THE NINTH EDITION OF THE MASTER OF ART FILM FESTIVAL STARTS
For the ninth year, the Master of Art Documentary Film Festival will gather connoisseurs of various genres, and the State Cultural Institute is once again an institutional partner and supports the new film about the great artist Altsek Mishev, which is an opening event. On February 9, at 7:00 p.m., the premiere of the documentary film by director Maria Averina "To fly with fins", written by journalist Mariana Svetoslavova, will take place at the Lumiere cinema.
"Flying with Fins" is a film about the constant search for meaning in art and life. Artist Alcek Mishev, rebel and experimenter, leads us on this philosophical and aesthetic journey through time, space and ideas. Paintings, performances, experiments, electronic music sounding in the spaces of two old houses in a small Italian town, heated conversations about contemporary art, touching meetings with the closest people and places in Bulgaria after 50 years of separation...
Alcek Mishev was born in 1940 in Dupnitsa. He is the heir of an old painting family - his great-grandfather Ivan Zografski was one of the artists who painted and restored the Rila Monastery in the 19th century. He graduated in painting from the National Art Academy in 1966. Altsek Mishev began his creative journey in the 1960s in communist Bulgaria, when he became fascinated by abstractionism, which for him was a symbol of freedom at the time. Bold in his creative pursuits and striving for wider horizons, in 1971 the artist made the radical decision to leave Bulgaria forever. Ending up in Italy, he dives into the new for him territory of performances, succeeding in becoming one of the brightest representatives of performative art in the 70s and 80s. Because of the famous performance "Swimming the Atlantic Ocean" (1979 - 1982), his biography is embellished with the rumor that he escaped from the then regime by swimming and is shaped into a myth of the heroic artist who undertook the impossible in the name of creative freedom. Self-deprecating, brave, looking for challenges, as early as 1976 in the book "Europe - America - the different avant-gardes" by Achile Bonito Oliva, presenting the most influential 30 European and 30 American artists, only Altsek Mishev and Christo were included among the Bulgarian artists.
In the Art Fund of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs there is a painting by Altsek Mishev, donated by him personally in 2021 at a special meeting between him and the director of the State Cultural Institute Snezhana Joveva in Milan, which work is included in the collective representative exhibition "Diplomacy and Art" and has been exhibited until now in national museums and galleries in Skopje, Sarajevo, Cetinje, Tirana, etc. (https://www.mfa.bg/bg/culture/news/2375)
It is curious that the vision of the 9th edition of the Festival is in the color of the year - a gentle and nourishing peach shade that serves as a reminder to slow down and take care of ourselves and each other, against the background of global conflicts and endless sources of stress. The name of the romantic color reflects the palpable sensuality associated with the shade: velvety peaches, soft marabou feathers and smooth vintage satins and silks are all we imagine when we think of the combination of pink and orange.
You can follow the entire rich program of documentaries in the field of art from the Master of Art Festival on the page - https://masterofartfilmfestival.com/bg/