Many works by Kamen Stoyanov deal with public space and its utilization through individuals. The artist presents people exposed to specific situations in what is mostly an urban environment, such as a female street musician in Paris, traveling hawkers or a street artist in the Roman subway. Political and social problems are addressed without the protagonists’ being exhibited in an overt fashion. It is because of his focus on such personalities that Stoyanov succeeds in making larger historical and demographic developments comprehensible and perceptible.              

In Subway Yard Bratislava, a work consisting of three parts, the Vienna-based artist describes an adventure in Petržalka, a borough of Bratislava that was built into a planned city under Communism in the 1970s and is still considered one of the most densely populated areas in Slovakia. During an excursion to the city, the artist and his friend, a photographer, explored a closed subway tunnel in Petržalka. The construction of the subway system, once begun as a flagship project in former Czechoslovakia, was terminated after the Velvet Revolution in 1989 and has still not been completed. In the course of their expedition, Kamen Stoyanov and the photographer investigated the dark interior of the fragmentary structure. They came back three times, bringing new equipment (such as rubber boots or flashlights). They overcame physical and psychological obstacles and eventually reached the end of the tunnel. There they not only came across a repository, but also ran into a special person: Dušan, a resident of the tunnel, who had already observed the two men for three weeks. He started telling them about his living environment, its past and present existence. The meaning of the Slavic name Dušan, which is “soul,” in combination with the picturesque photographs and the artist’s handwritten explanation, account for the work’s powerful poetry and symbolism. “The Soul, a Delicate Matter” is the title of a play by the Bulgaro-Austrian author Dimitré Dinev; yet Subway Yard Bratislava proves that one can find it after a long search in the darkness, at the end of the tunnel.

Heike Maier-Rieper, 2011 (translation: Wolfgang Astelbauer)