Gantcho Boyadjiev
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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!

Giacomo Momo Gallina

 


Copyright  © 2010 Gantcho Boyadjiev