Dan Tenev – SELF-FORMING SOFT STRUCTURES
CURATOR: YANITSA FENDULOVA
03.12.2024 – 09.01.2025
Opening: 3 December 2024, 6:00 PM
CUBE, SLEEVE, COLLAGE: The exhibition showcases three interconnected works created by Dan Tenev between 1996-1997. Over the past three decades, these works have undergone significant independent processes, being made and exhibited in various environments and contexts. The current exhibition at the Art Gallery in Ruse brings these works together in a single space to highlight their interconnectedness.
These three works are part of a comprehensive and pivotal creative period for Dan Tenev. The exhibition presents an authorial process that has not been shown in its conceptual integrity before.
Dan Tenev manipulates space and air as if they were plastic materials i
n his work. There is a sense of more dynamics and elasticity than traditional plastic forms. On an ideological level, Dan Tenev explores philosophical concepts of order and chaos, nothing and something, and their simultaneous presence and absence. His works are self-defining in relation to both the viewer and their surroundings, existing autonomously as sculptures and drawings that blur the lines between two-dimensional and three-dimensional space.
Dan Tenev’s works are characterized by self-forming or self-formed structures, whether discovered or provoked, found or constructed. The collage is made from black polyethylene that has been found and processed. The sculpture is soft, dynamic, and expansive in volume, inviting touch and responding to its environment with elasticity – all distinctive features of Dan Tenev’s “Air Reserves” series. Among the exhibited works is “Self-forming self-defining structure with air” 1996–2024, representing the last 135 meters of the Maritsa River action, known as the “Angry Triangle” or “Balkanization” (1996). The exhibition also includes a documentary photo archive showcasing the variable appearances of this period, as well as Dan Tenev’s design drawings for the current situational view. A conceptual text by Yanitsa Fendulova accompanies the exhibition.
This exhibition provides an opportunity to discuss contemporary sculpture and drawing, observing the transformations in works developed since 1996. It also allows for reflection on the late 80s, a time of complete transformations and avant-garde movements in art, during which the presented works emerged. Dan Tenev’s work is a product of this context, evolving alongside unconventional forms in art.
About the author
Dan Tenev (b. 1958, Merichleri) works in the field of drawing, sculpture, artistic actions, installations and land art. He has been participating in the organized artistic life in the country since 1983. He realized his first solo exhibitions with drawings and collages – in Dimitrovgrad in 1988 and three consecutive ones in 1992 in Achern and Karlsruhe, Germany. Since the 90s, his practice has been directed towards sculpture, artistic actions, installations and land art.
Dan Tenev participated in the first Bulgarian festivals for contemporary art – “Process-Space” (1994) and “Sofia Underground” (1997). He initiated, organized (in a collective) and participated in several editions of the festival for contemporary art “In its own context” in Dimitrovgrad (1996).
The author has held over 20 solo exhibitions in gallery spaces, participated in numerous group exhibitions with actions and installations in interior or exterior. He has participated in a number of curatorial projects with exhibitions in and outside Bulgaria.
In the period 2010 – 2014 he implemented large-scale land art projects in the Dimitrovgrad district.
Dan Tenev has been awarded and distinguished for achievements in Bulgarian contemporary art: Iron Order for Contemporary Art “Ventsislav Zankov” (2015); “Unlimited” – award for contemporary Bulgarian art from M-Tel (2011); Award of the Ministry of Culture and the Union of Bulgarian Artists for participation in the exhibition “Born Independent” (2009); Shortlist: Nomination for the “Gaudens Ruf” award for new Bulgarian art (2009, 2007). His works are owned by the Art Galleries in Sofia, Dimitrovgrad and Dobrich, as well as private collectors.
Dan Tenev lives and works in Dimitrovgrad.
https://dantenev.wixsite.com/projects
Art Gallery Ruse
39 Borisova str.