Art

The renowned Bulgarian conceptual artist Nedko Solakov is talking to me through a drawing. ‘It’s very strange; an alien merchant is trying to sell merchandise to a suspicious customer who’s asking the price. The merchant says, “It’s on the tag.” “It’s very small,” replies the customer, “and you have a six-fingered hand.”’ ‘Right,’ I say. ‘Well,’ adds Solakov, ‘I’m making an absurd conclusion about all commercial exchanges. And the alien looks like a rooster.’

The picture, entitled ‘A Turnover for Many and a Bit of Luck for One’, is hanging in an empty shop just off Petticoat Lane market as part of a new initiative by the Whitechapel Art Gallery called ‘The Street’. It’s a year-long community project, which will also feature work by German artist Bernd Kraus and Jens Haaning from Denmark, among others.
Feature continues

In a 2cm space underneath the drawing, Solakov will write a text. ‘It’s not an explanation for the image; they go together. It will say something like, “If you like the drawing you can have it for almost free.” But the “almost” is important.’ That ‘almost’ is the obligation to spend at least £5 at one of the Peticoat Lane stalls. The objects (mainly garments as it is predominantly a clothes market) will then be deposited in the shop which will, depending on your point of view, either become a space full of clothes with a drawing of a six-fingered alien in it, or an organic and morphing commentary alluding slyly to the contradictions of the international art market. Each depositor will be given a number, and in 12 months a market stallholder will pick the winner, raffle-style.

The idea involves most of Solakov’s trademark concerns – contradiction, monetary value, individual identity. ‘But maybe people won’t think it’s nice to be invaded by a neo-colonialist Bulgarian?’ I suggest that he is a neo-conceptualist too. ‘I was called that in the early 1990s, but conceptualism never existed in Bulgaria so how could I be a neo-conceptualist?’

I first encountered Solakov when researching my book on the AK47, the ubiquitous killing machine that has become as much global cultural artefact as armament, and discovered that Solakov was also referencing the gun in his work. In the installation ‘Discussion (Property)’ for the 2007 Venice Biennale, he attempted to heal the rift between Bulgaria (a state that manufactures millions of AK47s) and Russia (birthplace of the gun) over who owned the rights to its production.

He contacted manufacturers and invited ministers to meet with him in such a faux-naive way that I strongly suspected he was taking the piss out of the protagonists, as with 2003’s ‘Negotiations in Tel Aviv’, during which Solakov asked the Israelis and Palestinians to declare a ceasefire because he was scared of being killed. They didn’t and he also failed to bring Russia and Bulgaria together.

Does he fear the failure that is implicit in his work? ‘From a journalist’s point of view it was a disaster, but I train myself to try failure for my own benefit.’

The 51-year-old has a reputation both for playfulness and confronting his demons. When Communism fell, many artists would have been scared of admitting they had worked for the internal Secret Service but Solakov did just that in ‘Top Secret’ (1989-90). Perhaps this experience of truth-telling, as well as his grounding in Marxist dialectics, is why he appears so amused by the contradictions of contemporary capitalism.

‘Capitalism can be funny, much funnier than Communism, but Bulgaria is going through an absolutely illogical moment. It’s good to have democracy, but they are waiting for utopia, which makes it a schizophrenic situation.’

Bulgaria’s heady descent into free-market economics has lead to a top income tax rate of 10 per cent, but as an artist Solakov gets an additional 40 per cent allowance, ‘And I don’t have to prove I’m an artist!’ he exclaims. Which, I suppose is as close to the playful confusion of conceptualism as government can get and perhaps the reason why Bulgarians instinctively understand what he is doing. Solakov’s famous 1999-2001 work, ‘A Life (Black and White)’ featured a man painting text on to a white wall being followed by another man covering the text with black paint. ‘The Western press made many explanations for this work – all very stupid. But in Bulgaria even taxi drivers got it.’ He pauses. ‘But they don’t think it’s art.’

‘A Turnover for Many and a Bit of Luck for One’ by Nedko Solakov runs until May 18. ‘AK47: The People’s Gun’ by Michael Hodges is published in paperback by Sceptre at £7.99.