I try to follow the career of Nedko Solakov since he first appeared on the scene at the Budapest Art Expo with his wonderful book-objects. I have heard about The City Group, a group of young avantgarde Bulgarian artists for the first time via him concerning those ironic and bitter actions, which had accompanied the political change in Sofia. Since that time I have received his catalogues regularly and we have met several times both abroad and in Hungary where he has participated in some exhibitions of the region. But the present one, The Collector of Art was something else: the first serious project by him in Hungary, which can really represent him. The fiction about the African tribal chief who collects western art is a carefully elaborated story with gentle humour and the Ludwig Museum was an ideal location for the realization. The installations of Solakov – either the Noah's Ark, The Superstitions Man, or The Collector of Art – are fictions about himself in a way. Hidden behind roles and stories he confesses about his own worries, fears and passions.
“Why would you think that the story told here is so improbable? – This would be my answer to all possible questions one might ask me concerning The Collector of Art. And if you can answer my question, you will understand why I like this great black man so much...”
