An Otherworldly Backup Plan For A Vicarious And Accidental Visit to An Ineffable After Party

Solo exhibition of VALKO CHOBANOV

Curator Vanya Grozdanova

ICA - Sofia

10.03. – 10.04.2022

Opening: March 10, 2022, 18:00 – 20:00 h.

Windows are portals, lemons help with a hangover, and once upon a time, many winters ago, the Internet was born in the modern world and changed it. Demons, inevitably, were also recontextualized.

For more than two decades, the perception of physical reality has been increasingly saturated with symbolic Internet-generated constructions. In most cases, we place them in our minds unconsciously. "I think about the situations in my life" today means, "I think about the situations while I know (without thinking about it) that the Internet is always out there." In other words, the background mode of our experiences is formulated by Internet-mediated communication.

Fantasy and sinister images are made up spontaneously in folklore, the act of retelling and embellishing stories as well. These are the natural cognitive mechanisms of the social individual to assimilate inane inevitabilities by taking self-ironic routes. The internet folklore makes full use of these principles and goes on opening portals of escapism, through which relieves the tension in the present.

Still, “nothing is to be taken seriously”. **

Nor is this text in its function of sufficient introduction to the artistic effect that this exhibition can create.

If there is anything characteristic of Valko Chobanov's practice, it is that he works as analytically as he does intuitively. His work is inevitably candid and requires a process of detailed assimilation. Referencing cinema - and in particular, the various experiments in the field of horror and fantasy film, especially the  B films among them, also the role-playing video games, is a key. The sarcastic, yet embracing attitude towards contemporary pop culture’s exchange values, too.

The post-digital narrative following a hint of autobiographical notes - which the exhibition reproduces - becomes clearest by its title. It must be recited repetitively (in mind) by the visitors of the exhibition space as they accumulate perceptions.

More about the artist: here

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** Quote of Rule 20 (from "Rules of the Internet.", source: Internet Archive)