Art Gallery Serdika presents Rafail Georgiev – Raffò with “SMALL MONUMENTS”
Period: 23 March 2022 – 15 April 2022
Opening: 23 March (Wednesday) 2022 from 17:00 to 20:00 o’clock
Art Gallery Serdika presents “SMALL MONUMENTS” of Rafail Georgiev – Raffò. The exhibit of conceptualized replicas of his already known sculptures can be seen from 23 March to 15 April. The Opening is on 23 March (Wednesday) 2022 from 17:00 to 20:00 o’clock in compliance with any and all mandatory anti-epidemic measures.
The title of the exhibit “SMALL MONUMENTS” contains two conceptual paradoxes, which according to the author play a key role for the implementation of the present project. The first paradox is that usually the viewer expects initially to see the art works, created for a particular competition or exhibit, while in this project Rafail Georgiev makes exactly the opposite – makes smaller and compresses to such extent already created and shown by him sculptures in the public space, so that they could once again be placed in the exhibition hall and in their new scale to turn into “small monuments”. The second is in the obvious oxymoron of the title itself – the monument is transformed into a model of itself.
“The implementation of the project “Small monuments” in Art Gallery Serdika in the form of an exhibit is of provocative and cognitive nature. The created conceptual replicas are of created by me public art works in Seoul, South Korea (2015), Santiago de Chile, Chile (2016), Rishon LeZion, Israel (2018), Mezdra, Bulgaria (2020), Bad Salzungen, Germany (2016), Craiova, Romania (2017), Alanya, Turkey (2019), Beziers, France (2021), Kenzingen, Germany (2019), Wuhu, China (2022). The works are selected from a more extensive collection of public art works, which I have created during the last 10 years, in view of illustrating the diversity of the materials used for the creation thereof – stone, wood, metal, etc. These pre-scaled “small monuments” are created through the use of specific 3D modeling software, with them being “printed” with modern 3D printers.” Rafail Georgiev says and adds that for many years he uses the new technologies both for design and for creation of his sculptural art works.
The reverse process of “making smaller”, close to the original proto-model of the already created works is aimed at finding a new relation with the pre-scaled object, which experiences the changes in the new space, in effect also for the viewer thereof, the artist also explains and adds that the generated projection promotes further the life of the public sculpture, returning it as a tertiary reflection in the exhibition hall.
The project is implemented under “Creative Initiatives” Programme of National Fund “Culture”
