An installation by Martin Penev

If one should start a discussion about Martin Penev and his artistic practice, the best start would be maybe to mention his extraordinary imagination and sense of humor. In his work reality becomes a bizarre fantasy – a funny, deliberately ridiculous, fake and yet – a little sad one. In his installations he can use the most innocent and unexpected image to create his own narrative. Precisely with its contradiction between lightness and sense of seriousness the artist’s narrative irritates, hobbles, provokes and makes the observer feel uncomfortable.
This is also the case with the installation “Wonderful Urban Story”, in which reality and fantasy meet and mix on the battlefield of Sofia at night. This is also an extraordinary tale about city – as ridiculous and funny as serious and even a little sad.
The installation is a result of Martin Penev’s actions in public space, which took place in the frame of the project “Multipolis – The Images of the city” by The Fridge in 2016.
Stefka Tsaneva

Special thanks to Milena Milanova, Erwin Toul, Svetlomira Stoyanova, Nikoleta Bibova, Hristo Petkov.

Martin Penev (b. 1985) is a Sofia based visual artist. In 2009 he earned a master’s degree in Theology at St. Kliment Ohridski Sofia University and in 2012 a master’s degree in Digital Arts at the National Academy of Art, Sofia. From 2010 he has been participating in group and individual projects in a number of festivals and events in Bulgaria and abroad. In 2016 -2017 he makes three solo exhibitions – 2016 – “Exploiting the Erased Image” at “Vaska Emanouilova” Gallery, branch of Sofia City Art Gallery, curated by Vladiya Mihaylova; 2017 – “Appetite” at „Æther“, Sofia, curated by Krassimir Terziev; 2017 – “Ritual”, “Atelie Plastelin”, Sofia. In 2017 he was nominated for BAZA award for young artists and in 2018 he is among the 12 artists in the exhibition “Art Start. Young Artists to Follow in 2018” curated by Vessela Nozharova, Daniela Radeva and Stefka Tsaneva.
He has interests in the media arts, interactive design, installation and performance.