due to a complex of historical and cultural factors, the absolute and pure
visual forms reached by malewicz and mondrian in the early 1910s have almost
no influence on bulgarian modern art. should we exclude the achievements of
georges papazoff and nikolay diulgheroff, who left the country in their
twenties, and also the apocryphal stylisations of peter dochev and georgi
yanakiev, one may well argue that bulgarian modernism is deprived of its
natural integrity without a consciously held non-objective period.
a prerequisite for the emergence of non-objective tendencies within the local
art context can be found in the maturation of contemporary bulgarian civil
society. on the other hand, this is a mutual process in which civil society
is the principal beneficiary of the promotion of non-objective art forms.
examples of such successful collaboration between society and non-objective
aesthetics can be observed in countries like the netherlands, germany, france
and switzerland, as well as in societies much closer to our political fate
like poland, hungary, the czech republic and romania, where constructive and
conceptual traditions date back to several decades ago.
conceived as an international forum in 2011, orthogonal will introduce the
bulgarian cultural public to a number of leading contemporary artists and
theoreticians, who work in the field of non-objective art. apart from an
exhibition of a variety of artifacts the event will offer a programme of
open lectures and screenings which deal with contemporary and historical
issues of this yet little known here art movement. nonsofia's ambition is that this forum
becomes a regular art festival which will expand in the future and remain
permanently on the bulgarian cultural agenda.
orthogonal's debut edition took place between 18 october and 18 november 2012 at the
red house centre for culture and debate, sofia.
the forum's opening was followed by a screening of max bill: the master's vision.
more screenings as well as a number of presentations were held during the
following days. the show visited the burgas city art gallery from 29 january
to 5 march 2013. further information could be inquired at
info@orthogonal.bg