Plamen Dejanoff

Three work complexes from Plamen Dejanoff's exhibition Heritage Project have been donated to the Kunsthaus by the artist. All of them revolve around the theme of the conceptual and modular and are part of a growing large-scale project. Stool sculptures, a concept drawing for the creation of a garden sculpture and the exemplary plant sculptures created for this purpose are among the works that Dejanoff uses in different contexts. Each work can take on both purely aesthetic and concrete functions. All of them refer to his long-term project in Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria).

As part of the UTOPIA NOW! event, they will be brought together in the form of a garden sculpture and inaugurated together with the artist in the Needle. At the same time, the first installation of his sensational gate sculpture The Heritage Project (Entrance Gate), exhibited at the Kunsthaus in 2023, will begin in Veliko Tarnovo as part of his growing living sculpture. To do this, the current gate and its columns from the 1990s must first be carefully dismantled, a large foundation excavated and a new foundation built; 10 huge stones weighing several tonnes made of sandstone and granite (some historical, some new and hand-worked) are fitted together with great precision and then installed on top of each other so that the heavy iron gate can finally be safely put into operation on supporting columns.

The modular sculptures in Kunsthaus Graz are in turn part of the artist's own collection as well as a cross-institutional collection (available on his website) and functional parts of the architecture/sculpture in Veliko Tarnovo (construction site & website). Dejanoff draws a very concrete line between the places and the aspects of representation, function and participation attributed to the art object, which not only complement each other in his works, but can alternately come to the fore.

Heritage Project II connects two places and two institutions through the concept of a modular collection.

Ceremonial inauguration of the donation on 22 May 2024 at 21:00 as part of UTOPIA NOW!