NEDKO SOLAKOV. EMOTIONS (Without masks)

NEDKO SOLAKOV (1957-)

Inventive and cryptically humorous, Nedko Solakov shifts the focus to the unusual elements of art exhibitions

The Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt was supposed to be the third station of the large-scale tour of Nedko Solakov’s exhibition Emotions (Without Masks). Yet the artist came up with a completely new installation. The original works remained in their shipping crates, while entirely new, never-before-seen “emotions” saw the light of day and took over the abandoned architecture from the previous Masks exhibition. Inventive and cryptically humorous, the artist shifts the normally almost invisible, basic elements of the exhibition—nails in display cases, holes drilled in the wall, cast shadows—into the front and center position. In this way, Solakov brilliantly circumvents our expectation that art should always be something grand—spectacular at best, or at least plainly visible and perfectly exhibited. In this Gesamtkunstwerk, art itself blossoms best when hidden.

Edited by Ralf Beil, foreword by Ralf Beil, graphic design by Nadine Schmidt, texts by Nedko Solakov.