LINZ, AUSTRIA.- The O.K Center for Contemporary Art, Casino Luxembourg and Rooseum Malmö host the first major retrospective of the Bulgarian artist Nedko Solakov. Since the late 1980s Nedko Solakov has been using storytelling as a specific tool of his artistic expression. Sprung from the artist’s fertile imagination, the stories take shape in a unique artistic universe made of drawings, paintings, installations, videos and performances, in which he tackles personal as well as universal themes, using a strongly poetic yet critical approach often tinged with a fine sense of humour. Conceived as an artistic itinerary leading from one piece to the next, this show is the first to present side by side most of Nedko Solakov’s major works – including New Noah’s Ark (1992), The Truth (The Earth is Plane, the World is Flat) (1992-95), This is me too....(1996), El Bulgaro (2000), Romantic Landscapes with Missing Parts (2002), Wallpaper (2004), and many others.

The exhibition A 12 1/3 (and even more) Year Survey was initiated by Rooseum, took place at the Casino Luxembourg - Forum d’art Contemporain in Luxembourg and continues at the O.K Center for Contemporary Art in Linz/Austria. The exhibition changes at each venue and therefore takes on a new character for each city in which it is presented. This flexible touring model highlights Nedko Solakov’s unique ability to relate his own stories and constructions with different contexts and the local space, atmosphere and environment.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Nedko Solakov (born 1957, Tcherven Briag, Bulgaria; lives in Sofia) has exhibited extensively in Europe and the United States. His work was featured in Aperto ‘93 (Venice Biennial); the 48th, 49th and 50th Venice Biennial; the 3rd and 4th Istanbul Biennial; São Paulo ‘94; Manifesta 1, Rotterdam; the 2nd and 4th Gwangju Biennial; the 5th Lyon Biennial, Sonsbeek 9, Arnhem and the 1st Lodz Biennal. Recently he had solo shows at Museu do Chiado, Lisbon; Stichting De Appel, Amsterdam; CCA Kitakyushu, Japan; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem and Centre d’Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona.
On the occasion of the exhibition, the three participating institutions have published a book (220 p., colour illustrations, English/German) retracing Nedko Solakov’s work and including original texts by Saul Anton, Iara Boubnova, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Jordan Kantor, Daniel Kurjakovic, and Nedko Solakov. Curators: Charles Esche, Enrico Lunghi, Martin Sturm.