Plamen Dejanoff

The provocative artistic self

Text Petya Ruseva

The three days for Abitare Talks in February were his first return to Bulgaria in the last 18 years. He says “I return” and not “I come” – meaning Here, but he is an artist There – in the Other Europe. One can see his works in Bulgaria only as an exception (at the Biennale for Contemporary Art in the town of Shumen, 2006, or the Annual Awards of M-TEL, 2007). He is sometimes mentioned by art experts or some tourists who were happy to see the exhibition of a fellow-countryman in MAK and MUMOK or the poster announcing it.

The portrait of Plamen Dejanoff, made Here, is an inevitable collage of what has been written There – about his projects developed into sculptures, art sites, installations, performances, about the provocative artistic self. There, they start with “born in Bulgaria (1970)” or “a Bulgarian artist” – a fact, not an attempt at explaining the themes, approach, or the temperament. After studying for his high-school diploma in the town of Tryavna (specializing carving) and graduating from the National Academy of Art (1989-1991), where he studied sculpture, he graduated from the Academy of Art in Vienna, then he studied in Los Angeles, Tokyo, Stockholm, he worked in Vienna, Berlin and then again in Vienna. His numerous exhibitions and participations are not restricted to Europe alone.

If the works of Plamen Dejanoff include pieces of the Wall, these are not visible to the naked eye. He has the image of one who sensationally (or unforgivably) gathers together art and business, in binding his projects with companies such as BMW, Porsche, Sony or M&M’s, and who makes a brand out of his name. (He has consulted an image agency which recommended the rebranding Dejanoff after the five-year cooperation of the creative tandem Plamen Dejanov/Swetlana Heger came to an end in 2001). He finds inspiration in Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons… He interprets the super luxurious objects of desire, but not from the point of view of a stranger in the world of affluence. The picture of the two-year old Plamen on the invitation to an exhibition in Pinksummer, Genoa, is a telling one. He is seated in an expensive toy car, the only thing missing is the word balloon “I won’t play (poor) East to your West”.

Now, Plamen Dejanoff returns/comes with the project “Planets of Comparison” on which he has been working since 2006: this is a sculpture ensemble with the functions of a museum/art centre in his birth town Veliko Tarnovo. A museum complex for contemporary art in the historic centre of Veliko Tarnovo? For Abitare, on whose invitation he is in Bulgaria, he explained that this was his reaction of an heir – family property is concerned – and of an artist. “I never seek provocation on purpose, but an authentic response to some situation, space. I want to find my style, taste, materials in this environment, without repeating myself.” Some of the seven existing not-particularly-big houses will be torn down, “buildings-sculptures” will be erected, others will be reconstructed. “I won’t buy anything ready-made. If I need to use some bricks, they will be made especially for the project.” By the way, the materials which he mentions most often are bronze and glass. “I make the separate elements of the Bronze House, the first of the series, gradually; they are exhibited in different museums and galleries as sculptures and they will finally be put together in Veliko Tarnovo.” The planned exhibition area for the first sculpture-building is 500-600 sqm. “I started off full of desire but without much knowledge and experience, this is so typical of artists. Gradually, I came to see the scale of the work.” Architects were involved in the project; the cooperation of designers, collectors, sponsors, and even philosophers was sought.

There is no deadline, this is a personal initiative with a chance to become the work of a lifetime and with a right to failure. But “Planets of Comparison” is already a phenomenon: the unspecified but impressive concept attracts the interest of more and more people, at that – not only from the art circles. And the sole reason for that could hardly be the acknowledged skill of Dejanoff to carry complex and expensive ventures through, in relying on a network of contacts. World-famous museums and galleries have claimed that they would use the complex as their branch. Do they have an idea how steep the terrain is?

The project is being realized: through the structure of the first sculpture-house presented at an exhibition in Berlin, Vienna and Genoa, and as a generator of significant questions which are already being discussed There. Among the most interesting ones are: what happens with the balance of powers when an artist gives shelter to a museum in his work of art, and not vice versa; what will happen to a Western Museum in an Eastern-European context.

The questions are numerous Here, too, even without the bureaucratic ones, and these are still to come, only initial research has been made. How is this project to be presented at all in the land of the energetic scepticism and non-contagious passion for contemporary art? Would we see, in order to make things easier, the development of storylines such as return to the roots; for the nation’s benefit; embedding, that is, establishing of our traditions (materials, architectural elements); Veliko Tarnovo before Sofia with a museum for contemporary art? Or maybe the goal is acting in the Dejanoff style which gives no excuses – providing a concept with the assumption, even with the foretasting of the fact, that not everybody would like it? “If I am not allowed to realize it in Bulgaria, I could do it in other countries and these sculpture-houses would remain there. I want to make it in Bulgaria.”

There is yet a third option – ghostly poetic. The houses could itinerate from gallery to gallery, reminding of things that never happened – the possible passage of the West to the East or the incision of a stimulating difference into what is familiar and ours. Bold ideas always find their space, even if suitable soil is not available.