Kosta Tonev
contents:
The Heavenly
Bodies Once
Thrown into a
Certain Definite
Motion, Always
Repeat
K.
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13
The Heavenly Bodies
Once Thrown into a
Certain Definite Motion,
Always Repeat
The project looks at the reestablishment
of the bicycle as a mode of transport in the
urban environments of post-industrialized
world. The artist takes on the role of a
real-life bicycle messenger to trace the
causal link between cycling and the larger
economic cycles. Born during the recession
of the 1970s the messenger industry bears
all key characteristics of the current technoeconomic paradigm. The project marks
the 40-year anniversary of the recession
of 1973-75, and implicitly raises questions
about its resonance for the present moment.
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The Heavenly
Bodies, Once
Thrown into a
Certain Definite
Motion, Always
Repeat
2013, 3 lightboxes,
16x10,5x518 cm (overall
dimensions).
The
lightboxes
contain
67
photographs of packages and letters I
delivered as a bicycle messenger. One
alphabetical character was added in the
lower right corner of each of the packages
before they were delivered to the
customers. Displayed in a chronological
order, the 67 letters spell the sentence
«The heavenly bodies, once thrown into a
certain definite motion, always repeat.» It
is quotation from the Capital by Karl Marx
who made it metaphor for his theory of
the business cycle.
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4
opposite
Death of a Cyclist
2013, video, 3 min 5 sec.
Death of a Cyclist (video stills)
The video is a reference to the 1955
Spanish film noir «Death of a Cyclist,» in
which the two main characters strike a
bicyclist with their car, and are left to deal
with the consequences of the murder.
Here, the camera lens slowly approaches
the rotating wheel of the thrown down
bicycle, ultimately capturing a close-up of
the cyclometer, which keeps counting.
*watch here:
https://vimeo.com/72047739
overleaf (pages 7—12)
The Heavenly
Bodies, Once
Thrown into a
Certain Definite
Motion, Always
Repeat
2013, 6 pencil drawings.
The series of drawings contains a
collection of objects and facts. Each of
them deals with different understandings
of time and history, exchange and labor.
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9
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Wheelless Car
2013, pencil on paper, 100x75 cm.
«In the 1950s Ford Motor Company unveiled a new revolutionary form of travel called “Glideair” – a wheelless vehicle
that rides on a film of air above the road. Andrew A. Kucher, Ford’s vice president in charge of Engineering and Research,
looked upon it as a new form of high-speed land transportation. A gas turbine or turbojet engine would supply the power to
both levitate and propel the vehicle. Instead of wheels, “Glideair” would employ “levapads”, a Kucher-coined word. In a 1958
interview with the Associated Press he explained that the car without wheels would be in use in the foreseeable future. Riding
on a cushion of air, he described how the “Glideair” car could one day achieve 200-500 miles per hour since it didn‘t have tires
that would burn up.»
Pleasure Wheel
2013, pencil on paper, 100x75 cm.
«‚Pleasure wheels‘, whose passengers rode in chairs suspended from large wooden rings turned by strong men,
are the predecessors of the modern Ferris Wheel. Pleasure wheels are believed to have originated in 17th century Bulgaria. In his
book, The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia (1608-1667), the English traveler describes and illustrates ‘severall Sorts of
Swinginge used in their Publique rejoyceings att their Feast of Biram’ on May 17th 1620 at Philippopolis in the Ottoman Balkans.
What he saw there, was as he describes ‘...like a Craine wheele att Customhowse Key and turned in that Manner, whereon
Children sitt on little seats hunge round about in severall parts thereof, And though it turne right upp and downe, and that the
Children are sometymes on the upper part of the wheele, and sometymes on the lower, yett they alwaies sitt upright.’»
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Soviet Eternal Calendar
2013, pencil on paper, 100x75 cm.
«In the autumn of 1929 the Soviet Union changed from the seven-day week to a five-day week. In the new
system known as the “Soviet Eternal Calendar“ there were 72 weeks and additional five national holidays totaling a year
of 365 days. The week consisted of four days of work and one day off. Each weekday was labeled by either one of five
colors and each worker was assigned a color to identify with their day of rest. In the summer of 1931, after this brief
experiment, the Soviet Union changed to a six-day week, in which every sixth day was a state rest day. The five national
holidays remained, but as certain months have 31 days, the week after the state rest day of the 30th had seven days, and
as February has 28 or 29 days, the week after the state rest day on the 24th was five or six days long. The calendar was
abandoned on June 26th 1940 and the seven-day week reintroduced on the next day.»
Tulip Bulb
2013, pencil on paper, 100x75 cm.
«The first tulip bulbs were sent from the Ottoman Empire to Vienna in 1554 and subsequently to the Low Countries,
where they soon began to grow in popularity. The prices of flowers that grow only in summer could fluctuate wildly in winter;
in the early 17th century Dutch merchants willingly paid more than an annual salary for a single bulb. In February 1637, tulip
bulbs contract prices collapsed abruptly, and as a result Dutch commerce suffered a severe shock. It is now known that the
multicolored effect of the most expensive varieties of tulips is due to the bulbs being infected with a type of virus, know as the
“tulip breaking virus.” “Broken” exotics were an extremely limited commodity, as they can only be obtained through offsets, not
seeds. The virus persisted, making it possible to preserve the varieties, due to the bulb’s self-replicating capacity.»
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Can of Film
2013, pencil on paper, 100x75 cm.
«George E. Cooper came to New York with his motorcycle, which soon gained him employment as a messenger.
Making almost instantaneous deliveries brought him to the attention of Bill Blake, who headed a firm called Sound Transfers
– film recording and the like. Blake told the motorcyclist he wanted to start a messenger service relying mainly on bicycles,
specializing in work for the film and television industries. Cooper agreed and named the company Can Carriers, referring to
cans of film. The first bicycle messenger service in New York started in 1970, and in the early years of its existence it dealt
mainly with canisters for the movie industry.»
100 Leva Bill
2013, pencil on paper, 100x75 cm.
«In 1990, after the fall of the communist regime, the Bulgarian National Bank introduced several new
banknotes in an effort to reform the currency’s visual appearance and eliminate political and ideological imagery relating
to the country’s past. The new, politically neutral symbols often related to distant times and were charged with broadly
accessible meanings. Among the new notes was the 100 leva. On its reverse side it depicted a mural known as the “The
Wheel of Life” by the 19th-century painter Zahariy Zograf. His fresco represents the different stages of life as a circular
path with inner circles divided into seasons and months. At the time of its introduction, the 100 leva was the highest
value note available; it was worth almost a month’s salary. With the transition to a free-market economy, high inflation
rates led to the rapid devaluation of Bulgarian currency. This was followed by the introduction of higher denominations,
which culminated in 1997 when the National Bank issued a 50 000 leva note. The 100 leva bill was pulled out of
circulation in 1999.»
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K.
The artist’s body serves as a departure
point for a series of playful interventions
directed at the institutional gaze. Formed
within 19th-century criminology, the concept
of the individual is a product of the system,
which today organizes individual existence.
The resulting documents present a reductive
take on the subject. Despite their seeming
exactitude, they accommodate a multitude of
loopholes and areas of fuzziness. With this in
mind, the artist appropriates the techniques
of intelligibility and their attributes of identity
as instruments of artistic production. The
project’s title bears reference to Franz
Kafka’s character Josef K. whose opposition
to the Law makes him an unwitting
participant in his disciplinary subjection.
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Costa
2007–2008, installation:
video*, 7 min;
photograph, 28x21 cm;
wall drawing: acrylic on
latex paint, 105x270 cm.
Kosta does not only exist as a given
name; spelled with a C it could often
be found as a name of various brands
typically related to the tourist industry.
Both varieties however do not share the
same origin and significance—one of
them represents a nickname descending
from the name Constantine, while the
other one refers to the Spanish or Italian
words for «coast.»
The work documents the process
of modifying the Roman spelling of the
artist’s name (transliterated from the
Cyrillic «Коста») into «Costa.»
*watch video:
https://vimeo.com/76062247
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Headshot
2012, 3 photographs,
each: 150x100 cm; 5x5 cm;
30x24 cm.
This piece was initially developed
for an exhibition in the United States.
To be present at the opening the artist
was required to obtain a US visa. The
project relates to this process. The artist
was photographed standing in front of a
white photo background and holding a
mirror in his hand. The photograph was
subsequently cropped, and reduced to
the surface of the mirror. In this form it was
reproduced in his visa.
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Midpoint
2013–2015,
2 photographs, each 17x26 cm;
height chart (print on paper),
110x250 cm;
sculpture (silicone, textile,
glass, human hair), 175x48x26
cm.
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The starting point for this work is a new
ID card, which erroneously states that the artist
is 175 cm tall, i.e. the Bulgarian males’ average
height. On the basis of this data he produced
a realistic sculptural depiction that captures
the features of the newly acquired identity. The
sculpture looks like him in every aspect, with
the exception of height, which corresponds to
the data featured in the ID document.
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(left) A Messenger
an edition of postcards given out
at the exhibition «The Heavenly
Bodies Once Thrown into a
Certain Definite Motion, Always
Repeat.»
Address
Meidlinger Hauptstraße
70/5, 1120 Wien
Cell
+43-650-8274058
Web
www.kostatonev.com
Email
[email protected]