An exhibition by Dimitar Solakov

“When the Mountain Doesn’t Come to Me and I Can’t Go to Her”

Opening: Thursday, April 18th, 2019, 6.30 pm
Exhibition continues until Sunday, May 12th, 2019
Opening hours: 11 am – 7 pm, daily
Credo Bonum Gallery, 2 Slavyanska Str., Sofia; entrance from Benkovski Str.

There are people deeply bound to nature. Wandering around the mountain is for them a passion without which life is inconceivable. They are proud to be as familiar with hills, valleys and rivers as with the palm of their hand; they can call by its proper Latin name each tiny lizard they happen to catch running in the rocks. Ever since the first explorers of nature, art has always been there with them on their lonely roamings, maybe in order to confirm the place of man within nature’s bosom as an equal fellow-creator.

When the one wandering around is an artist, as the case is with Dimitar Solakov, the bind is never severed even if the artist cannot be among the trees. “When the Mountain Doesn’t Come to Me and I Can’t Go to her” is a project born out of the physical impossibility of the artist to be in nature. Although he is fortunate enough to be living surrounded by mountain peaks, yet he can only contemplate them from his window in the company of his kids who have completely taken over his time. This void has kept a special place for the mountains, and this is where other mountains are born – artistic ones. So, for the first time in his life Dimitar Solakov started painting.

His paintings depicting faraway mountain peaks are elegant, monochrome, reminiscent of old Chinese watercolors, ghostly jagged silhouettes, real and abstract at the same time. Having started as a spontaneous urge to draw on small pieces of paper, his paintings multiply gradually. For him painting has become an obsession or possibly a revolt against the loss of freedom.

Dimitar Solakov is born 1987 in Sofia. He studied Photography at the New Bulgarian University, Sofia. He is the author of 5 solo shows where he skillfully engages with various techniques and genres. His works were included in large international shows: the 21st Sydney Biennial (2018); the October Salon, Belgrade (2016); Q21, MuseumsQuartier, Vienna (2016) among others.