The exhibition “Kuzov’s Closet” offers an intimate and unconventional perspective on contemporary Bulgarian art. Curated by Rumen Kuzov – researcher, public figure, and long-time participant in the country’s cultural life – this show is not just a collection but a visual diary shaped by personal taste, instinct, and deep respect for the artistic gesture.
Gathered outside the official gallery spaces and art markets, these works have been kept within the home – in a “closet” that, in this case, is not a place of neglect, but of memory. It is the cultural archive of someone who has followed not trends, but his own sense of artistic value. Each piece in the exhibition is a trace of a meeting, a conversation, a relationship of trust between the collector and the artist.
The exhibition does not claim to be representative or to offer a chronologically structured view of Bulgarian art from the past decades. On the contrary – it is fragmentary, diverse, yet deeply authentic. Between classical painting and conceptual objects, graphic experimentation and contemplative compositions, the viewer encounters not only different artists and aesthetics, but also various stages in Kuzov’s personal journey as an observer and interlocutor in the field of art.
Kuzov’s Closet raises an important question about the role of the private collector – not as investor or arbiter of public taste, but as a guardian of delicate yet meaningful traces of cultural process. This is an exhibition devoid of market glitter or retrospective ambition. Instead, it offers a gesture of sharing, of trust, and of recognition for what often remains hidden – not in a closet of oblivion, but in a closet of meaning.
With this exhibition, Rumen Kuzov opens not only the door to a private space, but also the possibility for a broader conversation – about what we preserve, why we preserve it, and how the small choices of individual memory can shape a deeper, unofficial history of contemporary art.