AM
c o n t e m p o r a r y
About:
The CultureInstitut AM contemporary
is a platform for contemporary art, video and documentary production. The activities include organizing of art exhibitions and film or performance festivals, as well aspresentations by artists and authors.
AM contemporary focuses on the international exchange of artists from Eastern and Western Europe.
AM contemporary was founded in 2009 by Albena Mihaylova as a result of numerous cultural events organized by her from the 90s to present day. The artist's studio in Basel is the headquarters where the projects are born and go on the path of realization. AM Contemporary works with guest curators and collaborates with a large number of cultural organizations and exhibition spaces.
Activities:
CINEMA-Book, 70th Edition
Archive
REINHARD MANZ
by Albena Mihaylova
Reinhard Manz paved the way for video art, created unique works and trained countless followers - his students.
The 70th edition of the Cinema Yearbook dedicates 22 pages to Reinhard Manz with images of his first groundbreaking video actions.
I had the honor and the pleasure of collaborating on this image and text contribution.
Many thanks to Anna D. Alessi from Cinema Yearbook for the invitation.
The Cinema-book will be presented and distributed at the 60th edition of the Solothurn Film Festival January 22-29,2025
See more: PDF
DONAU/RAUSCHEN – TRANSIT & ECHO
Film documentation by REINHARD MANZ
/in memoriam 1951–2022/
DONAU/RAUSCHEN - TRANSIT & ECHO (2021/2022) is the last film work by Reinhard Manz. It documents the sound action of Daniel Ott and
Enrico Stolzenburg, performed in October 2021 along the streets of Donaueschingen at the source of the Danube. The film combines the sound action of 200 musicians
from all Danube countries with impressive landscape photos of the Danube between the Black Forest and the Black Sea.
Music clubs and institutions involved:
Donaueschinger Music Days, Aufen Music Association, Musikverein Grüningen, Musikapelle Neudingen, Pfohren fire brigade band, Donaueschingen town music, including Basel University of Music FHNW (Marcus Weiss saxophone class, Christian Dierstein drums class), Bern University of the Arts HKB and Freiburg University of Music (accordion class Teodoro Anzellotti),Theater Basel (costume collection) and others.
BASLER PREMIERE in Stadtkino BaselTUESDAY April 16, 2024 6:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.
with aperitif at 7:00 p.m
Personal Structure Closing Ceremony
On November 26, in Palazzo Michiel, Venice, took place the Public Screening program, starting with two special films - the documentary DISTANCIA, 75 min, by Albena Mihaylova and the film portrait Albert Scopin, 30 min, by Reinhard Manz.
On November 27, in Palazzo Mora, Venice, took place the ECC Award Ceremony, concluded at the 7-month exhibition Personal Structures - Reflections, Art Biennale Venice, 2022.
Albert Scopin, one of the artists presented by AM contemporary, was selected for a special mentioned under the category Sculpture and Installation.
I/we am very excited and grateful to the organizers for their correctness, professional work and wonderful relations.
Thank you Sara, thank you Katerina, thank you Lucia and Britt, thank you all ECC-team!
See more: PDF
Video DEPARTURES_ARRIVALS, 30 min
Here you will find a Video conversation with Iliyana Nedkova, art curator, and Dina Iordanova, professor of film history, regarding two works by Albena Mihaylova Bendji at the Personal Structures exhibition and the Public Screening program on November 26, 2022, 11 a.m., in Palazzo Michiel, Venice, part of the closing week 59th Arte Biennale.
Click on to run the Video DEPARTURES_ARRIVALS, 30min: Link
To view all Public Screening program | Personal Structures: Link
59th Venice Art Biennale 2022
AM contemporary on Public Screenings | Personal Structures
The European Cultural Centre (ECC) is delighted to organise the first cycle of Personal Structures | Public Screenings, an exclusive screening event presenting videos and films by selected participants of the Personal Structures exhibition 2022
The screening event will take place in Palazzo Michiel on Saturday, 26th of November, 2022. Two special film previews will open the screening day from 11:00 to 13:00. The event will continue from 16:00 to 19:00 presenting a selection of short films.
The program is co-curated by the ECC team in collaboration with a committee of professionals from the photography and film festival industry, who selected the videos from an Open Call under three topics: Self-reflections, New ecologies – Back to the Roots, Social Panorama. The committee was formed by Elena Volpato (Photography Curator of ECC), Joaquin Ingacio Gomez (Producer and Director of ONA Film Festival), and Giulia Costa (Television Development Executive).
Morning Program 11:00 to 13:00
I. DISTANCIA (75m min.)
by Albena Mihaylova
The documentary DISTANCIA tells a story of arrivals and departures which tear a family apart. Father and son collide across the ideological divide of Soviet and Western power politics of 1968. The hopes of the young man for a future of freedom shatter. As an act of protest, he commits suicide. Torn by feelings of guilt, the father dies from denial and dementia. Fifty years later, mother and daughter meet in an attempt to smash the wall of distance and taboo. Would they unearth the true reason for the departures of their father and son?
II. Albert Scopin (30 min.)
by Reinhard Manz
Drawing brings the artist Albert Scopin into a flow, which allows him to express the painful experiences of his childhood. Art becomes a means of overcoming pain and presenting it universally. The inner liberation was the drive for his work since his residence in the art scene of the 1970s in New York. His latest work with the material asphalt take a stand on the relationship between man and nature.
www.personalstructures.com/events/
Albert Scopin: SCHWARZES LICHT
Exhibition in Bayerisches Nationalmuseum
Openning: October 28, 2022
Albert Scopin, born in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1943, has turned to a rather unusual material since 2012 after a creative period characterised by film, photography and painting in New York, Hamburg and Frankfurt a. M.: asphalt. For a good ten years now, he has been creating two- and three-dimensional works of strong presence and expressiveness from and with it.
www.bayerisches-nationalmuseum.de
12 Chairs
I Never Read, Art Book Fair Basel 2022
June 16, 6:30 pm, Kaserne Basel
Performance by Albena Mihaylova-Bendji with Eliza Riva
Based on the novel "Twelve Chairs" by Ilf and Petrov, 1928
The performance refers to the novel by Ilf and Petrov "Twelve Chairs". With a simple arrangement of 12 chairs, my performance breaks through the hierarchical order and creates chaos that calls political apparatuses into question. In the novel, diamonds are hidden in the chairs. In the performance they are replaced by words on white sheets.
I chose this theme for my performance because the novel's plot takes place in Ukrainian cities and provoked by the image of an old woman who protested in Moscow with a white sheet and was arrested because of it.
I Never Read, Art Book Fair Basel 2022
June 15 — 18, 2022
Kaserne Basel
Klybeckstrasse 1b
CH–4057 Basel
Opening reception Wednesday 18:00 – 22:00
Thursday and Friday 15:00 – 21:00
Saturday 12:00 – 18:00
Entry is free and open to everyone
Radio Program I Never Read
Performance
«12 Chairs», 30 min
Based on the novel by Ilf and Petrov «Twelve Chairs», 1928
by Albena Mihaylova-Bendji with Eliza Riva
16. June, 2022,6:30 pm
BANG BANG
Translocal hi:stories of performance art
An exhibition project by Revolving Histories/Performance Chronik Basel and Museum Tinguely
8 June – 21 August 2022
Art Biennial Venice 2022
Exhibition Personal Structures
Palazzo Mora, Giardini della Marinaressa
April 23rd - November 27th 2022
Participants: Albert Scopin, Albena Mihaylova, Peter Gospodinov
https://ecc-italy.eu/exhibitions/2022art
SPARKS OF IMAGINATION:
on the Frequencies of Beuys
10/02/2022 - 21/04/2022
Kvadrat 500 National Gallery Sofia
Curator: Vera Mlechevska
Participants: Adelina Popnedeleva, Albena Mihaylova, Alexander Valchev, Veselin Dimov, Vladimir Ivanov, Georgi Ruzhev, Gradat Group, Dobromir Ivan, Art in Action Association, Ivo Dimchev, Kamen Stoyanov, Lyuben Farzulev, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Monika Popova, Miryana Todorova, Orlin Dvoryanov, Pravdoliub Ivanov, RAB Group, Sasho Stoitszov, Stanislav Pamukchiev, Stefan Nikolaev, Stanka Tsonkova – Usha, and Tsvetan Krastev, among others.
https://nationalgallery.bg/exhibitions/
https://www.goethe.de/ins/bg/de/
Catalogue Women on the Edge
AM Contemporary appears with its first comprehensive edition - the catalog of the art collective Women on the Edge, translated into English by the excellent curator Iliana Nedkova, active in Edinburgh. From January 2022 here you will be able to get acquainted with the contents of the catalog as PDF.
See more:
OUR OTHER US
Art Encounters Biennial
ISHO House
46C Take Ionescu Blvd.
Timișoara, Romania
Friday, 01 October - Sunday, 07 November 2021
Under the title of Our Other Us, The 2021 edition of the Art Encounters Biennial will focus on the various types of cohabitation that we can project, apprehend and put into practice nowadays, while simultaneously concentrating on the transformations and drifts that influence the act of self-perception, be it individual or collective. This year’s Biennial is heavily influenced by the reflections and the projections that we all build in relation to ourselves and the Other, to boundaries and distances, to proximities and contacts, to the inward and the outward, and contemporary art is the most faithful reflection of all these dynamics. The Biennial will comprise a range of distinct components that will complement two curatorial projects proposed by Mihnea Mircan and Kasia Redzisz and will strengthen the collaborations and institutional partnerships that have been built over the past few years, enriching them with new sources of support and dialogue. Link >>>
MASISTERS. Healthy Mind Healthy Body
Exhibition - Performance - Video
Oct 29 - Nov 8, 2021
EDGE Women Group
Albena Mihaylova-Bendji
Veneta Marinova
Monika Romenska
Nadia Genova
Through this performative exhibition with video projections, the group «Women on the Edge» ask questions and look for visual answers. The title of the project unites, but also opposes the concepts of Body and Mind through the repetition of the word Healthy. Where is the home of our Mind, and can it be placed in isolation from external factors? The «Women of the Edge» remain in a creative, working phase, despite the global stupor.
In the exhibition «MASISTERS. Healthy Mind Healthy Body» they analyze their existence, reflect the social environment and the global situation. Healthy mind, healthy body is the motto of their work process.
The current appearance of the group Edge Women is a wink at the emblematic poster of the illustrator J. Howard Miller from 1942 - Rosie, The Riveter, which became an icon of the feminist movement.
The project is supported by Municipal Foundation "Plovdiv 2019" and is part of the LEGACY programme of Plovdiv - European Capital of Culture 2019
DEHNBARKEIT
A project by Culturinstitut AM contemporary and Wildwuchsfestival Basel as a guest
in Kasko Basel, www.kasko.ch
The Scape of Sound
May 14 - 15 2021 / 18h & 19.30h
Concert: Junghae Lee: Theremin, Marie-Cecile Reber: Live electronics For listening, watching and taking part In the concert “The Scape of Sound” the audience encounters a “Sonic Meditation” by Pauline Oliveros, as well as a visual representation of sound through the theremin and live electronics. The audience is invited to take part in the Sonic Meditation at the beginning in order to sensitize their perception through «deep listening». This is followed by music that develops further as a spatial sound through live electronic transformation, be it through theremin sounds controlled by hand gestures, or be it through fine noise sounds created by an object game.
Networks
May 20-22 2021 / Thu-Fri: 16-20h, Sa 14-20h Process workplace: Albena Mihaylova
The artist loads and unloads the space with elastic bands, ties, catches and places endpoints. The concept of their open “networking” embeds the idea that the network connects us, but also encompasses us. Everyone can join the work process. Welcome to the net!
Between sending and receiving
May 27–31 2021 Opening: May 27 from 4 p.m.
Thu & Fri | 4–8 pm, Sat & Sun | 14-20h
Women* in exchange Exhibition, participatory installation as part of the Wildwuchs Festival Basel:
Soumaya Batache & Isabel Raufenlin
In this project, the two artists and art educators created encounters between unknown women* on the subject of feminism. For several weeks they received parcels home regularly. It contained material and suggestions that invited artistic work and research. In this way, a lively mutual exchange has arisen about different experiences, personal stories, dreams and memories. A collective archive of artistic works that also invites visitors to join in and share their own stories.
UnReality
Exhibition
Festival Art Positive, organized by Art Today Plovdiv March 17. – April 18. 2021
Video Installation by Albena Mihaylova Bendji
http://www.arttoday.org/site/news
Fiktive Biografien
Ausstellung, Videoinstallation
Albena Mihaylova
13.11.2020 – 6.12.2020
Kaskadenkondensator
Raum für aktuelle Kunst und Performance, Warteck PP Burgweg 7, 4058 Basel
Eröffnung: Do 12.11.2020 um 18h
Öffnungszeiten: Do–Fr 16–19h/Sa–So 14–19h
FOOD #2 – between advertising, art, consumption and the crisis
16 September - 31 October 2020
20 videos from the following 19 artists or artist groups:
Paul Birchall, Sergey Bratkov, Dmitry Bulnygin, Lia Anna Hennig, Bernadette Huber, Ana
Hušman, Ji Su Kang-Gatto, Andreas Kressig, Biørn Melhus und Anne Maar, Alexandra
Meyer, Albena Mihaylova-Manz, Alexandra Mitlyanskaya, Shae Myles, Leah Netsky, Laure
Prouvost, Martina Wolf, Ezra Wube and Gyonyoung Yoon
Selected by the Baltic Branch of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (Kaliningrad, Russia),Igor Grubic (artist, Zagreb, Croatia) and the videocity.bs team.
A cooperation between Andrea Domesle, Congress Center Basel, the media library FHNW Academy of Art and Design and Pro Innerstadt Basel.
Daily from 08:00 am to 24:00 20 videos without sound will be shown on the eBoard of the
Congress Center Basel at Messeplatz 21 near the Swissôtel Le Plaza.
WATER TOWER Art Fest
Residency ONLINE
September 7-15, 2020
Mentors and guests with presentations:
Bill Aichison (USA / China), Gary Hill(USA), Albena Mihaylova-Bendji (Switzerland / Bulgaria), Daisuke Takeya (Japan / Canada), Prerana Reddy (USA), Qing Cai (China/USA)
In times of post pandemic situation and social distancing we are opening platform for exchange and development of ideas surrounding our everyday strange life since the start of Lockdown.
Some possible variations of themes to work on during residency:
A study of relationships and connections in the new everyday life, in which the physical element is subtracted from the equation.
Where do the boundaries of the individual and the collective consciousness shift when there is no physical boundary and / or interaction (ie the infinite online space)
How cultural heritage is formed without a physical aspect.
The aim of the residency with mentor program is not to finalize a complete art product, but rather define creative ways of dealing with the new situation after the lock-down and its personal and social repercussions.
Graphics Now
Group exhibition of selected graphic works by 19 authors.
Curator: Monica Romenska
19 Junе – 29 August 2020
Albena Mihaylova-Bendji presents in the exhibition Graphic Nowseven monumental graphic works, hand-printed.Kapana Gallery, Rayko Daskalov 29, Plovdiv
Three of Life
Genealogies of Bulgarian contemporary art Exhibition / Second Edition
9 July – 31 July2020
Mariela Gemisheva, Albena Mihaylova, Liliana Karadzhova, Nenko Atanasov
Curator Gergana Mudova
The exhibition presents works by four Bulgarian artists from different artistic genres andgroups, who, in addition to being artists, are distinguished experts in history and artcriticism. Using techniques and media typical of their respective fields – video art anddocuments, posters, photography, fashion, etc. – they have visualised and textualised aspecific period of Bulgarian art by each creating their own take on a “pedigree tree”. Theirresearch is based on historical facts that have then been refracted through personalexperience and participation in historical processes.
One Gallery
14 Ivan Vasov, Sofia (BG)
Der innere Spiegel
11. Juni – 3. Juli 2020
Peter Gospodinov
Gallery Muri-ART
Belpstrasse 6, 3074 Muri bei Bern (CH)
12 era - defining artworks that trace shiftings perspectives in modern Bulgaria
4 June 2020
Overview of Bulgaria’s modern art history from before, during and after the political transition of 1989.
Curator Vesselina Sarieva for The Calvert Journal: Link
Old Devils
On-line Laboratory. An international conversation about women, ageing and radicalism.3 / 4 June 2020 Albena Mihaylova - Bendji, video and performance artist with a great experience, is one of the selected four artists from Switzerland. The project was developed by Wildwuchs Festival (Switzerland) and SICK! Festival (UK), and funded by Pro Helvetia.Old Devils brings together women who are associated with radical changes in culture and society in the 1960s, 70s and 80s in the UK and Switzerland. Working towards possible new performance presentation at our festivals in 2021 (Basel) and 2022 (Manchester), artists from the UK and Switzerland will explore the role of protest, activism, sub-cultural movements, the arts and loud music in areas including feminism, race relations and LGBTQI+ identity.
Fictional Biographies
Solo Exhibition by Albena Mihaylova – BendjiPart of the exhibitions series Autobiographies, curated by Nadezhda Dzhakova in the Museum of Contemporary Art Sofia Arsenal.3 September – 17 November 2019 Albena Mihaylova-Bendji presents а monumental 4-channel video installation. She works in collaboration with the Korean new music composer Junghae Lee.
Sofia Arsenal, Contemporary Art Museum
http://sofiaarsenal-mca.org/en/events
Les Reines Prochaines (Future Queen)
Multimedia performance
14. September 2019
The renowned Swiss multimedia group "Les Reines Prochaines" from Basel, Switzerland.
Muda Matisse, Sous Zwic, Francie Magdorin, Michel Fuchs are video and performance artists and musicians who have won the 2019 Swiss Music Award.
LITTLE WHITE CLOUD: The Edge Women
Exhibition
13. - 27. September 2019
Expect the unexpected! In their consecutive fifth event, the four artists will show a live picture again – “Little White Cloud”, dedicated to Albena Mihaylova-Benji. The overall presentation includes a video, an installation and a performance by the group. The duration of the performance will be approximately 20 minutes and it will consist of two parts: the first one held in the hall and the closing part held in the adjacent space in front of the gallery.
EARTHBOUND. Tales of Man and Nature
Exhibition
28. August – 20. September 2019
Curated by Marie Himmerich
Artists: Tolia Astakhishvili, Dani Jakob, Albena Mihaylova, Ani Schulze, Radostin Sedevchev, Dimitar Shopov, Martina Vacheva and Nico Joana Weber
Main location: Goethe-Institut Sofia (BG)
Second location: National Museum "Man and Earth"
https://www.goethe.de/ins/bg/de/
Open Art Files: Notes and footnotes
Exhibition
16. August – 30. September 2019
Kapana, Plovdiv
Plovdiv, Culture Capital of Europe 2019
Curated by Vera Mlechevska
Works by Adelina Popnedeleva, Albena Mihaylova-Bendji, Alexander Valchev, Alla Georgieva, Assen Ushev, Nedko Solakov, Neno Belchev, Oleg Mavromatti, Orlin Dvoryanov, Pravdoliub Ivanov and many others
LISTE Art Fair 19, Basel
Generation between Enthusiasm and Destruction
10.–16. June
Kaskadenkondensator Basel
Curated by Albena Mihaylova Manz
AM contemporary is pleased to participate in LISTE 19 Art Basel 2019, with works by EDGE Women Group, Dimitar Genchev, Velizar Dimchev, Lyubomir Krastev and Kaloyan Iliev
https://www.liste.ch/the-show/
LISTEN TO US – ARTISTIC INTELLIGENCE
04. Apr - 30.06.2019
Plovdiv, Culture Capital of Europe 2019
Deutsche Telekom's collection presents contemporary art from East Europe. The project is curated by Nathalie Hoyos and Rainald Schumacher.
AM contemporary is pleased to participate with works by Bendji-Albena Mihaylova
https://plovdiv2019.eu/en/platform/revive/
PERFORMANCE MARSH
13., 14., 15. September 2019
Museum and Galleries Night
Plovdiv, Culture Capital of Europe 2019
AM contemporary is pleased to present Videos by Swiss Artists Muda Mathis and Sus Zwick, and Music Performance by Les Reines Prochaines.
Curated by Albena Mihaylova Manz
Partner Cu29, Plovdiv
FIKTIVE BIOGRAFIEN
Albena Bendji Mihaylova
Solo Exhibition
Video, Installations
3.Oktober-18.November 2019
Arsenal Sofia Contemporary Art Museum
http://www.sofiaarsenal-mca.org/en
SWISS EXPERIMENTAL FILM
4. -10. April 2019
Kino Brotfabrik, Berlin
Short films by Reinhard Manz
Entschriftung der Greifengasse
Zeit-fragen
KOPF ODER ZAHL
Premiere Dokumentarfilm
from Reinhard Manz
22. Januar 2019
Kino Bourbaki, Luzern
https://www.kinoluzern.ch/kino/
EXHIBITION THE EDGE WOMEN
The Other Things
Performance/Video/Installation
5.12.2018 Gallery space in Plovdiv
SCREENING
Documentary DISANCIA, 75 min
30.11.2018, 6 pm
Czechoslovak club
15, Krakra Street, Sofia
EXHIBITION FORUM KÜNSTLERBUCH
Texturen, Schloss Pratteln CH
16.11.– 9.12. 2018
https://www.forumkuenstlerbuchbasel.com/
DISTANCIA 75`
First price Winner! Best Foreign Film Award!
AegeanDocs International Film festival
Dokumentary by Albena Myhaylova
Cine Arion, Mytilini
01.10 - 06.10. 2018
greecehttp://www.aegeandocs.gr/index.php/en/
FOKUS BUCH KUNST
Premiere in Museum Trotte Arlesheim CH
28.–30. September 2018
Vernissage am 27. September 2018, 18 Uhr
PANCH at Liste 18, Young Art Fair Basel
Kaskadenkondensator, Burgweg 15, Basel CH
12. –17. Juni 2018
Vernissage 11. Juni
https://www.liste.ch/press/special-guests.html
PAINTINGS & OBJECTS
Peter Gospodinov at Museum Birsfelden CH
25.Mai bis 17.Juni 2018
NEOSCOPE 18
Performance Gathering
Rosengarten Kunsthaus Zofingen CH
12. Mai 2018
http://www.kunsthauszofingen.ch/aktuell/
MUST OR NOT
PANCH zu Gast im Kasko, Basel CH
Workshop Performance and Presentation.
4.-6. Mai 2018, Kaskadenkondensator Basel
http://www.kasko.ch/2012/index.php?/aktuell
FILME & VIDEOS
The Video Artist
Reinhard Manz at Freiraum in Basel CH
7. April bis 27. Mai 2018
PERFORMANCE & VIDEO
«Thing, Nothing, Everything»
by Bendji Albena Mihaylova
7. April 2018
The Great Boudha Stupa Bodnath, Kathmandu, Nepal