Interview with Gantcho Boyadjiev
for Bulgarian Satellite TV+ about his participation in an art exhibition - auction in Milan,
July 2010
Interview with
Gantcho
Boyadjiev
for Bulgarian
National
Television
Channel 1
about his art
exhibition in
Sofia.
Interview with Gantcho Boyadjiev for "Moviology Magazine"
1.
Gantcho, let's start from the end , to say it in a different
way! Why did you choose to move to Milan as a city to live?
Move to live in
Milan was not exactly a choice I made, but more of a strange
coincidence. Before I moved to Italy , I lived in Paris and in
Aix-en-Provence, then I was in London for a while where I had
found my perfect dimension and I had no intention of moving
anywhere! My parents lived in Milan at that time due to my
father's job : he used to work for an airplane company. The
first time I came to Milan in 1995 , was to visit my parents. I
was immediately enchanted by the city by the way of living , by
the atmosphere, by the culture that embraces you everywhere
around . I fell absolutely in love with the city , but my real
love at first sight was the Opera ! A friend of mine took me to
listen to his exam in an opera-singing school in Milan , there
were also auditions for new singers the same day, so just for
fun I took part in the auditions , and I got accepted in the
school , so I decided to stay and to study opera-singing! Life
is something strange – you never know where it will take
you.....!
2. Now that
You have lived in Milan for 15 years, can I ask you what you
think of the city?
Milan has always
been and will always be a cosmopolitan city. It has always been
a crossroad of cultures and destinies, a city that offers a lot
of opportunity ! It has a special place in my heart even because
it has become my second home! It is true that I have lived in
Milan for more than 15 years , which means that most of my
conscious life has been here. Anyway , Milan is not an easy city
to live in: it is very competitive , which is a real challenge ,
and I like challenges !
3. How did you
discover your vocation to be an artist?
How did I discover
my vocation to be an artist? (a moment of reflection) I think
the answer is in the question! Vocation means the sensitivity
towards a determined life style , that voice you always hear in
your head, that inspires you, that makes you feel always alive,
that makes you wish to transform things , to re-invent them , to
give shape and life to things other people are not able to see.
I believe I have always had it ! The strange thing is that I
have always painted , since I was a child ! I remember an
extremely hilarious episode : when I was a child , I must have
been 5 or 6 , my brother Vasco and I , for the Christmas
celebrations , decided to surprise our parents ( the family
still lived in Sofia at that time) , so we locked ourselves at
home and in one single day we re-designed the wallpaper in all
the rooms! So with the colorful pencils we filled up the
wallpaper surface with airplanes, cars, Christmas trees , reins,
many Santa Clauses, boxes with presents, tons of animals and so
on .... You can imagine that when my parents found out the fact
, they simply wanted to kill us ! Hahaha ! Today everybody in
the family remembers it, and laughs!
4. When I met
you - about 10 years ago - you were trying to combine, to put
together your activity as an artist , with your activity as an
opera singer - working and studying together with world famous
people like Ghena Dimitrova- How did that make you feel?
Well, of course! I
consider myself extremely lucky for having been able to study
for years with Mrs Ghena Dimitrova! I learnt an enormous amount
of things from her! Not only as an opera singer, but mostly as a
person, as a Diva, as a fantastic friend ! She was much more
than a voice teacher for me, we had become very, very good
friends, almost like relatives from the same family. Now I miss
her endlessly....! Communicating with her was a life- lesson!
For everybody else she was the greatest dramatic soprano of all
times! For me she was an extremely humble and generous person,
with enormous talent she wanted to share with everyone! She
changed my way to see the world!
5.
Unfortunately that sad event woke up your artistic skills and
you found yourself in Sofia , exhibiting for big names of the
financial world , and becoming a “celebrity“ – What do you think
about that?
It is true! My Art
Exhibition in Sofia last year , with which Unicredit Bank
inaugurated their brand new East European Office was a beautiful
event ! Totally unexpected! When I received the invitation I
thought it was a joke! Hahaha! The exhibition remained open to
public for two months but the newspapers in Sofia still continue
to write about it! I also had an invitation from Bulgarian
National TV for an interview! But I do not at all consider
myself a “celebrity“ ! I am always the same! It is always me! My
biggest satisfaction was to see that people like my works! After
12 years that I hadn't been to Bulgaria , I discovered that
enormous interest for art there ! After all , the real value of
art is the pleasure it gives! People's appreciation is unpayable
! 6. Now you would like to exhibit again in Italy and especially
in Milan – Why? Italy has been my true inspiration! The
paintings I took to Bulgaria had been all realized in Italy from
1995 to 2004! It was a very prolific period for me! When my dear
friend Ghena Dimitrova passed away I stopped painting! I was so
infinitely sad! I felt dead inside! For four years I did not
touch the oil colors! I thought I did not want to do it ever
again! Something or somebody up there decided for me! I just
woke up! Once again I enjoy painting a lot! I feel stronger! I
would like to start again from the beginning – from Italy! I
would like to share it with everyone – especially with my
friends who always encouraged and supported me!
7. Let's enter
the technical part: some of your oil-paintings look like
illustrations to the " Invisible Cities" by Calvin and hide a
variety of symbols, accessible only for whom has the eye for
that . Is that all made on purpose?
My entire style is
based on symbols ! I would like to melt together meaning and
expression. Harmony and contrast. Dynamic and static, cold and
warm, living and mechanical , spiritual and materialistic. I
would like to give a different key to read the evolution of
shape and color. Everything I do must be a pleasure for me, must
give me passion, it must be curious, magnetic, enigmatic. There
must be always a „Why?“ . It must be at the same time intuitive
and evident. I love numerology a lot and my works are full of
hidden numbers. I would say they are constructed with the
numeric symbols. The meaning is part of our sub-conscience and
is to be decoded. My works are very emotive. I always look for
the equilibrium of the opposites.
8. In this
moment you receive offers from galleries from all around the
world, How does that make you feel?
It is an impossible
to explain sensation. When I paint I feel like i live in a
dream. Now I feel like I have to leave the dream, like I have to
return to reality, I have to deal with organizing, planning,
events, exhibitions, public relations and all the rest. I would
like somebody else to do it instead of me. I would like to go
back to my dream painting. I am full of ideas and I would like
to find more time for painting , painting and painting. This is
my dream: to show others my dreams....the rest is just reality.
.
9. Can you
give me some anticipation? New Ideas? New Projects?
Speaking of events,
I have been proposed an exhibition in Moscow. And I would also
like to take my new 2010 collection to London ! I have a lot of
contacts at the moment! In March I will be in New York to show
some of my works to galleries that manifested interest and also
to finish two painting I had been commissioned last year! Then
we shall see! And to what concerns my new ideas , I am working
on four projects with a very psychological key , which I hope to
finish soon. 10. Istanbul was elected capital of the culture
2010 - and you know that I have a strong bond with that
marvelous city - Do you have any plans yet for the city on two
continents? Istanbul has always appeared very curious ,
interesting and fascinating to me , but unfortunately I have
never been there. I wanted to visit Istanbul in occasion of the
art fair last year, but contemporarily I had my art exhibition
opening in Sofia , in the brand new office of Unicredit Bank ,
so it turned out to be quite impossible for me. I hope I can
visit it this year. It will be enormous pleasure for me to take
my art to Istanbul ! In any case Istanbul is in my future!