Week 9, Justine F: Ivo Dimchev

Ivo Dimchev is a Bulgarian performer. In Som Faves (for some favorites), he shows us his point of view about art, creation and the way the public gets it.

This performance is very aesthetic because it deals with the form and the content of a piece of contemporary dance and theatre. Then, the artist created a kind of neutral setting: white floor, white background wall, a desk and a chair, a picture on the wall, a porcelain cat. That’s all. It is on purpose, the room is small and there are not a lot of seats, maybe because he wants to tell us something intimate.

Ivo Dimchev comes into the room, alone. He wears a blue skirt, black pants and a blond wig. On the desk, there is a keyboard. He starts playing, but doesn’t say anything. We wonder what happens there!

Then, he speaks strange words, repeating “respect art” or “fuck you”. It sounds like provocation; we look at this guy, alone on the stage, doing his show. But very quickly, he creates complicity, speaks with us, and finally removes his wig, showing us his real face. The man sweats, spits, bloods, cries. This is like a confidence, about himself, his fears, his mum, his love, his art.

After repeating many times “respect art”, he finally says “but if you don’t, there’s nothing wrong with you”, and after “fuck you”, he says “thank you for fucking me, because I was bored”. He takes our place of spectators in order to criticize his own art, to put it in perspective: what is actually art?

Here, you can see some extracts of this performance: