site.btaBulgarian Cultural Institute in Vienna Hosts Exhibition by Houben Tcherkelov

An exhibition, “WERTWECHSEL”(Change of Value), by artist Houben Tcherkelov will open on Thursday at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Vienna.

A selection of works by Houben Tcherkelov will be presented in the Austrian capital, featuring images and symbols from Bulgarian and international banknotes.

Cultural historian Yakim Petrov will introduce the artist and the central themes in his work: currency, the imagery associated with it, and culture as a continuous exchange.

As part of the event, Tcherkelov will also carry out his social art experiment “Treasure” for the first time outside Bulgaria.

“Do you have Bulgarian leva or stotinki? Bring them to the opening! Tcherkelov invites you to exchange them for a limited series of his own ‘monetary signs,’” the Bulgarian Cultural Institute said.

A trio of Bulgarian musicians, Alexander and Konstantin Wladigeroff, and Michel Nahabedian, will perform at the opening.

The exhibition will be on display from April 17 to June 2 at the Parterre Gallery of the Wittgenstein House.

Houben Tcherkelov was born in Kardzhali in 1970. He graduated from the National Academy of Arts. In the mid-1990s, he was part of the artistic circle “XXL,” formed around the gallery of the same name in Sofia. After 2000, he has lived and worked in New York.

“I am interested in the relation between power and images. This is most clearly expressed through currency. I have been working on this theme for more than 20 years. I find it interesting to make people look more closely at what they have in their pockets, but through the lens of art,” Houben Tcherkelov previously commented for BTA’s BG World section.

He defines his homeland as “a set of relations between people rather than geography.”