At first glance, this appears to be a video about a guy who broke into a taxidermy shop and started to swing around a light bulb on the end of an extension chord. But, it turns out it is far more complex than that. Regardless of how simplistic or complex one wishes to make it, the end result is visually appealing, no?
“Samuil Stoyanov’s site-specific space portraits series started with the Geocidite building in Belgrade where the 53rd October Salon took place in 2012. To study these modernist spaces of display and presentation, the artist first destabilizes the light, the fixed element of every space as such. Through these portraits every building he interacts with becomes a part of Stoyanov’s artistic cosmos. In a gesture of hurling a light bulb above his head making the largest possible circle, Stoyanov, in his own words, makes reference to the movement of the space objects in the universe. Here the figure of the artist appears not only as a pseudo-scientist conducting inventive experiments but also as a black hole holding all the centrifugal movement in an orbit around him. The artist chose the Natural Museum of History in Sofia for the venue of his first-time such experiment in Bulgaria of a site-specific portrait as museum is a classic display place for geological history. Text by Övül Durmusoglu (Turkey/Germany).”
Single canal, Full HD, sound, 10’20”
Author: Samuil Stoyanov
Camera: Rayna Teneva
Video and audio editing: Stanislav Kolev and Samuil Stoyanov
Filmed in the National Museum of Natural History – Sofia, Bulgaria
Produced by Sofia Contemporary 2013 Festival.