SELF-FORMING STRUCTURE IN FLUX

Dan Tenev

1 - 16 July 2025

The exhibition at Doza Gallery follows a series of presentations in notable art spaces across the country, showcasing variable structures that form within a particular space and context, along with sketches related to them. Defined as a self-forming structure in flux, the work installed at Doza is a living piece - a plastic experiment that began in 1996 and continues to evolve to this day.

The structure’s most recent installation dimensions originate from Art Gallery Ruse at the end of 2024. It measures approximately 9 by 6 meters - an air reservoir contained in lightweight polyethylene, shaped according to the specifics of the interior space and volume using tape. The simple and lightweight materials are a deliberate choice, shifting the focus away from aesthetics and art-making toward the relationships between structures, their physicality, and the grip of contemplation that reverberates in each viewer. To me, it is the recovery of the possibility to dream. However, it allows for multiple layers and inclinations of interpretation and meditation, as it is simultaneously a phenomenon and an artwork. Ironically, the exhibition bears the name of this work and phenomenon in reverse. It rejects authorship and gently misleads the viewer into believing that the structure self-forms - both here and universally.

The text for the Art Gallery Ruse exhibition was written by Yanitsa Fendulova and provides a comprehensive context for Dan Tenev’s practice with polyethylene, tape, and air.

Yovo Panchev

Yanitsa Fendulova Text

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Dan Tenev (b. 1958, Merichleri) works across drawing, sculpture, artistic actions, installations, and land art. He has been active in the organized art scene in Bulgaria since 1983. He held his first solo exhibitions with drawings and collages in Dimitrovgrad in 1988 and three solo shows in 1992 in Achern and Karlsruhe, Germany. Since the 1990s, his practice has shifted toward sculpture, artistic actions, installations, and land art. Dan Tenev took part in Bulgaria’s first contemporary art festivals “Process-Space” (1994) and “Sofia Underground” (1997). He initiated, organized (as part of a collective), and participated in several editions of the contemporary art festival “In Its Own Context” in Dimitrovgrad (1996). Dan Tenev has held over 20 solo exhibitions in gallery spaces and has taken part in numerous group exhibitions with actions and installations both indoors and outdoors. He has also participated in various curatorial projects in Bulgaria and abroad. From 2010 to 2014, he created large-scale land art projects in the area around Dimitrovgrad. His works are part of the collections of the City Art Galleries in Sofia, Dimitrovgrad, and Dobrich, as well as of private collectors. Dan Tenev lives and works in Dimitrovgrad.