KALIN SERAPIONOV
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KALIN SERAPIONOV
Kalin Serapionov is one of the first artists in Bulgaria to dedicate himself almost entirely to video art. Within this media he uses the documentary approach, or tries the language of the visual metaphor or he builds up stories based on the possible to happen. Museum, the cause of meeting and acquaintance is just such a short story. Two young people meet by coincidence, in the empty museum halls. They exchange some words, make love heatedly on the sink in the narrow lavatory and leave the building as strangers. The action as well as the space it takes place in is to be read as symbolic. The young people of today represent the future, change, freedom and opportunity. The lavish museum interiors, easily recognizable to any Bulgarian viewer as the interior of the National Art Gallery, are history, tradition, the system and the inherited values. The walk through the collection represents the public aspects, ritual, conformism, power, and knowledge. The sexual encounter stands for life, the museum halls for the past, for “eternity”. The various associations/associations of differences are flowing endlessly, crossing and overlapping one other. At the beginning of the work it looks like there are two characters (him and her). However, afterwards one feels that there might actually be three characters (him, her and the museum). The end of the film confirms the feeling that the characters are indeed two the couple and the museum. However, the question about who is the “bad guy” remains unanswered. Nearly Beautiful is a funny tease with the childish and homey stuff, with the kitsch in mass culture and everyday life. Here as well, the structure of cinematic suspense that the artist has developed makes the viewer suspects that the whole behind the fragment is controversial and even threatening. Iara Boubnova |