site.btaMultidisciplinary Exhibition Imagines Life After Civilizational and Ecological Collapse

A multidisciplinary art installation by Dimitar Solakov explores the fate of humanity in a future shaped by civilizational and environmental collapse. It is the focus of the exhibition Wasteland, which will open at the Credo Bonum Gallery in Sofia on April 8, to run until May 8, the hosts said on Tuesday.

In a description of the exhibition, the gallery says: "This is a world in which humanity has been erased, leaving behind only the continuation of its own technological achievements. At the centre of the exhibition stands the figure of the 'last human', a recurring anthropomorphic motif representing the last being, still capable of guilt, prayer, suffering and hope. It is precisely this residual humanity that distinguishes him from the surrounding world, yet it does not give him the power to alter the ultimate outcome. He remains merely a witness. The Earth is a barren landscape. The human figure embraces a dead tree or stretches its arms towards the sky, a gesture of mourning for nature and an appeal to something beyond it."

The hosts note: "The space also includes spherical autonomous robots, presented as an image of artificial intelligence and a possible successor to humanity. They respond to a sound environment composed of wind, low-frequency tones and fragments of human voices, creating a sense of absence and of a presence that has passed."

According to the gallery, in this possible future, technology no longer needs humanity and begins its own form of existence, beyond human control and logic.

Dimitar Solakov was born in 1987 and graduated from New Bulgarian University in 2011. In his work, he uses photography, video, drawing, painting and 3D-printed objects. His projects explore the relationship between nature, urbanization and humanity, and themes related to climate change and the future of the human species. The artist has contributed to numerous international exhibitions, including projects at Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Biennale of Sydney and PHotoEspana, and has held solo exhibitions in Bulgaria and abroad.