“ALL ABOUT HIM” CAMPAIGN
( ALL ABOUT HIM Project )
Project of : Goethe-Institut Bulgarien & “ 39 grama” Newspaper
Project initiated and curated by: Ventsislav Zankov


The ‘All about Him’ Project aims to reflect through artistic means and in the public domain possible interpretations of men’s status nascendi in the first decade of the 21st c.

50 artists from 12 countries got involved in the project in 2008 through employing the widely used vehicles of communication, propaganda and advertising (print and electronic media). Their visual proposals and concepts for interpreting the ‘men’ phenomenon of today were presented censorship-free in an open-air exhibition at one of the most thriving public spaces in Sofia’s downtown area: the city garden right across from the ‘Ivan Vazov’ National Theatre. The selected visual proposals and concepts were posted on-line on the project website, featuring comments section for viewers and online voting which resulted in ‘The Pedestrian Award’ Winner Stefan Bohnenberger for his work ‘Holly Imagination’.

14 of the works presented at the exhibition which have passed the project’s Final Selection will replace the usual commercial billboards in Sofia’s downtown area on September 22nd to present non-commercial artistic visions for men’s presence and absence, for alternatives to understanding the men of today. The challenging goal of this project is to present and explore the controversies in our understanding about men’s roles today, in the beginning of the 21 c., by employing the same vehicles of propaganda and advertising which have invented for mass consumption the clichés and stereotypes of ‘being male’, of men representations and particularly those linked to prosperity in the first place. This project opens an opportunity for claiming self-reflection with a focus on the intimate and the personal in an environment of clichés and commercial ‘messages’, and thus questioning the authenticity of the convenient commercial image in the process. It is an effort that strives to discard commercial images and to lend ambivalence and (unpardonable for this environment) open-ended-ness in the search for men today. This project braves to challenge the deeply commercial, aggressive and ‘barring the right to appeal’ advertising business - and in particular the outdoor commercials at the hottest spots in the metropolis - with visual interpretations and personal experiences linked to facing the mirror and coming to terms with what men are today.

All about him Billboard Campaign,
Sofia September 22nd through October 6th 2008
…the crossing of Vassil Levski Blvd. and Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd. right across from Yalta Club and the main entrance of Sofia University
…the crossings of Bulgaria Blvd. and Nishava Str, Gotse Delchev Blvd., Nestorov Blvd and Todor Kableshkov Blvd.
WATCH THEM OUT!