Nedko Solakov: All in Order, with Exceptions

Nedko Solakov (1957, b. Cherven Briag. Lives and works in Sofia, in Bulgaria) is one of the leading artists in the contemporary art scene - as confirmed by his involvement in a recent major project in the 13th edition of Documenta in Kassel . Using a wide variety of artistic techniques, ranging from drawing to painting, photography to collage, sculpture to installation, and text to video, Solakov unmasks, often with an unerring and refined sense of humour, the conventions of everyday life, stereotypes of contemporary thinking and behavioural systems. In this manner, he explores the relationships between personal stories and collective history, between the private dimension and the social sphere, between reality and imagination. 

The Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art will now host the largest and most comprehensive retrospective exhibition ever held of Nedko Solakov’s work. "All in Order, with Exceptions” is a co-production involving some of Europe’s most prestigious artistic institutions: the Ikon Gallery (Birmingham, United Kingdom), S.M.A.K. in Ghent (Belgium) and the Fondazione Galleria Civica in Trento (Italy). This exhibition encompasses an in-depth chronological exploration of Solakov’s artistic practice from 1981 to 2010. 

In each of the 4 museums, the exhibition has presented different works, chosen by the directors of these institutions, who are also co-curators of the exhibition, having worked very closely with the artist, searching through his personal archive of images, documents and papers. Each institution presents around 30 works that have not been displayed in the other institutions, unless there has been a coincidence in the choices made by their directors.Visitors to the Serralves Foundation this summer will be surprised by a large and diversified array of drawings, paintings on canvas, wall pieces, photographs, videos, and reconstructions of installations and brand new projects, created specially for the exhibition. Even those visitors who thought they were familiar with his work will be amazed. 

In a certain sense, this exhibition has become a work in its own right - that complements the other art works on display, in an ambitious project that reconstructs the entire life and work of Nedko Solakov, in an autobiographical itinerary proposed within the exhibition rooms. The vast and diversified scope of the body of work that the artist has produced over the last thirty years, that also spans important historical changes in his home country, Bulgaria, and in Europe as a whole, can also be grasped by browsing through the files of a special archive, specifically created by the artist for this project, opening up possibilities for an encyclopaedic and personal knowledge of the world of Nedko Solakov, filtered by his fine sense of humour.

On the occasion of this exhibition, an important retrospective catalogue has also been published, including illustrations of all the works presented in the four exhibitions of this international itinerary, together with comprehensive documentation from the artist’s archive, and new essays by Iara Boubnova (Founding Director, Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia), Christy Lange (Associate editor of Frieze Magazine), and an interview with the artist by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev (Artistic director of Documenta 13).

Curator: João FernandesCo-production: Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, Reino Unido; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.) Ghent, Bélgica/Belgium; Fundação de Serralves, Porto; Fondazione Galleria Civica ? Centro di Ricerca sulla Contemporaneità di Trento, Itália/Italy

Exhibition guide: download the exhibition guide here (pdf).