Michail Michailov (1978, Bulgaria)

Paris, France / Vienna, Austria
Art Project Depot - 5 questions - Michail Michailov
What are the most essential components of your artistic practice?

Who am I, who are we, how do we relate to one another, and what is our existence about?” I explore these fundamental human questions in drawings, videos, and performances, and in the process stages my “self”, or rather its manifold variants, in installative settings that often refer to the respective exhibition space.

How do you interact with space when creating a project?

When it comes to developing an idea for a space, I stick to my principle of devoting myself to things that you don't really want to have or see. Through subtle interventions or additional touches, I adapt the circumstances and use what I have found in the space. In this way, I can make friends with the interior that has become an installation and identify with it.

What is the role of text in developing images?

In my work I would like to make the viewer primer himself think. My own text serves as support and contains a philosophical level in relation to our existence.

What reaction do you attempt to provoke in your audience through your work?

My work is primarily intended to throw the viewers back on themselves and on their own existence. I use my body metaphorically as a projection surface for everyone. I believe that my works on a spiritual level often take the viewer in more directions than my original intentions. Dealing with existence inevitably brings this about. However, my approach is self-deprecating. It is important to me that my work is also read with lightness and humor.

What is the role of the research approach in contemporary art?

I am very intuitive and intentionally put the value of intuition before that of scientific research. After all, through my intervention, the location that is played is supposed to lead to new perspectives in relation to ourselves. In this respect, historical knowledge is less relevant for me.

Selected works