VIENNA.- Michail Michailov’s modular work series, Dust to Dust, was exhibited at the Bulgarian pavilion during the 2022 Biennale di Venezia. The series captures incidental, often overlooked vestiges of time, such as dust, hair, imprints, and stains, calling into question the value and existence of things.

General Director Stella Rollig: Michail Michailov is interested in providing his audience with an experience that only art can make possible. The old master technique of trompe l’oeil that he employs in the Carlone Hall seeks to amaze, amuse, and fascinate. Whether in a large-scale installation or a sheet of paper, Michailov’s work challenges the senses to set the mind in motion.

Upon first glance, Dust to Dust may seem like a minimalist installation in the baroque ambiance of the Carlone Hall. However, upon closer inspection, the display’s space-consuming surface reveals profound poetry. Michail Michailov has meticulously crafted an 18-part series of colored pencil drawings that capture the often unnoticed and incidental vestiges of time. Michailov’s work is a microcosm that touches on fundamental questions of value, transience, and existence with striking simplicity. By using the trompe l’oeil technique, he has accomplished an extraordinary degree of realism in his drawings. This technique, used for centuries, can also be observed in the Triumph of Aurora ceiling fresco, portraying the victory of light over darkness.

Artist Michail Michailov: While science explores matter through its composition, I try to understand its meaning through art.

Michail Michailov was born in 1978 in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, where he studied fine arts. Since 2002 he has lived and worked in Vienna, where he completed a degree in art history. His artistic practice moves fluidly between the fields of drawing, installation, film, and performance.

The CARLONE CONTEMPORARY series showcases contemporary works in the Carlone Hall of the Upper Belvedere. From the frescoed ancient world of the deities Apollo and Diana to the present day, artists bridge the Baroque pictorial program with fresh artistic perspectives.

Belvedere
Michail Michailov: Dust to Dust
October 19th, 2023 - April 14th, 2024