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Bulgarian Pavilion

Bulgarian Pavilion at the 52nd International Art Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia

UNESCO BRESCE Palazzo Zorzi
Castello 4930 Venice

10 June – 21 November
8 June 2007, 6 pm – Vernissage
7 – 9 June 2007 - Professional Preview

http://www.bulgarianpavilion-venice.org

A Place You Have Never Been Before

Artists: Pravdoliub Ivanov, Ivan Moudov, Stefan Nikolaev

Curator: Vessela Nozharova
Commissioner: Boris Danailov

We head towards places we have never been before full of expectations. More than an exhibition at a physical space A Place You Have Never Been Before is a metaphor about the new and unknown. How do we perceive the changes in the world we live in? How do we discover and understand new places?

Pravdoliub Ivanov, Ivan Moudov and Stefan Nikolaev have been selected to represent Bulgaria at the 52nd International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by Vessela Nozharova, the exhibition showcases three of the younger generation of Bulgarian artists who were commissioned to create works in response both to the Palazzo Zorzi courtyard and the wider Venetian context.

Ivan Moudov’s Wine for Openings goes beyond Palazzo Zorzi. The Bulgarian red wine, specially produced and bottled by the artist, will be served during the vernissage at various pavilions, creating a symbolic community of the dispersed national exhibition venues. Moudov’s sculptural work Fragments installed at Palazzo Zorzi marks the finale of a five year long project. Since 2002 the artist has been collecting fragments of artists’ works from various museums and galleries around the world. Moudov (b.1975) lives and works in Sofia. Most recently he has exhibited at the 1st Moscow Biennial, 2005 and 4th/5th Cetinje Biennial in 2002/2004.

Stefan Nikolaev’s commission will occupy the centre of the palazzo’s courtyard. A disposable, ordinary object assumes monumental proportions – a four meter high Dupont lighter is cast in bronze, placed on a black plinth with its ‘eternal flame’ signifying the memory of something long gone by. Smoking with all its attributes of individualism, emancipation and revolt has been a recurrent theme in Nikolaev’s recent work. The title, inscribed in neon What Goes Up Must Go Down will shine through the ivy creeping through the pallazzo’s façade. Stefan Nikolaev (b.1970) lives and works in Sofia and Paris. He has exhibited at 4th Cetinje Biennial, 2002 and Gwangju Biennale 2002, amongst others.

Pravdoliub Ivanov’s Memory is a Muscle establishes a dialogue with Palazzo Zorzi’s elegant architecture of classical columns and arches. His three meter long dumbbell made out of silicon is more than a provocative gesture. Ivanov’s sculpture is equipped with a pair of wide open eyes instead of weights – a comment on the ways of seeing and perceiving the unknown through our senses, thoughts and memory. Pravdoliub Ivanov (b.1964) lives and works in Sofia. He has exhibited at 4th Berlin Biennial, 2006, 14th Sydney Biennial, 2004 and 4th Istanbul Biennial, 1995.

Catalogue
A Place You Have Never Been Before will be accompanied by a full colour exhibition catalogue featuring newly commissioned essays and interviews by Iara Boubnova, Boris Danailov, Georgi Gospodinov, Dessislava Dimova, Boris Kostadinov, Svetlana Kuyumdjieva, Mihnea Mircan and Vessela Nozharova.

Organizers
Ministry of Culture, Republic of Bulgaria and National Art Gallery, Sofia with the support of the UNESCO Office in Venice - Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe (BRESCE)

Major exhibition sponsor is the Collection Hugo Voeten, Belgium

Additional support
Schenker, Bulgaria; AlItalia; MAGstudio webground; Sts Cyril and Methodius International Foundation

Launching of the magazine 02 at the Bulgarian Pavilion 8 June, 8 pm
DJ Vagabond (Breaktrue.org), Audrey Mascina and Jérôme Sans (Liquid Architecture)

For further details please contact:
Julia Mercurio +359 (0)877 496 420 bulgarianpavilion.mercurio@gmail.com
Vessela Nozharova vessela.nozharova@yahoo.com

For more information go to: http://www.bulgarianpavilion-venice.org

CANADIAN CENTRE FOR ARCHITECTURE

CANADIAN CENTRE FOR ARCHITECTURE
1920, rue Baile
Montreal, Québec, Canada
H3H 2S6

Employment Opportunity

JOB TITLE: Bookstore Manager

MANDATE

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) is seeking an experienced and dynamic bookseller to manage the CCA Bookstore, which specialises in titles on architecture and related fields, and serves as an important point of access to the CCA for the public. The Manager reports to the Director of Communications. In addition to daily management, including all acquisitions, the position comprises the following foremost responsibilities:

-Strengthen the CCA Bookstore’s unique character and enhance its reputation at the local, national, and international levels;
-Devise innovative proposals for the promotion of the Bookstore among its institutional and individual clientele at the local, national, and international levels;
-Demonstrate a strong understanding of the international book distribution market in order to make strategic selections of titles in specialized fields;
-Ensure the promotion and distribution of CCA publications at the local, national, and international levels;
-Review and revise working methods, management and control procedures;
-Participate in the analysis, selection and implementation of software to manage the Bookstore;
-Manage the budget.

QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS

-Bachelor of arts, preferably in architecture or art history
-Five (5) years of experience in a bookstore, two (2) of which in a managerial position
-Bilingual (French and English)
-Knowledge of architecture and related fields
-Knowledge of software used in bookstores
-Leadership and sense of responsibility
-Good communication skills
-Flexible schedule, availability to work on weekends

Interested candidates are asked to submit a curriculum vitae and covering letter describing their skills and experience in managing a bookstore or a collection within a bookstore to Human Resources, Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1920 rue Baile, Montréal, Québec, H3H 2S6. Email: rh@cca.qc.ca, fax: 514 939 7012.

The CCA is an equal opportunity employer.

For more information go to: http://www.cca.qc.ca/

Le Collège / Frac Champagne-Ardenne

Mircea Cantor > Ciel variable
Exhibition from May 4th until
July 15th 2007
Opening Thursday May 3rd at 6pm

Le Collège / Frac Champagne-Ardenne
1 place Museux 51100 Reims
Ouvert du mardi au dimanche de 14h00 à 18h00
http://www.frac-champagneardenne.org
tél. : + 33 (0)3 26 05 78 32
contact@frac-champagneardenne.org

In order to envisage the possibility of the end of the world, Mircea Cantor has named his exhibition at the Frac Champagne-Ardenne Ciel variable (Changing Skies). The future’s unpredictability suggests at once the Apocalypse and potential renewal. This is reflected in his sculpture/scale model, Monument for the End of the World, in which the wind chimes overhanging the model of a big city can be set off by a possible disaster.

From video and photography to prints and installations, Mircea Cantor’s work unfolds in a diversity of media without repeating itself. Each artwork assumes the aspect of a manifesto; each picture is justified. By proposing a personal response to a reality saturated with sometimes oppressive signs, Mircea Cantor upsets and reverses conventions, like his painted canvas of a nest made of apparently dead twigs, which bud once again. This cycle of disappearance and renewal is constantly brought into play in Cantor’s work, reminding us of our frantic racing against time in contemporary society.

Neither a traditional retrospective, nor a show of only new artworks, this exhibition is a way for the artist to offer a new reading of his art. The works occupy all of the Frac’s galleries, revealing the materialization of Mircea Cantor’s non-linear conception of cosmogony; a universe encompassing all futures, all pasts, all potentialities. Untitled, 2006, for example, shows part of a torn headline of Le Monde, to which the artist added two ‘s’ in red marker. It is a sensitive allegory of the fragility of our convictions when confronted with the infinite plurality of worlds, deepening in turn our uncertainty and anxiety. Very often, as an attentive observer of society and cultures, Mircea Cantor places himself at the crossroads between worlds, allowing for the coming together of differing mentalities. He is preoccupied with the alchemy of ideologies in the infinite movement of thought. For instance, he has filmed in 16mm the incandescence, then dissolution, of the shadow of
a formless flag of indeterminate origin. The very fact of its being unidentifiable renders it emblematic, on a universal scale, of the end of a regime and the renewal of society.

Mircea Cantor gained international attention at the 2003 Venice Biennale, at the 2006 Berlin Biennale, the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2006, and at the Yvon Lambert Gallery (Paris and New York). Winner of the 2004 Ricard Prize, he is an outstanding figure among Eastern Europe’s emerging artists. Cantor grew up in Romania during the Communist era, and views the current governments, as well as illusions of Western neo-conservatism, with lucidity and distance. Cantor is also heavily involved in the Romanian artistic scene, and is a co-editor of Version magazine.

In conjunction with this exhibition, the first monograph of Mircea Cantor will be published by Le Collège / Frac Champagne-Ardenne, in partnership with the Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris / New York. Due out in the Fall.

For more information go to: http://www.frac-champagneardenne.org