Solakov studied mural painting at theArt Academy in Sofia. His work has been seen at shows such as the documenta 12 in Kassel and the 52nd Venice Biennial in 2007; it is also included in many important collections at a number of museums—the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Kunsthaus in Zurich, and at the MMK in Frankfurt, for example.Nedko Solakov’s expansive, sprawling work can hardly be formally defined, and its content is one big assault on the demand for perfection, finality, and definitude. In the past 25 years he has developed an oeuvre that is as humorous as it is playful, as caustic as it is melancholy, while at the same time fundamentally questioning the validity of every kind of representational system.Our Edition Hatje Cantz consists of a section of a wall, painted by the artist, taken from the exhibition Emotions (without masks), at the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt. Emotions (without Masks) was actually supposed to have been the third station in Solakov’s big exhibition tour, but instead, the artist created an entirely new installation. The original works for Emotions remained in their crates, and Solakov came up with an installation that took into consideration the abandoned architecture from the preceding Masks exhibition. With a sense of inventiveness and profound humor, he shifted attention to the elements of shows that are usually almost completely invisible: nails in the display cases, holes drilled in the wall, and shadowy outlines.
