Divine Comedy

To The Artworks

solo exhibition by SVETOSLAV KOSEV

with the special participation of SIMEON ZHELEV (calligraphy and handmade books) and ATANAS MARKOV (augmented reality application)

15 December 2021 – 10 January 2022
Opening – Wednesday, 15 December 2021, 6:00 PM

On December 15, 2021 at 6:00 PM in Largo Art Gallery will open an exhibition of graphics with augmented reality "Divine Comedy" by Svetoslav Kosev. The event is realized under the patronage of Mr. Antonio Tarquinio, Honorary Consul of the Italian Republic in Varna and with the financial support of the game studio "Zariba". With this exhibition Largo Gallery will mark the year of Dante. The year 2021 marks the 700th anniversary of the death of the Italian poet Dante Allegieri and the anniversary is celebrated with various cultural events not only in his homeland but also around the world. The exhibition at Largo Gallery will present graphics inspired by Dante's work "Divine Comedy". 16 lithographs are included, eight of which are dedicated to songs from "Hell", five to "Purgatory" and three to "Paradise".

What is special about this exhibition is that we leave the realm of the two- dimensional and move into the three- dimensional space. In fact, each of the works has two states - real, which viewers will be able to see hanging on the walls in the gallery and virtual - which they will be able to see through a special application through their phones or tablets. This became possible thanks to the artist's collaboration with two of his colleagues - Atanas Markov and Simeon Zhelev. The three founded the art group Co-Interaction a few years ago, whose activities are focused on creating projects that involve the use of high-tech tools. Svetoslav Kosev is the engine of the artistic, conceptual and visual part of the projects, the technical and technological part is taken over by Atanas Markov, who is also the artist of the augmented reality application, through which the projects are visualized interactively. The third member of the group Simeon Zhelev is developing calligraphy, and the audience will be able to see his work in the works from the cycle "Divine Comedy". 

For the project Svetoslav Kosev says: "These are works with augmented reality (Augmented reality AR). This is another way to upgrade the model of perception of a graphic image, which in any case has an independent aesthetic presence in the exhibition area, with additional compositional elements. The possibilities that this technology opens up for the visual arts give a new direction in their development, and I believe that augmented reality can change the look of classical art forms. I decided to further develop this idea and combine two seemingly completely opposite means of expression. One of them is based on the classical graphic technique "lithography", and the other on modern three- dimensional graphics. My love for lithography is based on my education in graphics. 3D graphics is something I've been doing since I graduated from university. It has been of interest to me since its inception. Thus arose the idea of ​​weaving several means of expression into a common project, united by the literature. Objects and characters modeled in software for three- dimensional graphics are used as the basis of the works. The graphic prints are interwoven with verses from the literary works they illustrate. Since the models included in the two- dimensional graphic prints are in fact three- dimensional modeled objects, this allows their treatment in a purely digital way. In this way, the same work is presented in several radically different ways. This allows the observer to get a different impression of the same object in a different visual form. "

In the exhibition, the aesthetic effects on the viewer will come from several directions. Each of the selected sixteen songs from Dante's poem, which inspired Kosev, he interpreted on the graphic sheet with the means of classical graphics. We will find interpreted images of the devil, of love in Song 21, of light and hope in Song 20. But each of the images is also presented in a virtual scene, which allows for a different impact. Thus, the plot not only develops and enriches, but also creates in the viewer a full-blooded feeling of the presence of the characters from the works so close that it is as if they can be touched.

The augmented reality in the graphics of Svetoslav Kosev can also be seen on the computer screens by anyone who downloaded to his phone the application created by Atanas Markov here: www.co-interaction.com/co-interaction/app and scans through it the photos of the works on the website of Largo Art Gallery. We will be expecting you at the opening with the participation of the three artists on December 15, 2021 at 6:00 PM in Largo Art Gallery, Varna- 8 Han Krum Street. The exhibition runs until January 10, 2022.

Nelly Valcheva, Director