HUNTING TROPHIES
Missirkov and Bogdanov :: 14.06 - 07.07 :: 2018

Boris Missirkov and Georgi Bogdanov
HUNTING TROPHIES
June 14 – July 7
opening 14 June, 7:30 p.m.

The last stage of the Project “Two Equals One” is an exhibition by Boris Missirkov and Georgi Bogdanov, the most steady artistic pair of the contemporary art scene in Bulgaria. They are known to always work together, virtually neither of them claims to be the “self-originator” of a single piece of work. Their work is positioned on the border between modern art and contemporary photography. Although classical photography is the foundation of their career, they also appear in the field of installation and cinema. Their photographic method is distinguished by the fact that they avoid digital interventions and prefer to direct and arrange images and scenarios and capture them as they are. The upcoming exhibition develops a project of 2016, first presented in the gallery of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia.

“Hunting Trophies” in Contemporary Space marks the coincidence in the meaning of the words “shot” as an act of firing a gun and “shot” as a photograph. In photography, shooting the right frame, capturing the image is a matter of skill and instinct at the same time. Missirkov and Bogdanov, however, ironically interpret the ambition of collecting trophies in a much broader sense. They present a collection of objects – heads of toys along with large-format views of “hunting fields” – the places, where the animals may have been “shot”. A hint at those home interiors decorated with wildlife photo wallpapers and stuffed heads of killed animals – as a demonstration of self-confidence, prosperity and lifestyle.

Dramatizing the idea of success in life here is transformed into a joke. As well as into analysis of the status of images in art – the familiar models of high and popular, of refined and naive art are all deliberately mixed. Here, in the exhibition, neither the hunting trophies come from nature, nor do look the photo wallpapers like the fashionable in the past decorations for the home. The selected frames are tendentiously minimalistic and are even implying an abstract image. “Hunting trophies”, like the versatile interests and activities of Missirkov and Bogdanov, can be both technically and in terms of meaning related to modern installations as well as to conceptual photography. At the same time, it is typical of them because of focusing on the directed image, regardless of the means of expression.


The exhibition is part of the “Two Equals One” Project of the Kreo Kultura Foundation curated by Daniela Radeva. It has been realized with the financial support of the Culture Fund of Varna Municipality.

Exhibitions