Raised in Sofia, Bulgaria and trained as a painter from an early age, George’s work examines the immersive possibilities of storytelling by challenging the dogmas of contemporary film making. His short films carry a unique aesthetic that is derived from Eastern Europe.
Stamenov utilizes computer graphic imagery as his primary medium, often to render the uncanny side of a simple event or a movement in a composition, exaggerating its insignificance in an extraordinary manner.
Below, he talked to us about his inspirations and current projects:
Although I am convinced that my inspirations derive from the constant information that is streaming around us, of course Eastern Europe is the main source of inspiration in my works. That includes the specific environments and aesthetics of the eastern bloc as well as the mores and ways of living in the eastern bloc. My last films are personal reflections on my own life therefore they carry the notion of a post-soviet environment. That being said, I am not only restricted to my roots and I love to observe and extract inspiration from nowhere, wherever that might be at the given time.
My work revolves mainly around film, which could be seen as a fast-running sequence of photographs. Moving images help me to express my inner thoughts and visualise them accordingly to what I feel. In my opinion there is no other medium that combines so many practices within a single art form. An image could mean a thousand words, a film shot consists of infinite meanings.
At the moment I am working on a series of sculptures. Planning on developing a couple of contemporary bas-reliefs, a practice that was mainly prominent during the medieval era, today seen as an ornamental kitsch. I feel there is a lot of potential in the practice and it’s worth exploring further.
Although the pandemic was damaging to many practices, I wouldn’t say it was as much for animation. More specifically for computer generated imagery as most of the practice is happening within the computer, in closed doors. If anything, it actually drove more attention to computer animation, which happens to be my main practice. On another hand, the lockdown situation and the little contact we are allowed to have with the outside world does reflect on my practice on many social levels. Let’s hope this will end soon and never come back again!
In parallel with my current project, I am in pre-production for a documentary film about the current state of socialist city sculptures, scattered in the cities of post-soviet states. The film tackles the common understanding of art produced during the soviet era and questions whether it has to be seen as art or simply labeled propaganda due to the political views of the contemporary Eastern Europeans.
