Vesselina Sarieva: Creating new spaces at off-spaces is my passion
On September 29, 2023, a new extremely intriguing cultural point was opened in the Bulgarian capital - DOT Sofia.
Photo: Sarieva Gallery
On September 29, 2023, a new extremely intriguing cultural point was opened in the Bulgarian capital - DOT Sofia. On ul. "Bratya Miladinovi" 46, near the Women's market, the building, designed by IO Architects, brings together a hotel, a restaurant and an art collection, curated by Veselina Sarieva. Her Sarieva / Gallery will regularly do pop-up exhibitions at the unusual place.
Gallerist Veselina Sarieva officially opened the space with the exhibition "HOME" by Stefan Nikolaev. We will learn more about the possibilities offered by the new, unconventional space and the future plans for the gallery from Veselina Sarieva.
First of all I will ask you - what is your vision for DOT Sofia?
Creating new spaces at off-spaces is my passion, places that connect with the environment and build on it in a humane, ethical and aesthetic way. My vision for the DOT Sofia building, which is located on the Women's Market, is exactly that, it is shared by the owners and I support it with my expertise - contemporary art, urban development, community building, communication.
What new will the gallery offer to distinguish itself from other cultural spots in the capital?
Sarieva Gallery has built a name for itself as the most recognizable international Bulgarian gallery, working boldly, fairly and expertly with the most established Bulgarian artists on the professional international art scene. Our main gallery in Plovdiv has attracted over the years the most serious and dedicated collectors and curators from Bulgaria and a number of those from Europe and America. We do curated exhibitions that present new works and current themes, they are not supported by programs, they do not rely on external funding, but develop a collecting and meaningful environment. We will continue to follow this line in our appearances in Sofia, which will be twice a year with exhibitions and at other times as a curated collection.
In this case, collaborating with art collections is important to me. On the one hand I develop the DOT Art Collection and on the other hand I present works from the collections in our exhibitions. So far we have presented three exhibitions at DOT Sofia - the first one was the UNDER DECONSTRUCTION exhibition before the opening of the space in 2021, which had another frame in its conceptual framework, namely that the works I chose were from collections. Then we showed the artists - Lachezar Boyadzhiev, Stella Vassileva, Zoran Georgiev, Pravdoliub Ivanov, Nina Kovacheva, Mihail Mihaylov, Ivan Mudov, Stefan Nikolaev, Nedko Solakov, Kamen Stoyanov and Samuil Stoyanov. The second pre-opening exhibition this September featured Pravdoliub Ivanov's key work for Bulgarian contemporary art, "Transformation Always Takes Time And Energy", 1998, which is also part of the collection, and another - "At the Level of the Eyes", 1998, which is still looking for a home.
Our third exhibition is by Stefan Nikolaev, which is titled "HOME", presents for the first time in Bulgaria new works from his popular series of wrought copper and neon, examining key themes and images for the history of art. The exhibition can be seen until 12 November 2023 and is already enjoying strong visitor and collector interest.
What audience is the programme aimed at? Will you be looking primarily for a young audience?
I wouldn't say we are looking primarily for a young audience, on the contrary - we are looking for audiences from all generations, social and ethnic groups.