Kamen Stoyanov
Hello Lenin, Five C-prints, each 40×30 cm, 2003
The photo series »Hello Lenin« is a documentation of a performance Kamen Stoyanov did in the summer of 2003 in his hometown Rousse in Bulgaria. It shows how he climbed onto empty pedestal, whose statue had been removed 19 years ago. The statue of Lenin was formerly located there. Stoyanov wanted to demonstrate how the statue had disappeared but not its ideology; it was just replaced by a new one. Stoyanov’s »conquest« of the pedestal can be seen as a paraphrase for this renewal of ideologies. The gap caused by the fall of Communism is being filled by the new ideology of capitalism, and the artist as a »self-made man« acts as a kind of caricature of this ideology.
Kamen Stoyanov
Born in 1977 in Rousse, Bulgaria
Lives and works in Vienna, Austria
Education:
2005 Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria
Selected solo exhibitions:
2008 At Arm’s Length, Museum Moderner Kunst
Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Austria 2006 Less Politics,
Plattform, Raum für Kunst, Vienna, Austria
Selected group exhibitions:
2008 Manifesta 7, Trentino, South Tyrol, Italy ››› For a
happier tomorrow, Gallery Tom Christoffersen, Copenhagen,
Denmark ››› In Passing 1, Künstlerhauspassage,
Vienna, Austria 2007 Night comers,
Videoscreening, International Istanbul Biennial,
Turkey ››› Lange nicht gesehen. Begegnungen
mit dem Museum auf Abruf, MUSA, Vienna, Austria
2006 Last Minute, Galerie für
Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, Germany ››› Shrinking
Cities, Rousse Art Gallery, Rousse, Bulgaria ››› Every Day,
Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria 2005 Play
Sofia, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria ››› Update,
Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria 2004 Reproduction
without alternative, ATA Center for Contemporary Art,
Sofia, Bulgaria 2003 Blood & Honey, Sammlung Essl
Collection, Klosterneuburg, Vienna, Austria
Awards/Grants/Residencies:
2008 European Future Art Award, Gallery for
Contemporary Art, Leipzig, Germany 2007 MUMOK
Prize, Viennafair, Austria
