Zoran Georgiev’s works refer to the cultural policies of present-day Macedonia and Bulgaria, where the necessity of creating new (post-1989) identities and rethinking the past are leading to new forms of nationalism and visions of society and community. Georgiev underlines the hollowness, the competitiveness and the kitsch in state policies aimed at the construction or restoration of monuments and museums. As if the symbolism of the “new” past is nothing more than the expensive décor for a Bollywood (or rather, a Balkan-wood) production. With simplified form and direct appeal his works “unmask” the kitsch in the visual language of populist nationalism through a kind of authentic and raw objectivity.

Zoran Georgiev (born in 1985 in Macedonia) lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Georgiev graduated with an MA in Painting from the National Art Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria. His solo exhibitions include Vaska Emanouilova Gallery, Sofia; Sariev Contemporary, Plovdiv; and 0GMS Gallery in a Drawer, Sofia. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions including Art for Change, Sofia City Art Gallery, 2015; Prehod For Sale, ICA Gallery, Sofia, 2014; Transcending Cultures, Essl Museum, Viena 2013-2014; Never Ending Story, Rakursi Gallery, Sofia, 2013; and Love, Rayko Alexiev Gallery, 2012. He has received awards including the ESSL Art Award CEE 2013 and the Young Visual Artists Award (BAZA), 2014.