Artists: Takesada Matsutani (1937), Kate Van Houten (1940), Eden Mitsenmacher (1987), Stanislav Pamukchiev (1953), Monika Popova (1968), Krassimir Terziev (1969), Albena Baeva (1983), Youlian Tabakov (1975), Bistra Lechevalier (1953), Kiril Cholakov (1964), Leda Starcheva (1960), Peter Tzanev (1967), Martin Penev (1985), Marie Civikov (1979), Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova (1960), Cvetan Krastev (1961), Sако Yachiyo (1954), Kai Masayuki (1958), Michail Michailov (1978), Boryana Petkova (1985), Julia Gault (1991), Rene Beekman (1968), Mahault Lavoine (1989), Jelko Terziev, Nan Wang (1986), Berndnaut Smilde (1978), Andrea Freckmann (1970), Levi van Veluw (1985), Larisa David (1988), Massimo Pulini (1958), Moira Ricci (1977), Elena Grossi (1994), Franco Pozzi (1966), Shafei Xia (1989), Gönül Nuhoğlu (1961), Janire Echebarria de Dios (1985), Martian Tabakov (1992), Kalina Dimitrova (1975), Martin Atanasov (1991), Merve Kılıçer (1987)
Curated by Irina Batkova
H Talks Director: Milena Kaneva
Project Manager: Karina Simova
Web Design and Development: Georgi Gogov
The Herbarium project explores the working environment in contemporary culture, and at its centre is a collection capturing the creative energy of different generations of artists around the world in 40x40x10cm or 20x40x10cm boxes. The content of each box is accompanied by a description and a sound file published on the website www.herbariumcollection.com. Invited by the curator Irina Batkova, the artists select two new participants - thus creative contacts in the art world are tracked through the new additions to the collection.
During the preparation of the first exhibition "The Herbarium as a Place for Storing Ideas" presented at Sofia Arsenal - Museum of Contemporary Art, 14 films from the series "H Talks" directed by Milena Kaneva and produced by MK Production and Art Project Depot were filmed. They document visual artists in their studios as part of the project's archive. The first presentation of "H Talks" during the European Night of Museums 2021 was prepared by the team of the National Gallery's affiliate, where the exhibition took place, and two of the films were presented at the Master of Art Film Festival 2021.
In the selection for the City Art Gallery "Boris Georgiev" the Varna audience will be able to see 40 artists from Bulgaria, Italy, France, Japan, China, the Netherlands, Spain and Turkey. Monika Popova and Stanislav Pamukchiev prepared their boxes for the collection especially for the presentation of Herbarium in Varna. It also includes part of the "H Talks" series shown at the exhibition in Sofia, as well as portraits of artists filmed in Rotterdam, The Hague and Middelburg from the last edition of "Herbarium", realized in partnership with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Cultural Institute of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Filmmaker Milena Kaneva also presents three new films from the "H Talks", shot in the studios of Massimo Pulini, Moira Ricci and Franco Pozzi, which have not been shown in public, with the kind support of the Italian Cultural Institute in Sofia.
The exhibition traces different lines of research that can be distinguished in the project, from the extraordinary creative communities such as that of Bistra Leschevalier with world-renowned Japanese artists living and working in Paris, through the different generations of artists in the collection, often present through the works of teachers and their students, to the incredible diversity of themes, ideas and concepts captured in the boxes.
The Herbarium Collection has documented the creative act, either as a fixed impulse or a deliberate gesture. The project's continuously updated archive presents the collected information and works through exhibitions, presentations, conferences, and on the project's website for anyone interested in art working processes and the development of networks for the exchange of ideas and artistic collaborations in the contemporary world.
