ID 2000

1999

Archival pigment prints, 100x100 cm.

“ID 2000 is more than the existing surface structures, it is the reflected reality of a surface-conditioned generation, which has realized the information potential of the surrounding media landscape. Missirkov and Bogdanov took parties in downtown discos and on the rooftops of Sofia as the starting point to mediate the excessive life in big cities, where musicians, artists and party freaks mingle. Looking at the Sofia environment as a backdrop triggers associations with landscape images in the Hollywood area. The painterly gesture of the individual photographs, which almost turns the depicted people into Renaissance icons, not only signifies the perfectly mastered shots, but also the fact that the models are the protagonists of the Sofia art scene, who constantly frequent the city's trendiest events. The glitter and glamour which everybody wants to share, facilitates that those participating in these night-time adventures try to forget the negative aspects of the political and economic transformation by bringing the medially constructed worlds into reality. For Missirkov/Bogdanov it is both: the reality of a (more) democratic (but not always positively connotated) job market as well as the artistic reflection of this development with its necessary abandoning of well-known structures and secure spaces of existence.”

Eva Hodek, Prague House of Photography.