Draft:Stefan Milev

Stefan Milev
Auto-portrait double exposure of Stefan Milev with a camera Obscura, Stuttgart 2022
Born	Stefan Milev (1981-01-09)January 9, 1981 Sofia, Bulgaria
Known for	Photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, assemblage, collage, film
Movement	Impressionism, expressionism, surrealism

Stefan Milev (* born January 9, 1981 in Sofia 1981 in Sofia) is a Bulgarian artist and Pictorialist.

Inspiration

Stefan Milev’s artwork is associated with that turning point of modernity, when the birth of photography and the study of this technology challenged artists to search and discover new possibilities and ways of creating images. Motifs and means of expression of surrealism, abstractionism, expressionism and naturalism are returning, but also of early photography and the silent film. Despite the visible creative enthusiasm and references to models of different eras in the history of art, the artist's works are not mere reproductions or imitations. On the contrary, Stefan manages to evolve the aesthetics and transfer it to today’s visual topics. In doing so, he uses the influence of figurative language to focus on the levels of dreams, the grotesque, and the subconscious. As a result, temporal levels are also inscribed in the works, which connect the past with the present and, with their visionary character, stimulate fantasies and visions. To wrap it up with the artist’s own words: "Mental liberty is the air I breathe. In general, I am influenced by life, I feel like an observer and a visualist who loves simplicity and time."

Technique

Stefan Milev self-portrait light-painting, Hamburg 2014

Stefan Milev works with analogue cameras, preferring black and white images. He develops his works himself, and this working process – from the birth of the idea for the image itself through the processing to the creation of his work – gives the photographs an authenticity that directly attracts the viewer's interest despite the high degree of stylization and alienation. Double-exposure techniques that give the impression of overflowing images are alternated with sharply contrasting and sharply emphasized parts of the image. "Painting" with light in the image also supports this aesthetic and produces surprising effects, often adding an aura of mysticism to Stefan's photographs. The images emit a subtle seduction that simultaneously attracts, bewitches, and disturbs the viewer. It is as if he is looking into spaces and physical states that really exist, but in the attempt to focus slip out of his perception.

Artwork

At the center of the works is the human image. Stefan works intuitively, with attention to the moment and the specific. Figures, faces and objects are recreated in forms and acquire a primarily symbolic meaning. The subject is the individual in his apartness, feelings, thoughts and existence in the world around him. As in the imagery and aestheticization of motifs, here as the main motif of modernity appears the human and his place in the world, his relationship with the environment. At the same time, the emphasis is placed on his inner world, on his existence, expressed by the surreal images, the fantastic atmosphere and found in the simultaneously unreal, respectively hyperreal aura. Often, the individual figure in relation to its surroundings or the fragment of someone's face, falls into focus. Through the described techniques of blurring, focusing, abstractionism and naturalism, the object approaches the viewer and at the same time moves away from the tangible.

Interpretation

By limiting and juxtaposing surfaces, by clearly outlining or blurring them, works are created in a way that they sometimes seem almost abstract in their composition or reminiscent of paintings in the form of the image structure and the sequence of the lines. Different levels, spaces and fragments are placed next to each other, and faces and forms are emphasized by contrasts. In this sense, the artist also accepts his paintings as artistic photography, in which the classical understanding of painting is transferred, further developed and partially broken. The artist has an intuitive attitude to responsibilities and aesthetic impact. In their stylization and black-and-white aesthetic, many of the images seem distant and elude direct tangibility. The levels of the subconscious and dreams come forward. It seems as if Milev makes processes and objects visible that are hidden in the subconscious and thus become tangible.

Literature

• The Politics and Pedagogy of Mourning - On Responsibility in Eulogy - Author Timothy Secret, 2015
• THE OPÉRA - Anniversary Issue – Best of Classic & Contemporary Nude Photography. ISBN 978-3-7356-0852-9
• 1605 Magazine - 1605 Collective's annual magazine 2023

Selected exhibitions

• 2011: 9. Festival International de la Photographie de Mode, Cannes
• 2011: Leica Camera AG - COZY UP!, Berlin
• 2011: Dig The New Breed at Rankin’s Annroy Gallery - Stefan Milev Circovska Horse, London
• 2012: Mythologies - Rivington Design House, New York
• 2012: Rétrospective – 10. Festival International de la Photographie de Mode, Cannes
• 2012: 8x10s by Impossible at NYC Project Space, New York
• 2012: Vulnerabsurdisme, Galerie Joyce, Paris
• 2013: 67 - 8x10 Polaroids, Door Studios, Paris
• 2013: Somewhen in Sofia, Gallery Synthesis. Sofia
• 2014: Fotosommer - Fumes and Perfumes, Stuttgart
• 2015: Sounds of Black Kronprinzenpalais, Berlin
• 2015: Process! Episode One: Ambrotypes - Carol Christian Poell, Samsa G. Tuchwaren, München
• 2015: Fluorescent Blues, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
• 2016: As Unseen as Seen, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
• 2016: Rays of Sensual Poetry, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
• 2016: Von Angesicht zu Angesicht, Schwerpunkt-Galerie, Stuttgart
• 2017: Blau hält die Erinnerungen wach, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
• 2017: Die Geliebten des Windes, Galerie Cankova, Berlin
• 2018: Sam Tho Duong, Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen - Volkenkunde, Leiden
• 2018: Der Vogel Transformation N.IX #SMPH, Center of Contemporary Art, Rom
• 2018: Photo London, Somerset House, London
• 2019: Design meets Art Nr.2 - „Licht im Raum“, Düsseldorf
• 2022: "Am See" - Strike A Pose, K21, Düsseldorf
• 2022: Paris Photo, The Opéra - Anniversary Issue, Paris
• 2024: Equilibrium - ONE Gallery, Sofia
• 2024: Peculiar Mythology curated by Amine Amharech - 229 LAB, Paris
• 2024: “Encyclopedia 24” - Muma Gallery, Hamburg

Gallery

• Седемте смърти на Мария Калас, пресъздадени от Марина Абрамович "7 Deaths of Maria Callas" 2020г.
  Седемте смърти на Мария Калас, пресъздадени от Марина Абрамович "7 Deaths of Maria Callas" 2020г.
• Пиет Мондриан писмо до Х.П. Бремър 1914 г. Колаж 2013г.
  Пиет Мондриан писмо до Х.П. Бремър 1914 г. Колаж 2013г.
• Автопортрет скициране с молив, Стефан Милев 2009г.
  Автопортрет скициране с молив, Стефан Милев 2009г.

Culture and the arts

Stefan Milev was formation the visual key figure and repognition of Marina Abramović first opera performances "7 Deaths of Maria Callas" in cooperation with the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, world premiere on November 1st, 2020. Further performances in year 2021 at the Palais Garnier - National Opera of Paris, 2022 at Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, 2023 at Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona.

External links

• Official website
• Sarah Moon & Stefan Milev Instant and Forever - The Art of Platinum Printing by David Chow
• L'oeil de la photographie
• Muma Gallery