PIETA | Video Installation by Vassil Simitchiev
Art is always something else
1–3 September 2025
Opening: 1 September 2025 (Monday), 6:00 pm, Academia Gallery
Vassil Simitchiev presents his most recent video installation, “Pieta”. The worldwide recognised Bulgarian sculptor has been working on the work for the past few years and is now ready to show it to the public in the most suitable space for its realisation.
“Pieta” is sort of self-reflection on the present surrounding us, both globally and personally. Without emphasising specific events or direct associations, Simitchiev re-creates a feeling of an approaching apocalypse. The installation can also be perceived as a commentary on the collapse of civilisational values known to us to this day.
Contrasting the iconic image of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s "Pieta" with the flames of a wildly burning pyre, Vassil Simitchiev creates a powerful and captivating visual scene that can be summed up in the artist’s words: “Art is always something else.”
Vassil Simitchiev was born on 25 June 1938 in Sofia (Bulgaria). In 1962, he graduated with a degree in Monumental Sculpture at the Academy of Arts in Sofia in the atelier of Prof. Lyubomir Dalchev. In Bulgaria, he worked in the field of decorative-monumental sculpture. Since 1975, he has been living and working in Sweden. The artist works in the field of performance and video installation. He is known for his conceptual projects, some of which are realised on a monumental scale. "The Glass Pier" (1985) and "The Bridge" (1996) categorically establish him as a strong creative individuality with a European scale.
The artist is the winner of the Culture Award of the City of Malmö, Sweden for 1982. In 2022, he was granted the title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the National Academy of Art in Sofia. In the same year, he also realised a large-scale retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery – Square 500.