Vitto Valentinov

The exhibition thematizes transformation, the process of reorganization, metamorphosis, merger, refinement, and transition. It explores changes of form, state, matter, energy, and force, the process of turning one thing into another. The object of this transformation that could be interpreted both creatively and destructively is the snake’s body.

Several forms of transformation are visualized, in which the snake’s body is materially altered, but imbued with symbolic meanings. We see a snake that has swallowed bodies. The assimilation of those signifies the absorption of strength and knowledge, a welcoming of inner content. In another drawing, the body crystallizes, with crystallization presented as a form of enchantment, and enchantment as a manifestation of transformation. In another exhibit, the snake as a representative of underworld forces is touched by a meteorite and turns to stone, losing its vitality upon contact with the cold celestial metal. In another composition, the snake appears in the symbolic sense of an alchemical vessel – it envelops, unites, contains, and transforms. In one of the drawings, light turns into matter and matter into light. Transformation is a path of change and renewal, of gaining experience and knowledge.

Space, matter, and energy are expressed in the drawings through a specific language. Gridded fields host a geometric mise-en-scène of colorful or monochrome actions. Matter is sometimes dense, but often alternates with empty space, thus charging the drawings with vibrating energy. Optically, the drawings pulsate in a rhythm of alternating emptiness and density, playing with the viewer’s eye. The presence of forms is at times visible, at times fading into space.

In terms of plasticity, the exhibition unites monumental and delicate, dynamic and static, empty and dense, archaic and futuristic. It connects ornamental with minimalist, heavy with light, colorful with monochrome, rhythm with asynchrony, and structure with arbitrariness. The works speak a symbolic language, and their aura is magical.

WORK TITLES:
1 Snake Assimilates Knowledge
2 Crystallizing Body
3 Meteorite and Snake - Cold Iron Petrifies a Snake
4 Hunters
5 Chemical Defense - Snake Fangs with Drops of Venom and Blood
6 Transformation
7 Decomposition
8 Light Becomes Body, Body Becomes Light
9 Alchemical Secret
10 Snake Encircling Three Dangerous Substances
11 Snake Swallowed a Heavy Body
12 Snake and Crystals - Fusion