The exhibition brings together works by Pravdoliub Ivanov (born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in 1964) from the past three decades. His installation Vehicles Dream, created in New York in 1998, takes the centre stage. The city that ‘never sleeps’ was the setting for Ivanov’s photographs of people sleeping in subway cars, exhausted by the rhythm of the city that they themselves help to maintain. By mounting the images on small wheels scattered throughout the space, he allowed visitors to rearrange them. Moving around in this way, the portraits appear as a symbol of collective exhaustion. The social metaphor of these alienated and isolated figures, created more than 25 years ago, has gained unexpected political relevance today, visible in their silent paralysis and metaphysical helplessness.
In addition to the work Vehicles Dream, the artist’s objects and drawings explore the interplay between everyday life, perception and imagination. With subtle, often humorous interventions, seemingly familiar things are called into question.
Pravdoliub Ivanov lives and works in Sofia. He studied at the National Academy of Arts in Sofia and, together with Ivan Moudov and Stefan Nikolaev, represented Bulgaria at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. Previously, he participated in the 4th Istanbul Biennale (1995), Manifesta 3 in Ljubljana (2003) and the 4th Berlin Biennale (2006). His works have also been shown in important overview exhibitions such as In den Schluchten des Balkan (2003) at the Fridericianum in Kassel and Blut & Honig – Zukunft ist am Balkan (2003) at the Essl Collection in Klosterneuburg. His works can be found in the collections of the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Neues Museum in Nuremberg, among others.

Presentation of the new edition:
The exhibition at EDITION BLOCK and KIF – KUNST IM FENSTER brings together works by Pravdoliub Ivanov (born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in 1964) from the past three decades. His installation Vehicles Dream, created in New York in 1998, takes the centre stage. The city that ‘never sleeps’ was the setting for Ivanov’s photographs of people sleeping in subway cars, exhausted by the rhythm of the city that they themselves help to maintain. By mounting the images on small wheels scattered throughout the space, he allowed visitors to rearrange them. Moving around in this way, the portraits appear as a symbol of collective exhaustion. The social metaphor of these alienated and isolated figures, created more than 25 years ago, has gained unexpected political relevance today, visible in their silent paralysis and metaphysical helplessness.
As part of a renewed focus on Vehicles Dream a new edition based on the original photographs has been published this year by Edition Block. The images of the sleeping figures are arranged in varying configurations in different sets of five wheels each. The edition of 20 is being shown for the first time at KIF – Kunst im Fenster.