SUPER[M]ART[KET]

The SUPER[M]ART[KET] project and exhibition aims to acknowledge and contribute to the change needed to advance the Bulgarian art scene to the demands and opportunities of its present day European and international context. It is based on the similar project entitled simply Market that I have conceived and curated as a platform for the 45th Zagreb Salon in 2010. Starting point for both exhibitions was the curatorial dilemma over the meaning and purpose of exhibition as a socio-cultural construct in general.  Is it viable at all in times of recession (which will doubtlessly affect, if not budgeting itself, then surely the quantity of approved programs and operational resources), to organise an exhibition as a sheer review of artistic production in some particular period, solo show or intellectual interpretation of cultural phenomena and its echoing the socio-economic relationships? Or, should we consider exhibition as the most powerful and the most visible media that artists, together with supporting professionals, institutions and administration, can use in order to actively pursue improvement within their domain?

Under organisation of Petra Dimitrova, manager of the Graffit Gallery, in collaboration with Dora Doncheva, curator of the Bulart Gallery and proceeded through the Association of Artists – Varna, the SUPER[M]ART[KET] project was intended as a frame for the investigation of how Bulgarian artists perceive their art production as the object of impending, but yet unrecognised and underdeveloped art market. The project was structured as a two months long open call to Bulgarian artists to submit their portfolios with a single, priced artwork, for the unbiased selection carried out by the international expert jury entrusted to curate the exhibition and panel aiming to initiate a dialog on subject of art market with the representatives of the visual arts scene: artists: public institutions and independent curators, private gallery owners and dealers. At last, but not the least, the project resulted in the final exhibition as a demonstration of factual situation, the proverbial reality check. The advantage of assembling an international jury is the fresh overview, unburdened by the internal dynamics of the local art scene context. Its collateral benefit is an opportunity for the local artists to present their works to experts working on the international art scene.

Jury members were: Branko Franceschi, director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Split, Croatia; Basak Senova, independent curator and university lecturer, Ankara, Turkey; Stephan Stoyanov, art dealer, Sofia/New York, USA; Hans Knoll, private gallery owner, Vienna, Austria; and Nadezhda Dzhakova, chief curator of SAMCA – Sofia Arsenal – Museum for Contemporary Art, National Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria. After intense deliberation, we have decided upon the format of the final presentation. We have nominated fourteen artists out of eighty seven applications. Ten of the selected artists are presented in the exhibition and its catalogue with more works. Further four artists are presented in the catalogue with a single reproduction and all the applicants will be listed in the catalogue. Besides the selected ten, all the artists will be presented at the exhibition via digital portfolio edited for the computer workstation installed in the exhibition space. The most interesting feature of the project, however, is the possibility for visitors to buy all of the artworks submitted to the open call. Hence, there is also the immanent chance to compare taste and opinion of the jury and the general public who, together with artists, close the existential circle of visual arts. It is the sustainability of this circle that the entire process is concerned about, as well as the disclosure of its concealed mechanisms and their improvement for common advancement of all parties involved.

Branko Franceschi