Motif dimensions: 100 x 150 cm (Edition 5 + 1), 70 x 100 cm (Edition 5 + 1), 38 x 57 cm (Edition 5 + 1)

Solo Exhibition

Short Cuts

Vivacom Art Hall, Sofia, 30 september - 18 october 2015

Curators: Missirkov/Bogdanov

Viktor Chouchkov-junior is a well-recognized feature film director and author of many short films, but very few know of his long-term photographic pursuit. His debut exhibition "SHORT CUTS", introducing him to this field, consists of a selection of images taken over the past 5-6 years at various locations around the world - Sofia, Berlin, Cannes, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, New York, Halle, Manchester.

The title of the project creates a conscious parallel to the title of the 1993 film by Robert Oltman. The term 'short cut' can be interpreted in several ways, all of which could, in a way, apply to the project. The literal meaning of the term is 'a part of something', or taking a shorter way. It could also be used in the sense of 'a short circuit.' In this case, the 'short circuits' and the unexpected connections between various areas can be seen everywhere - between cinema and photography, personal and professional life, between the different photographic genres.

The photographic sequence 'tricks' the viewer by erasing the border between fiction and reality. Some of the images in this exhibition show scenes from real life, represented as frames from a film, and vice versa, images from the set look real, almost documentary. The same characters appear once as themselves, and then again as movie characters, looking equally real in each image. The personal life of the author passes through cinematic imagery and the film scene becomes more persuasive than the actual event.

The photographic genres in the exhibition also flow into one another – the documentary scenes and street photography alternate with exceptionally strong portaits of known personalities from the cultural scene - Pevel Koichev, Timo Boll, Yavor Baharov, Radina Kardjilova, Yana Borissova, Deyan Donkov, Anani Iavashev, Ovanes Torosiyan and others. The calm, empty landscapes in the collection, on the other hand, give the necessary pauses for reflection – similar to the musical interact in film editing. The accents in the exhibition will also be emphasized by the use of different print sizes – the large formats (100x150 cm) will alternate with groups of smaller prints (38x57cm). The overall number of images will be about 44 photographs.

In a time, when more and more people build a second, often completely fictional image of themselves, through Facebook and Instagram photos, this series of photographs will present a very interesting reflection on the role of images in our life, and on the modelling of the “self” in a new, more cinematographic reality.

Misirkov/Bogdanov