PLAMEN DEJANOFF:“As by an invisible hand”
Born l970 in Sofia, Bulgaria, the artist presently lives and works in Berlin.
He recently had exhibitions at Pinksummer Contemporary in Genoa, Italy, the Project
Series at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, and is currently part of the Prague Biennale.
The artist’s works will be include in a solo project at Air de Paris in
September, and in the 2nd Biennale of Ceramics in Contemporary Art in Italy opening
in September 2003. Dejanoff’s works were also included in an exhibition
at Artspace, Auckland, and New Zealand. Having worked collaboratively with Swetlana
Heger for years, the artist has recently begun to establish a definitive individual
terrain to extend many of the issues that the two artists explore as a team.
Dejanoff’s art defines clear categories; like artists Jorge Pardo, and Liam
Gillick, he fuses elements of architecture, sculpture and painting. It is perhaps
the intent to destroy purist lines that provides the works of each of these artists
its vigor and visual excitement. Each combines industrial materials and commercial
designs that are given new meanings in the context of his conceptual derivations.
Finding different uses for ordinary objects and their diverse elements clearly
has its Duchampian inferences. But Dejanoff’s use of design objects restructures
and re-codifies reality, imbuing the representation of everyday life with conceptual
preoccupations pervaded by economic references.
In his view, the industrial production of an objects is an extension of the individuality
of its designer. For this reason the artist’s works often consist of objects
taken from industrial designers, and from object-making visual artists including
Jorge Pardo and Franz West.
Dejanoff’s uniqueness lies in his refusal to make a clear distinction between
the product of industrial manufacture and the ‘sacred” art object.
This refusal informs and directs his fundamental artistic working process. The
artist’s approach is more closely aligned with that of a marketing enterprise
than with the production of unique art works, although the end products are fresh
and innovative artistic objects and installations.
Plamen Dejanoff’s art interrogates the relationship between culture and
economy: the work explores the dynamics of corporations, following the process
from production to consumption. That exploration focuses on communication and
product identification (branding). Through carefully re-structured objects, the
artist’s fusion of art and commerce constitutes a commentary on the osmosis
between art and life, between high and low culture, and between aspects of pop
and conceptual artistic strategies. For Dejanoff, the historical period of industrial
production becomes an episode in what Heidegger called the history of Being.
Thus, in this time of hypercapitalism, equipped with its elements of advertising
and branding, the products make Being emblematic.
Dejanoff’s artistic constructions and strategies are essentially an exploration
of the relationship between people and the economy. Through this process the
artist identifies and critiques the parallels between an art object and any commodity
in the economy; and, by extension, he considers the global economic dynamics
and their relationship to the art world.
Dejanoff’s interest in art and economy is not limited to his creative work,
but extends to artist’s private life. In this context the artist presents
himself as a limited company. After the split with Swetlana Heger (with whom
Dejanoff worked from 1995 to 2000), he chose to move from Wien to Berlin, in
Mitte, to a building designed by the young architects Ernst & Gruntuch, finished
in 2001. The high-tech style building is the home of corporations such as Adidas,
Sisley, and Benetton. Viva and Wir design, only three apartments are private
lofts – one is the artist’s. The Hackesher Markt 2 building is included in several
guides of Berlin as one of the most interesting pieces of architecture in the
city. After moving to the space Dejanoff contacted M/M, the French design duo,
and asked them to invent a logo for his new card and some luxurious announcements
including exterior and interior views of the building and the logo with the address.
Part of Dejanoff’s action was to stress the artist’s studio as a type
of advertising space. This project involved his change of address and the re-spelling
of his name from Dejanov to Dejanoff (suggested by Wir design, an image control
firm that caters to pop stars). For Dejanoff, the entire activity transforms
the experience of being an artist into a kind of joint venture, common in the
real economy.
Through this approach the artist’s “company” presents itself as
a work of art whose concept is comprehensively marketed into the traditional
economic system, which is presented as subsystem of the art. In this regard,
Dejanoff’s approach looks back to 16th and 17th century artist workshops
and guilds in which artists viewed studios as production centers not isolated
from any other type of factory.
One of by-product of the artist’s move has been a series of related works
united under the title “Collective Wishdream of Upperclass Possibilities.”
The issue of possibility is deployed in the artist’s reinvention of his
own identity, made acute in his changes of residence, name, and lifestyle. For
Dejanoff, moving to a new home and changing one’s method of work are equally
existential choices. The major work from this series consist of a bicolored platform,
car rims (reportedly taken from BMW models) of artificial crystal, and a green
chair designed by Mark Newson. The work comments on what can be termed our collective
“suburban urges”. As a work of art its power lies in its refusal to
provide clear comprehension continuously preventing the viewer from discerning
a precise reading of the work. “Collective Wishdream of Upperclass Possibilities
“is a project whose representation takes on different forms when exhibited
in different venues. Nicolas Bourriaud, co-director of Palais de Tokyo, comments:
"Dejanoff makes, in this case, an art of replacement".
An element of this series was presented in the form of a sculpture of the artist’s
logo at the Kunsthalle, Hamburg in the “Art &Economy “ exhibition.
Dejanoff ‘s “Flash Art” cover reflects his real life fusion of
art and reality. This cover features one of the artist’s luxurious announcements
as advertisement. Inside the magazine some other announcements are published
with the text. At Pinksummer, Dejanoff exhibited an installation of a stack of
the” Flash Art” magazine (issue 233) and a series of “fetishes”
made of artificial crystal.
The Belvedere Museum in Wien recently cancelled of Plamen
Dejanoff’s solo show. Administrators felt the project too ‘realist’ to be
art. Such a response is indicative of the deeply dichotomous nature of Dejanoff’s
work: in critiquing the contemporary economical-social dynamics, it occupies
those dynamics, but as art, it subverts them even as it participates in them.
It’s been said that Dejanoff’s work remains too close to reality to
qualify as art at all: but this is an art which bathes in reality and dwells
inside it. Dejanoff’s art leads us to reflect on the progressive subordination
of culture to economy, and therefore, it finds us reflecting on the logic of
“audience”.
“Money for Nothing” addresses the relationship that has existed between
art and economy from the 60’s to today. This exploration of the concept
of value through art was held at Artspace, New Zealand, where Curator Tobias
Berger wanted to question the value of art and the way recent artists deal with
the notion of “art” as commodity. The “Money for Nothing “
exhibition uses artistic output to look at and comment on the relationship between
people and economy; the way artist and art deals with value, economy, and the
economic impacts on and of the art world. Collectively, the artists in the exhibition
consider the polemics of global cross-cultural capitalism. The artist’s
works explores complex instructures of economies, class mobility an their interchangeable
meanings in global knowledge economy.
As part of the Prague Biennale, Curator Helena Kantova has invited Plamen Dejanoff,
Swetlana Heger, and Jean Pierre Khazen to participate in a project that she has
entitled ”Brand”. The public art project will require each artist to
create a work that interprets the historical Mattoni brand, whose products dominate
the mineral waters of the Czech Republic. Thus each artist will interpret the
brand in advertisement spaces located throughout the city. The concept of art
and economy in this case is far more emblematic of Dejanoff’s concerns because
the company is also an active supporter of contemporary art.
One of the greatest impacts of the new globalism is a class-consciousness that
extends beyond geographical borders. Plamen Dejanoff’s art tends to redirect
the discussion of the art object as commodity toward issues of cultural trade
in the global economy. Thus his work speaks to the uniqueness of artistic production,
but equally the danger of it being simply another digestible commodity. But the
strength of the work lies in its freshness and the unexpected qualities of the
constructions and installations that remain grounded in a strong individual artistic
vocabulary.
Bibliography AND EXHIBITIONS (SELECTIVE)
Solo Exhibitions
2002-2003
“Off the Wall”, Air de Paris
“Projects Series”, Palais de Tokyo, 2003
Pinksummer Contemporary Art, April, 2002
2002
Galeria Javier Lopez, Madrid
Pinksummer, Gènes -I
Studio House at the Austrian National Gallery-Belvedere, Vienne -A
Academis Project, Accademis Office, Milan, 15.05-(permanent)
MAK, Vienna, A-, jusq dec 2002In collaboration with Swetlana Heger
2001
“ Plus (See You!)”, Air de Paris, Paris-F
“Test the World”, MAK, Vienne, Autriche
2000
“On Holiday”, Muzej suvremene umjetnosti, Zagreb-CR
Galerie Meyer Kainer, Wien-A
1999
Y-1, Stockholm-SE
Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin-D
1998
Le Consortium, Dijon-F
Galerie der Stadt Wels, Wels-A
Gallery Tomio Koyama, Tokyo-J
“Plenty Objects of Desire” , Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Berlin-D
1997
“Three Wishes (Plenty Objects of Desire)”, Air de Paris, Paris-F
“Pale Red Orange”, Raum Aktueller Kunst, Vienna-A
“Plenty Objects of Desire”, (one year project), Kunstverein Ludwigsburg-D
Selected Group Exhibitions
2003
“Money for Nothing”, Artspace
“Prague Bienale”, 2003
“Biennale of Ceramics in Contemporary Art”, Italy
2002
“Uncommon Denominator”, MASS MOCA, North Adams, 30.12.02
“Deluxe”, Sala plaza de Espana, Madrid Espagne
“Art & Economy”, Deichtorhallen, Hambourg, D-, 28.02-25.06.02
“There is a light that never goes out”, Sonia Rosso, Pordenone, I-
MASS MOCA, North Adams, MA, 25.05-30.12.2002
In collaboration with Swetlana Heger
2001
Biennale de Berlin, Allemagne
“Germania, la costruzione di un’immagine”, Centro Arte Contemporanea,
Siena, Italia
“A happy New Year! 010101”, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo-J
“Encounter”, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo-J*
2000
“Social Hackers”, Gallery MUU, Helsinki-FIN
“Bonjour Chez Vous”, Espace Jules Verne, Bretingny-sur-Orge-F
“After the Wall”, Ludwig Museum Budapest, Budapest-HON
“Acquisitions 1996 1997 1998”, Le Frac Nord – Pas-de-Calais, Dunkerque-F
“Project#0004”, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York-USA
“Be seeing you”, Espace Jules Verne, Brétigny-sur-Orge-F
“Négociations”, CRAC, Sète-F
“Trans-actions, ou les nouveaux commerces de l’art”, Galerie Art&Essai,
Rennes-F;
École nationale des beaux-arts, Bourges-F.
“Plan B”, De Appel, Amsterdam-NL
“Etat des lieux #1- Contacts (relations, bricolage et travaux de consommation)”,
(Curated by Nicolas Bourriaud), FRIART, centre d’art contemporain, Fribourg-F.
“The world is not enough”, Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin-D
“Thanks”, Air de Paris, Paris-F
“Worthless (Invaluable)”, Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana (cur. C. Basualdo)
“Beauty and subversion”, Museum Ludwig, Cologne-D (cur. M. Nicol)-F
“Aussendienst”, Kunstverein, Hamburg-D. (Cur. S. Schmidt-Wulffen)
“Sabotage “, Shed im Eisen werk, Fraueenfeld-CH
1999
“ELAC”, Lausanne-CH (curated Eric Troncy)
“Dream City”, Kunstverein, Munich -D
“Expanded Design”, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg-A
Rue Louise Weiss, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Meymac F (cat)
“Ideas for living”, Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerpen-B
“Expander 1.0”, Galerie Jousse Seguin, Paris-F (curated Bloc Notes
& YS)
Air de Paris @ Grazer Kunstverein, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz -A (April 17)
1st Biennial, Melbourne, Australia (May 5)
“Capital”, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Sète-F (cur. Nicolas Bourriaud)
cat.
“Truly Yours”, Kunsthalle
1998
“X squared”, Kunst Zwischen Arbeit und Kollektiver Praxis, Vienna-A
1998
“Sunday’s Air”, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig-D
“Minis, Midis & Maxis”, Künstlerhaus Palais Thurn und Taxis,
Bregenz-A
“I shop therefore I am”, Kunstverein, Hamburg-D
“Bonne Année !” Air de Paris, Paris-F
“Fast Forward”, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg-D
“Ontom”, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig-D (cur.
Jan Winkelmann)
“Life Style”, KUB Kunsthaus, Bregen-D
“Weather Everything”, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst,
Leipzig-D (cur. E.
Troncy)
“Interventive Tendencies in Art”, Danish Foundation for Contemporary
Art,
Copenhagen-DK
“Soziale Plastik”, Kunstverein, Munich-D (cur. Dirk Luckow)
Arbeitslos, Sprenger Museum, Hannover-D (cur. Raimar Stange)
“La Table”, Air de Paris, Paris-F
1997
MAK Galerie, Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna-A
“Dramatically Different” , Magasin, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble-F
(cur.
Eric Troncy)
“X-squared”, Vienna Secession, Vienna-A (cur. Andreas Spiegl)
“Medium of Exchange”, CCH, Hamburg-D (cur. Corinna Koch)
W.W.A., Asahi Building, Tokyo-J (cur. Keigo Yamamoto)
“Enter: Artist/Audience/Institution”, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne-CH
(cur. Barbara
Steiner)
1996
VI. International Biennale, Cairo, Egypt
“Chance (3 Days with Jean Baudrillard in the Desert)”, Whiskey Pete’s
Casino, Las
Vegas-USA
“Junge Szene”, Vienna Secession, Vienna-A
“East International”, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts / Norwich Gallery,
Norwich-UK
“Affairs”, Institut für Gegenwartskunst, Vienna-A
“The Garage Project”, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles-USA
Künstlerhaus Thum und Taxis, Bregenz-A
“Final Projects”, Schindler House, Los Angeles-USA
1995
“Scultura per dormire”, Zerynthia Associazione per l’arte contemporanea,
Roma/Paliano-IT
“Werkstattquartier”, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna-A
1994
“Renovierte Räume”, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna-A
BIBLIOGRAPHY (SELECTIVE)
Reviews
Focus Germany, in Flash Art, n°224, May-June 2002, p116
Nicolas Bourriaud, Plamen Dejanov, l’artista come società a responsabilita
limitata, in Flash Art, n°233, aprile-maggio 2002, p66-68
Suzannne Muchnic, Preserving Schindler’s LA Legacy, Los Angeles Times, 02/10/96
Michael Darling, The Garage Project, Frieze Nov-Dec, 96
Rainer Metzger, Zeitschnitte, Coming Up, Junge Szene, Kunstforum, 04/96
Sabine B.Vogel, Plamen Dejanov und Swetlana Heger im Raum Aktueller Kunst,
Kunstbulletin June/July 97
Rainer Metzger, Waren aus dem tertiären Sektor, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,
06/09/97
Geneviève Breerette, L’art contemporain en pleines formes, Le Monde, 30/10/97
Eric Troncy, Display, Documents, Fall/winter 97 (ill,)
Olivier Reneau, L’art de présenter, Technikart, n°18, 12/97, p.111
(ill.)
Stefan Nikolaev, Review, Flash Art 1-2/98, p.122-123 (ill.)
Owen Drolet, Dramatically Different, Flash Art, mars-avril 1998, p.81
Jean-Max Colard, Les objets du désir, Les Inrockuptibles, n°146, 1998
Pascal Beausse (interview), Plenty Objects of Desire, Bloc Notes n°15, Summer
98, pp.28-35 (ill.)
Jan Winkelmann, Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger, Artist Kunstmagazin, Heft
36,
3/98, pp.22-25 (ill.)
Raimar Stange, Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger bei Mehdi Chouakri,
Kunst-Bulletin, April 1999
Jennifer Allen, Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger, Artforum, May 99
Wolf-Gunther Thiel, Flash Art International, June 99 (cover)
Olivier Reneau, BMW: le capital art, Beaux-Arts, n°184, septembre 1999, and
p.26
Sara Arrhenius, Ska vi byta grejer med varann, Dagens Nyheter, 12 novembre
1999
Andreas Spiegl, Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger, L’esthétique du duo,
in
Documents, n°12, 2000, pp. 253-257
Alies Pegtel, Joyriding, Carp, 09/05/2000, pp. 32-33
Dejanov & Heger, Quite normal luxury – project, Crash (Hors-serie art), (cover)
Pascal Beausse, Swetlana Heger & Plamen Dejanov, flux et stocks, Art Press,
Fév, 2001
Emmanuelle Lequeux, Air de Paris: deux galeristes en RTT, Aden, 11-18 avril
2001
Catalogues:
Kataoka Mami, cat. “Encounter”, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo,
2001
Barbara Steiner, “Collaboration with BMW Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger
“cat.
“After the Wall”, Moderna Museet, 1999, p,35 (illustration)
Dream City, Munich, 1999
Joshua Decter,” Baby You Can Drive My Car, Dejanov & Heger’s Corporate
Synergy”, cat. Ausblick, Dumont 99
Juliana Engberg,” Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger”, cat. Signs
of Life,
International Biennial Melbourne 99
“Le Capital”, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Sète, July 1999
Barbara Steiner,” Interorganisational Systems, Dejanov & Heger”,
cat, “x-squared”,
Wiener Secession 1998
“ENTER”, Kunstmuseum, Luzern, May 1998, p, 24-27 (illustrations)
“Dramatically Different”, Magasin CNAC october 97 (p15+illustration)
Misc.
2002
Charlotte Laubard: Ma petite enterprise. Technikart.Février 2002.
2001
Ecosystemes du Monde de l’art. Dejanov & Heger.Art Press
Special.Nr: 22/2001 (+COVER)
Alexandra Reininghaus. Aufbruch in die Gegenwart.art das kunstmagazin.
November 2001
Pascal Beausse: Flux et stocks. Art Workers- Dejanov & Heger. Art
Press-Paris. Nr.265/February 2001
Yukie Kamiya: Encounter. Bijutsu Techo-Tokyo. March 2001
Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger. Brutus-Tokyo. March 2001
2000
Anaid Hidden: Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger.Crash-Paris. November 2000
(+COVER)
Yukie Kamiya: Dejanov & Heger. Bijutsu Techo-Tokyo.January 2000
Jan Winkelmann: Infiltratie als strategie- Dejanov & Heger. Metropolis
M-Amsterdam. January 2000
Jeroen Siebenlink: Dejanov & Heger – BMW als deultieme mecenas. Next!
April 2000
Andreas Spiegl: Aesthetics of the Duet Dejanov & Heger. documents
surl´art. Nr 12/2000
Doris Berger: Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger in der Galerie Meyer Kainer.
Kunst-Bulletin. März 2000
Boris Kremer: The European Funding Handbook.Kat: Plan B, De
Appel-Amsterdam 2000
Lis Rackham & Lucinda Wylie: Dejanov & Heger. Kat. Democracy, Royal
College of Art- London 2000
Alies Pegtel: Joyriding. Dejanov & Heger. Carp-Amsterdam. Nr.19/2000
Nicolas Auderau & Sandrine Teste: Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana
Heger-intérimaires de l´art. Cat.: trans_actions. Presses universitaires
de
Rennes 2000
Karin Schulze & Frank E.P. Dievernich: New Economy und Kunst. Financial
Times Deutschland. 18/08/20
Nada Beros: On Holiday. Dejanov & Heger. Croatia In Flight Magazine. Autum
2000
Nada Beros: Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger. Banka-Zagreb.
November-December 2000
Caroline Smith: Culture Brokers. Black Book Magazine-New York.
Fall/Winter2000
1999
Wolf-Günther Thiel: P.Dejanov & S.Heger. Flash Art
International.May-June1999 (+COVER)
Sara Arrhenius: Ska vi byta grejer med varann Dejanov & Heger Dagens
Nyheter-Stockholm. 12.11. 1999
Pascal Beausse: www.bmw.com- P. Dejanov S. Heger. blocknotes Nr.17, Winter
99
Olivier Reneau: Le Capital Art-Dejanov & Heger.Beaux-Arts Magazine Nr.
184/Sept. 1999
Joshua Decter: Baby You Can Drive My Car. Kat.: Zeitwenden, Kunstmuseum
Bonn 1999
Barbara Steiner: Collaboration with BMW? Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger.
Kat: After the Wall, Moderna Museet Stockholm 1999
Robyn McKenzie & Claire Firth-Smith: Plamen Dejanov &Swetlana Heger.
Product and Process Like-Art Magazine, Melbourne 9/99
Wolf-Günther Thiel & Milena Nikolova: An Interview with Plamen Dejanov,
Swetlana Heger, and Christiane Zentgraf, director of
BMW Kultur Kommunikation.
Flash Art International May-June1999 (+COVER)
Juliana Engberg: Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger.Kat.. Signs of Life,
International Biennial Melbourne 99
Seung-duk Kim: Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger. Misool Wogal Art
Magazine-Seoul, June/99
Florian Davids: Kunst ohne Scheuklappen. BMW Magazin 2/99
Jennifer Allen: Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger.Artforum May/99
Raimar Stange: Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger bei Mehdi Chouakri.
Kunst-Bulletin 4/99
Midori Kimura: Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger. RyukuTsushin-Tokyo.
April/99
1998
Vincent Pécoil: Dejanov & Heger-(Rappel des circonstances). Kat.:
Compilation, Le Consortium,Dijon 1998
Hans-Dieter Huber: Ekonomi ar natur-Plamen Dejanov &Swetlana Heger.
Paletten 4/98
Jean-Max Colard: Les objets du désir-Dejanov & Heger. Les Inrockuptibles
Nr. 146/98
Jan Winkelmann: Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger.artist Kunstmagazin 3/98
Barbara Steiner: Interorganisationale Systeme-Dejanov & Heger. Kat.:
X-squared, Wiener Secession 1998
Pascal Beausse: Plenty Objects Of Desire-Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger.
Blocknotes Nr. 15/ 98
Barbara Steiner: Interview mit Plamen Dejanov & Swetlana Heger. Kat:
Enter, Kunstmuseum Luzern 1998
Horace Brockington, 2003
