When Ivan Moudov announced the opening of a Bulgarian museum of contemporary art in a Sofia train station hall in 2005, 200 guests came – and waited in vain. Moudov had merely claimed the event to point out the lack of such an institution. In a humorous way, the artist negotiates social, but above all cultural-political conditions in his works. He repeatedly makes the system of the art business, the lack of support structures, and the lack of institutionalization of contemporary art in Bulgaria his subject. He also takes up the regulation of public space in his works – for example, in his performances as a traffic controller or permanent passenger in a traffic circle, he throws the entire city traffic into chaos. In the former mourning hall at Bochum's central cemetery, Moudov opened the Bulgarian national pavilion – which, with a few exceptions, was never represented there - at the same time as the Venice Biennale.
Ivan Moudov [*1975] lives in Sofia.
