ACTION / REACTION / WOR(L)D

ACTION / REACTION / WOR(L)D

Exhibition by Strahil Petrovski 

Curated by Maja Cankulovska – Mihajlovska

Reception for the Artist on Sunday, January 5th from 6 to 8 pm

ACTION / REACTION / WOR(L)D

The multidisciplinary project “ACTION / REACTION / WOR(L)D” of Macedonian artist Strahil Petrovski initiates a dialogue that refers to the essence of personal existence, thus attributing to the author the role of an engaged critic of the reality of contemporary society. The project is devised as means to achieve synergy of the experiments through the use of various media, discourses, narratives and contexts that function as separate parts of his own intimate “story”, but also jointly as a cycle that offers a sublimed image of the author’s attitude towards the existing dehumanized society. Through the complex layers of universal meanings, which are tendencies that have existed since his previous visual projects, he presents his personal position on the impact of collective and primarily personal responsibility (lost in the labyrinth of the dynamic and confusing technological present burdened by the informational chaos).

The quest for personhood that is not invisible, but that clearly represents its stands, needs, fears is marked through the use of the codes of universal urban consumerist reasoning. In this case, the “conversation” with himself, with the Other One and among the Others is presented in a cartoon-like (subcultural) form, while the contents of the words (which are most often loaded and critical – angry, lost, idiot, scared, mad…) are printed on readymade and purchased illuminated objects (speech bubbles) that are used for “discussion” and refer to the personal and identity issues related to different genders. The confrontation with himself and the relations with the Other One in physical and spiritual sense are especially important for the author. On the other hand, his active critical approach is conveyed on the canvas (the flags) that contains different piled-up personal and universal writings and messages written/drawn in the form of graffiti, slogans, textual inscriptions, calligraphic signs, letters and the like.

The conceptual summary of this introspection/reflection of the mute/invisible/anonymous subject takes place through black-and-white photographs, but also by alternating the “audible” and “mute” metaphysical traces of the present narration to the level of repetitive ritual spirituality in the form of an echo in the textual and audio recording (“Anonymous”) and the frustrating quest that is completed in the videos entitled “Muted” and “Personal Madness”.

The crucial points in Strahil Petrovski’s pieces of art are his wish to reexamine the core civilizational values and creative principles of our existence (the ontological aspect of us as human beings), creation and freedom as opposed to self-destruction and the need to channel the subjective reactions caused by the negative reflections of the turbulent decades-long crises, distorted values, unscrupulousness, times of constant fear and destruction of all kinds and the devastating chaos that is almost always irreversible.

Through his engaged and also contemplated humanistic approach to urban anthropology, Petrovski does not aspire to present visual representations that would offer interpretations or solutions to the problems, but he believes that these will generate even more questions about the problems of personal consciousness and conscience today.

Maja Chankulovska – Mihajlovska

curator 

S T R A H I L  P E T R O V S K I

Strahil Petrovski was born in Kumanovo, the Republic of Macedonia, in 1974 and he is a representative of the middle generation of visual and multimedia artists. In 1997 he graduated from the Skopje Faculty of Fine Arts at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University under the mentorship of full-time Professor Rodoljub Anastasov. In 2000 he completed his postgraduate studies at the same faculty and with the same mentor. In 2000-2002 he worked as a visiting scholar-demonstrator at the Skopje Faculty of Fine Arts for the subject of art technology and art techniques in the class of Professor Momchilo Petrovski and Professor Velo Tashovski, while in 2002-2010 he worked as a part-time visiting scholar-conservator at the Laboratory for Conservation and Restauration of Icons at the National Conservatory Center in Skopje. He took part in his first scientific research project dubbed “Brestal” under the mentorship of Professor Momchilo Petrovski at the Skopje Faculty of Fine Arts. His art consists of a number of forms and expression methods, such as paintings, installations, conceptual art, photography and video art.  Over the past few years, Petrovski has been using topics related to existentialism and social-political affairs as a form of post-conceptual discourse, as well as deep esthetic solutions like a matter of formalist interest. Many of his artworks are part of public or private art collections and can also be found in museums and galleries both in his home country and abroad.

He has been a member of the Association of Artists in Macedonia – DLUM since 1997, a member of the International Council of Monuments and Sites – ICOMOS in 2001-2007 and a member of the International Council of Museums – ICOM since 2011. He is currently working as an Аssociate conservator-restorer at the National Conservation Center in Skopje, and Assistant Professor of Photography and Multimedia at the Faculty of Art and Design at European University, Skopje.

Contact information:

address: Mosha Pijade 14/7, Kumanovo, R. Macedonia

tel.: ++389 70 24 63 33

е-mail: strahil.petrovski@yahoo.com, strahil-petrovski@hotmail.com

web: www.artmajeur.com/strahil-petrovski; www.saatchiart.com/strahil74

Solo exhibitions:

2020  New York,(USA), “ACTION / REACTON / WOR(L)D”, Gallery MC, New York  

2019  Skopje, “Echoes of the Future”, National Gallery of the Republic of North Macedonia, Multimedia Center Mala Stanica

2018      Belgrade (Serbia), “SCHISM” (Society, Culture, History, Identity, Sequence, Masks), Gallery 73

• Paris (France), “Urban Echoes”, Embassy of the Republic of Macedonia in France, (Cité internationale des arts)
• Kumanovo, “All the Colors of Jazz 2018” (art performance), Art Gallery – Kumanovo Museum

2017  Kumanovo, “Identities II”, Art Gallery – Kumanovo Museum

• Tetovo, “The Language of the Wall”, Star Amam – Tetovo

2016      Skopje, “Identities”, Macedonian National Gallery, Chifte Amam

2003      Ohrid, “Messages, Records, Memories”, House of Robevci

2002      Vienna (Austria), “Messages, Records, Memories”, Lang Gallery

2001      Skopje, “Intimate Records”, Cultural Information Center

• Skopje, “The End of a Century – Order/Chaos, Chaos/Order”, Museum of the City of Skopje

1997      Kumanovo, Paintings and drawings, Art Gallery – Kumanovo Museum

He has taken part in more than 70 group shows, art colonies, symposiums and seminars in Macedonia and abroad, such as, in Skopje (1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2017 and 2019), in Ohrid (2017), in Negotino (1995), in Tetovo (1995), in Kumanovo (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018), in Shtip (1999, 2000, 2001); in Samothraki, Greece (1999, 2001), in Gornji Milanovac, Serbia (2000), in Rijeka, Croatia (2001), in Veles (2001, 2002), in Bulgaria (2017), in Pohorje, Slovenia (2001), in Vienna, Austria (2002), in New York, United States (2003, 2005), in Urbino, Italy (2018) and in Malaysia (2018).

Awards:

1997     Skopje, a Certificate of Acknowledgement from the SIAB 97 international jury, Museum of the City of Skopje

1999     Skopje, a monetary award of the National and University Library – NUB St. Clement of Ohrid, DLUM – Drawing ‘98

2000 Skopje, the Dimitar Kondovski Art Award, DLUM 47, annual non-competitive exhibition, Museum of the City of Skopje

2002     Skopje, the Konstantin Mazev – Koce Art Award, Macedonian small-size artworks, Cultural-Information Center

2018 Macedonia, Kumanovo, the 11th November Award of the Kumanovo Municipality for accomplishments in contemporary art.