The exhibition “From Water to Stone” had to begin with a residency, conceived in theory as a creative vacation, and in practice planned as a respite from an otherwise hectic year between Sofia and Berlin for Teodor Genov and myself, which the project organisers recognized as a curatorial hand for the artist. Instead of creating an exhibition from a residency, however, it turned out that we would do the opposite – a residency from an exhibition (eventually) due to reasons unrelated to the project organisation.
The reason was the global climate crisis.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, a bit dramatic, even a bit snobbish, but it seems to me like a good lesson to learn to acknowledge it. The accidents, the human errors, the lack of adequate control and timely help, the problems of the water system, the corruption and the general oppressiveness of our political system cannot continue to prevent us from recognising that, simply put, we are in a global climate crisis. The weather is not normal, it will not change on its own and, no, environmentalists are not paid.
Leshten ended up with no water in the middle of summer, in which temperatures were so high that even if there had been water, we still might not have made it to the cherished residency. Instead, we went home to Berlin, where we enjoyed a 20-degree summer while reading frightening news about fires, drought, waterlessness and record temperatures.
In this strange summer, the artist Teodor Genov began preparations for the exhibition from his unrealized residency with thoughts on water, drought, and rocks – those that remain at the bottom of a dried-up river, and those others that end up as luxury products in someone’s home after being painfully separated from the earth and then carefully cut and polished in the company of clouds of noxious dust and tons of water. His thoughts flitted blindly between the waterlessness in Leshten, the news of protests against stone quarries in various parts of the Rhodope Mountains in recent years, the drought, and the thoughts of the future during a global climate crisis lurking in the dark corners of his mind. From this emerged a series of drawings on paper and stone that do not follow a linear narrative, nor attempt a political message. Much more they present a mosaic of reflections, cultural and historical references and bitter jokes in his typical crude cartoonish style.
The works in the exhibition are divided into two thematic segments in the gallery’s two main rooms. The first presents drawings and paintings that deal with the theme of water and its careless use as a natural resource. In the second, Genov shows laser drawings on marble slabs that deal with drought and waterlessness.
Together, the works lay the foundation for future research and further work on the topic of water and climate. Weather permitting, the next stop will be Leshten. If not – perhaps Burgas, where the artist comes from and where he grew up in the family of an agronomist who, after 35 years of work, now wonders whether the future will also allow him to work his land.
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