Family Business
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Family Business, 2004
Winnie the Pooh doll, old TV set, handwritten text; dimensions variable.
ev+a 2004 – Imagine Limerick, Limerick
Courtesy ev+a 2004 and the artists

I am not quite sure that I understand my teenage children’s system of values.

I keep trying to keep in touch with the world of our 17-year-old daughter Veselina and our 16-year-old son Dimitar, but, so far, even though we haven’t had serious conflicts or misunderstandings, I can hardly say I can manage it. On the other hand, my wife, as their mother, seems much better at it.

Recently I decided to try to approach the problem from the other way around - to gently force my children into more direct contact with my system of values, which is, no doubt, the proper, the better system compared to theirs. Being an artist nowadays is not easy and the first lesson I had to start with was to show them first hand how hard it is for an artist to participate in an exhibition on the other far edge of Europe, in Ireland. So, I extended the ev+a invitation which had originally been sent to me to my children.

They accepted with relative pleasure and quickly came up with ideas for their works. My son wants an old TV set displayed, switched on, but without any antenna or cable connections, so that  the screen will show that buzzing, snowfall image. The title is “Star Wars.” My daughter, who is a devoted fan of Winnie the Pooh, has her room in Sofia packed with numerous items related to him and his friends. She would like the ev+a organizers in Limerick to purchase the biggest possible Winnie the Pooh doll which her collection lacks because her constantly travelling father never really has the guts to carry such a huge doll back home. She intends to arrange it in a suitable way next to “Star Wars.” And of course, after the exhibition ends the giant bear is to be shipped back to her in Sofia.

Ideally I am not supposed to join them for the installation of their pieces and for the opening of ev+a 2004 Imagine Limerick. They should travel and meet all possible obstacles on their own. But they are after all still small kids and daddy has to be with them, even though it seems they already have a good knowledge of some proper things that, in time, may become proper values once they put them in a system.

Nedko Solakov
February, 2004