site.btaSofia Art Fair Co-organizer Mehandzhiyski: Interest in Bulgaria's First Contemporary Art Fair Is Extremely Big

The 1st Sofia Art Fair, Bulgaria's first contemporary art fair, was held at Sofia Tech Park from October 3 to 6. In an interview for BTA's Vanya Suharova, co-organizer Radoslav Mehandzhiyski said that the first edition of the international fair was very emotional, because there were many visitors and very big interest. The four days of the fair were filled with great energy, very positive feedback, and a lot of visitors getting acquainted with contemporary art for the first time.

"That makes all the efforts from the last year and a half worth it, and we are sincerely energized and charmed by the attitude of everyone present from the opening on October 3 to present day. Even on Friday, a workday, there were many visitors. Partners of ours from schools and kindergartens came," Mehandziyski said.

Accompanying programme

The fair's accompanying programme is progressing wonderfully, he told BTA. "The guest lectors are enchanted by the Bulgarian audience. They are particularly happy about the big interest in the topics and the many questions after their events. We are very excited, a bit tired but fully ready to continue working," Mehandzhiyski said.

The topics of the lectures and presentations in the accompanying programme have been selected in a such a way as to achieve a certain type of diversity in order to show important or interesting segments of contemporary art and achieve a programme that is as good and varied as possible.

"Thankfully, Teodora Konstantinova and I, through our Art & Culture Today programme, have been creating lectures on contemporary art for seven to eight years now, and we have a very big data base and materials. In fact, we draw the content from there, which makes this easier for us," he told BTA.

Artificial intelligence and art

Mehandziyski and Konstantinova gave presentations on "The Boldest Works and Actions in Contemporary Art" and "Artificial intelligence and Contemporary Art" on Sunday as part of Sofia Art Fair's accompanying programme.

In Mehandzhiyski's words, artists have the confidence to say what art is and isn't. There are contemporary artists who purposefully do not enjoy some of the culture's hypocrisies. Examples of bold works and actions included Banksy and Maurizio Cattelan, who exhibit a quick and active social reaction to political and social issues. According to Mehandziyski, AI will not kill art; it is another instrument for making art.

"I will make an analogy with photography: not every person who takes a picture is a photographer and, similarly, not everyone who creates art with artificial intelligence can be an artist. In photography, it becomes clear that a photographer is someone who does have a certain sense of composition, an understanding of visual narrative and colour; with artificial intelligence, the person who creates something, if they don't have the eye and understanding of an artist, they will create an extremely mediocre image," he argued.

According to Mehandzhiyski, the more democratic the media for creating art, the easier to express the artist's taste and real qualities. That is why with AI it will become ever clearer who creates art and who makes typical, mediocre images. At the same time, the person creating art will have another instrument to work with.

 In his presentation, Mehandziyski gave examples with the works of Alexander McQueen, Zaha Hadid Studio, and Refik Anadol, among others.

Within the three days of the accompanying programme, visitors could see an exhibition in virtual reality with work by selected artists. "This is a virtual exhibition in which several artists present their work with a various idea and topic. The goal is to see them in virtual reality so that the illusion in the virtual reality would leave an impression on the visitor," the fair's team told BTA.

Over 30 galleries and art teams from Bulgaria, Europe, and Southwest Asia took part in Sofia Art Fair. They represented over 70 artists working in various styles. All the artworks were spread over 4,500 square meters. The participants were selected by a five-member international jury of curators and art historians comprising Johan Gustavsson (The Netherlands), Nina Gscheider (Austria), Martina Yordanova, Radoslav Mehandzhiyski, and Teodora Konstantinova (Bulgaria).