Regione Toscana - tra art rete regionale arte contemporanea

The only visual appearance in the Base’s space is a huge water reservoir laying on the floor full with 45 glass jars placed under the water.
A striking image can be seen when the visitor bends over the container to better see what is inside: in the jars there are 45 small living cactuses hermetically sealed. Some of the most remarkable plants on our planet that have a very special relation with water. Now they happen to appear as seaweeds.
While looking at the white walls of the space the visitor may not see at all what Nedko Solakov did for his part. But when coming closer the viewer will be confronted with numerous little drawings and texts, discreetly executed directly on the white walls.
In general they should tell the adventures of the cactuses/seaweeds when they are outside of their underwater jars.

Nedko Solakov (1957, Tcherven Briag, Bulgaria, lives in Sofia) since the beginning of the 90’s, has exhibited extensively in Europe and America. His work was featured in Aperto ’93, Venice Biennale; the 48th, 49th and 50th Venice Biennales; the 3rd and 4th Istanbul Biennales; Saõ Paulo ’94; Manifesta 1, Rotterdam; 2nd and 4th Gwangju Biennales; 5th Lyon Biennale; Sonsbeek 9 Arnhem. Recently he had solo shows at Museu do Chiado, Lisbon; Stichting De Appel, Amsterdam; CCA Kitakyushu, Japan and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid. Among his forthcoming projects are solo exhibitions at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Casino Luxembourg and Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö.
Slava Nakovska (1958, Sofia, lives in Sofia) graduated in sociology at the Sofia University Kliment Ohridski in 1982. Between 1992 and 1998 she collaborated with Nedko Solakov for most of his narrative installations. Since 1999 she started making her own installation projects which were exhibited mainly at ATA Center for Contemporary Art, Sofia. She took part at "Storm Centers," Watou, Belgium in 2000, and "Locus/Focus," Sonsbeek 9 in Arnhem, 2001, both curated by Jan Hoet.