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Nedko Solakov

A Cornered Solo Show #1

A Cornered Solo Show #1 (2021) is deliberately an unconventional intervention conceived by the artist Nedko Solakov (b. 1957, Cherven Bryag, Bulgaria) for a corner of the museum (as opposed to the galleries where artworks are usually displayed). It is for the artist the first of a series of solo exhibitions in insignificant corners in various prominent museums.

Renowned for his acerbic sense of humour and work that highlights the absurdities and contradictions of social norms, Solakov chose to present his work in Mudam’s cloakroom. In this confined and often overlooked space, he presents an installation that plays with the aesthetic judgements and codes of the retrospective exhibition format. The exhibition can be seen to engage with the subject of the social isolation engendered by the current health crisis. The artist elaborates: ‘It is a story about our times, when, even if we are cornered by the situation worldwide, we still have to survive, and an artist’s point of view, from the corner, might help us to better swallow the bitterness of daily life’.

Biography of the artist

Since the early 1990s, Nedko Solakov (b. 1957, Cherven Bryag, Bulgaria; lives in Sofia) has exhibited extensively in Europe and the US. His work was featured in Aperto’93 (Venice Bienniale); the 48th, 49th, 50th and 52nd Venice Bienniale; the 3rd, 4th and 9th Istanbul Biennial; São Paulo’94; Manifesta 1, Rotterdam; the 2nd and 4th Gwangju Biennial; the 5th Lyon Biennial, Sonsbeek 9, Arnhem, the 4th and 5th Cetinje Biennial, the 1st Lodz Biennial; the 7th Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates; the 3rd Tirana Biennial; the 2nd Seville Biennial; the 2nd Moscow Biennial; documenta 12; 16th Sydney Biennial; Prospect 1; New Orleans Biennial; Singapore Biennial 2011; documenta 13; Kathmandu Triennale; 1st Riga International Biennial for Contemporary Art and Lahore Biennale 2. He had solo shows at Museu do Chiado, Lisbon; Stichting De Appel, Amsterdam; CCA Kitakyushu, Japan; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Centre d’Art Santa Monica, Barcelona; Kunsthaus Zurich; Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli; Sofia City Art Gallery; Galleria Borghese, Rome; Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg; BOZAR, Brussels; ICA Sofia and La Panacee, Montpellier. In 2003-05 an extensive mid-career A 12 1/3 (and even more) Year Survey was presented at Casino Luxembourg; Rooseum Malmoe and O.K Centrum Linz, and in 2008-09 the Emotions solo project was exhibited at Kunstmuseum Bonn; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, and Institut Mathildenhoehe, Darmstadt. In 2011-12 his retrospective All in Order, with Exceptions was presented at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Fondazione Galleria Civica Trento (All in (My) Order, with Exceptions), S.M.A.K., Ghent and Fundação de Serralves, Porto. His works are in the collections of over fifty international museums and public collections, among them MoMA, New York, Tate Modern, London, and Centre Pompidou, Paris.