MEMORIES VERSUS RECORDS

MEMORIES VERSUS RECORDS?

The series of drawings known as “A House Beyond The World by Kiril Cholakov have their continuity in a sequence of black-and-white photographs. Actually this “continuity” is the original material, the guardian of the story on which later the drawings were created. When Cholakov describes his work “A House Beyond The World”, hesays:
‘The drawings are a kind of freeze frame, souvenir photos, blurry reproductions, in which you are not able to recognize the details. The stories, the languages blend, overlap and in this way they recall the feeling of the grainy structure of the black-and-white photographs. The same effect is found in the long exposure time required by old photographic techniques’.

Whereas, when Cholakov talks about the photographs he says: ‘I consider myself a painter, as it is my education. However photography gives me the opportunity to hunt and fix and file slivers of flash of reality. Following this process fleeting images are grasped which arouse intense feelings. This effect can’t be expressed by painting or drawing languages.’

I find the discrepancy between the value the artist assigns to photography and the fact that it is the first time he has exhibited his shots interesting. The conflict between different artistic means lies here: the original “hand-made” drawing versus the image that is created thanks to the help of technology and can be reproduced endlessly.”The memory loaded with emotions versus the objective record of the photograph.

Leaving aside the issue whether photography could deliver an objective image at all, we see that Kiril Cholakov’s shots are just as personal as are his drawings. And this is not only related to the fact that it is a staged photography. In fact this is not important. What is relevant is that the new set of works is an intense emotional look towards a real melancholic story, which occurred in Bulgaria, the artist’s country of origin, which he left fifteen years ago. Perhaps the decision of leaving answers the question why Kiril Cholakov recurs repeatedly to the theme of the friendship between a man and a stork, every time using different artistic means and techniques. As well as why it is necessary to use a collective tale never witnessed by the artist himself and turn it into a personal memory.

We all belong to a place, a culture, a history – the sociologist Stuart Hall asserts. Our social identity motivates our actions and the awareness of what we are.
The sense of belonging is even more important for those people who have chosen to live in different countries and cultures. At some point in life the desire (conscious or unconscious) to regain contact with the place where we belong becomes very important. Kiril Cholakov’s photographs are the means by which the artist can (again) recreate his memories. The exhibition helps him fix and file and scatter them into slivers which the audience will carry away. The opportunity of photographic reproduction becomes the ideal way to preserve them beyond one’s own life.

In this sense the conflict memories versus records ceases to be of relevance.
Text by Ilina Koralova