TEODOR GENOV

He is one of the young artists we will keep an eye on in 2019. Teodor Genov is among the eleven artists featured in the exhibition Art Start 2019: Tomorrow Never Dies curated by Vessela Nozharova and Stefka Tsaneva. It introduces young names in Bulgarian art that are worth knowing, and you can see works by the participants, including Teodor, at the Goethe Institute until February 22. Teodor's drawings stand out with a kind of harsh candid look at depravity and the inspiration of a muse. He was born in 1995 in Karnobat, grew up in Burgas, studied film animation at the New Bulgarian University, and also spent some time studying in Thessaloniki. After returning to Sofia, he became interested in zine culture and manual screen printing, and participated in group exhibitions at TI-RE, Generator, the pop-up presentation Urbanites: Introducing and the solo exhibit Cheap As Chips at Place 167 along with Alexandra Georgieva. We asked Teodor what he thinks about the tomorrow that will never die, and where his thoughts and drawings take him.

Introduce yourself briefly.

Teodor, 23-year-old person who works in an advertising agency and also wants to develop as an artist and provoke his surroundings in accordance with his own crazy worldviews.

Why do you paint? 

Because I find it interesting to observe how people react to my ideas and views of the world, and I begin to understand myself better through the feedback I receive. This is the easiest and most convenient way for me to accomplish this.

What is your generation excited about these days? 

I don't think I'm the most accomplished or representative member of my generation. But the peers who I see around me every day are very bright people. They are excited about cultural life in general: music, cinema, exhibitions. And also by late night outings, which at a certain point become part of cultural life, because many ideas come out of things that happen then.

Which topics do you seek out as an artist? 

I am mainly interested in relations between people, the variety of different relationships. The different emotions we get from the different people we are with. The feelings we get from them, the highs and lows. The different inspiration that each love gives us, and also its end, which for me is just as inspiring.

Have you ever done an artist residency program? 

I haven't, but I would do it. I think it presents very good opportunities for development. Recently, I even encouraged a few acquaintances to apply for a residence that sounded quite interesting. I just didn't have the time to get involved myself.

How do the space and atmosphere in which you create affect your art?

I have been living in Sofia for some time now. It's full of people with similar interests to mine. I manage to make so many different contacts from which I can draw both experience and inspiration. Lately, I've been meeting so many nice, interesting people, whose work has a very positive effect on me. There is such a concentration of talent here, people who are developing their talents at the same time, and I find it wonderful to be here right now, to observe their progress. This is very important to me. It gives me the confidence and motivation to make progress myself. You end up in this environment of endless inspiration from someone else, who is in turn inspired by you, and so the wheel of creation keeps turning. At least that's how I feel. It feels strange to describe it.

What will be the art of tomorrow? Will there be new forms of art? 

You can find an answer to the first question at the Goethe Institute and Credo Bonum until February 22. As for the other question, I would say that I am not knowledgeable and experienced enough to answer.

I think it could lose its concrete forms, as more and more things are called art nowadays. Artists are beginning to give meaning to things that do not seem to make sense at first glance, but if you read them through the perspective offered by their author, they become meaningful.