What is an event? The dictionary definition is something that takes place, a significant occurrence or happening. A Bulgarian artist has found that events can also be turned into art.

Kolyo Karamfilov has seized the opportunity to make the transformation and the results can be seen in his exhibition titled Events, which is on show at the Irida Gallery (27 Gurko St.) until August 10.

Completed in an extremely short time - the works were done in 10 days - the exhibition was inspired by the timelessness of Bulgaria's cultural life.

"The works originate from minor events," said the artist. "The smallest occasion triggered the creation of a particular work."

Karamfilov's works take the trivialities of everyday life, events from his personal life or the social life of the country and turn them into simple, sometimes quite abstract pieces of art. The artist pointed out that the works did not illustrate the events. His work "A threesome of kebapcheta and two cherries" was inspired by a quote from theatre critic Kolyo Vandov who characterized the current situation in Bulgarian culture as a "stage of saturation."

"This reminded me of the view of a group of people sitting in a pub which I had recently seen," Karamfilov explained. "They were stuffing themselves with kebapcheta (grilled minced meat). Sitting next to them was a child who was eating cherries." The painting consists of two parts separate canvases - one showing black silhouettes of cherries against a grey background, the other representing three kebapcheta lying in a plate against a pink background.

According to the artist the idea of the work was that everybody felt that phase of saturation in his own way. "We cannot say that the hungry Bulgarian in a phase of saturation is the direct meaning of the phrase. This is about the values and perceptions of the young generation and about us, the traditional Bulgarians who never miss our threesome of kebapcheta." Karamfilov said he was playing with stereotypes and with typical Bulgarian extremes of perceiving things.

"Bathing" constructed again from two separate canvases shows an individual jumping in a bath. "The man illustrates to some extent my jump with this exhibition - a jump with my head downwards," Karamfilov said. "The black bath at the bottom is a symbol of the limited personal space we live in. While some people are at the seaside at the moment relaxing, others are in their own black personal space and get out of it."

The works have many different layers and Karamfilov said he could think of many interpretations and meanings for each of them but wanted to leave the interpretation to the viewers. The artist included many teases in his works. One was the fact that the opening of the exhibition coincided with the election of the new council of ministers. "This current situation of extreme dynamics in the social and political life of Bulgaria and the inactivity of the cultural life provoked the slightly ironical motif in the idea of the Events exhibition," he explained.

His painting titled "Absolute" represents a table with a crown lying on it. The crown has a golden gleam and leaves a completely black shadow on the table. "The crown symbolizes the personality who is at the top," the artist said. "This is not necessarily the personality of Simeon II. What I mean is that every crown has a shadow, and every happy moment has a shadow too. Even the brightest thing casts a shadow." The title of the work carries the message that everything has an absolute opposite.

In the works currently exhibited in Irida Gallery Karamfilov has used a technique that he discovered - painting with graphite. According to the artist bright colours in the exhibition are in unison with the brightness of the months of July and August and the brightness of the situation we live in - a time of new expectations for better days for the country. The artist, however, has always been skeptical about promises and has always said that Bulgarians should first wait to see what happens. They should not believe too strongly that in three years Bulgaria is going to be a European country. "We should stop talking about becoming Europeans. We are Europeans, we have just been given the role of outsiders. Now everything depends on each of us personally to prove that we are Europeans."

Karamfilov himself feels cosmopolitan. He does not feel restrictions or have the inferiority complex that many Bulgarians suffer from. "Art is the only way to feel free. It is the only free manifestation of the human spirit, all the rest are restrictions."