Slav Nedev
Peripheral ARTeries
rity of people were not very big and there was some guaranteed social minimum. Of course those who were interested knew what is going on in the world, including the Art world and with the time (in the second half of the 80’s) the things were getting looser. Considering the arts were regarded by the party as means of propaganda and therefore supported generously by the state it is easy to figure that this domain was preserved quite often for a small circle of trusted people. Even more, quite often one’s success was depending on certain persons’ goodwill. In such a time I have decided to become a free artist, which now seems quite daring to me. The above I think is not unimportant because the more I live the more I am getting convinced that one’s family and social environment are of a great importance for one’s personal and professional development. As for any particular experiences that have impacted my work, I think everything that we call one’s experience impacts one’s work. I see one’s life path as something we look for and even cause in order to get closer to our real Self and thus with the world/being. When I turn back I see that everything has happened because something else has happened and so on, an endless chain of coinci-dences. The formal training undoubtedly gives one much. However, as everything else it has both sides. It gives but it also takes. One very important question with regard to this is WHO gives us this formal training. The training as skill is something one can always learn from different sources. People do not remember their training; they remember their teachers or Masters. So, the living relationship between teacher and student is what really matters. And the masters are not necessarily in the educational institutions. I had my masters and still meet them when my situation requires this. Sometimes a simple talk with an unknown person could teach you more than a year spent in the class room.
Stefan Marinov
cords. They say “A book is a window to the world” and so it is. At that time Bulgaria was one of the Eastern Bloc countries. Everything was controlled by the ruling communist party that in its turn was controlled by Moscow. The people were living in some kind of reservation and a prison in the same time. Any exchange of information with the rest of the world was difficult and sometimes even punished. The social differences between the majo-
As for stifling artists’ creativity… it depends on an artist’s personality. We have seen both – artists that have submitted to someone’s influence and artists that have remained on their way in spite of any influence. I could hardly imagine true creativity being stifled. Moreover, I think that is remarkable that when -about 25 years ago- you decided to dedicate all yourself to Art, you started to make copies of 67