite, 550/110/110 cm. Collection of Mosan Art Museum, Korea.

Negative purification - A 6 meter granite block carved negatively in a stereo metrical crystal like structure. The purification process of crystallization is a scientific, philosophical and aesthetic phenomenon, observed through the physical and meditative labor of stone carving.

Negative purification, 2014, work process, white granite, 550/110/110 cm.

Crystal, 2006, Krakra Pernishky Square, Pernik, Bulgaria, granite and glass, 300/100/100 cm.

Grass, 2008, steel and bronze, 40/2500/2500 cm. Collection of M-tel, Sofia, Bulgaria

Kitchen Disaster, Collision, 2007, aluminium, 65/45/130 cm.

Kitchen Disaster is looking at life stories as still life. The aluminum works show borderline situations which anticipate upcoming and subsequent events. The work follows the permanent dilemmas of everyday life.

Kitchen Disaster, Hesitation, 2007, aluminium, 90/90/90 cm.

One of a Kind - Army Monument, 2013, steel and bronze, 140/140/140 cm. Bul. Rakovski/ str. Gurko, Sofia, Bulgaria