year1999
contextgraduation project
institutionNational Academy of Art, Sofia
studioProf. Bozhidar Bonchev
material and processsmall ceramic cubes, assembled by hand
The graduation project comprises three spatial sculptures constructed from thousands of small ceramic cubes. The modular elements follow the surface one by one, allowing the structures to unfold as organic growth rather than as predetermined geometric constructions.
The photographs are preserved as archival documentation of the project and its presentation in 1999.
material history · 1999–2026
Return
The material preserved it.
In 1999, I created these spatial sculptures as my graduation project at the National Academy of Art in Sofia.
I worked with thousands of small ceramic cubes, placing them one by one until they gradually became organic structures—forms that seemed to have grown rather than been constructed.
When the project was completed, several boxes of unused cubes remained. I stored them in my studio, without knowing whether I would ever touch them again. They stayed there for almost three decades.
Twenty-seven years later, in 2026, while beginning work on Reflection I and Reflection II, I opened those boxes again. The same ceramic cubes became part of the new works.
The connection between the two bodies of work had never been planned. Yet it had always existed—preserved in the material.
In the works from 1999, the cubes formed the surfaces of the sculptures. In 2026, they began to construct spaces of reflection and human presence.
We sometimes imagine that works of art remain in the past. Yet sometimes they return to us and remind us that certain ideas never truly end. They simply wait for their time.
material continuity
1999–2026
The ceramic cubes preserved after the graduation project return twenty-seven years later in two new spatial works.
