FACE2FACE
FACE2FACE
IVAILO STANEV
I
20 MAY - 30 JUNE 2024
FACE TO FACE. FRAME TO FRAME. NOTHING IN BETWEEN.
FACE TO FACE. FRAME TO FRAME. NOTHING IN BETWEEN.
FACE2FACE BRINGS TOGETHER 30 OUTSTANDING BULGARIAN ACTORS — SEEN AS THEMSELVES, BEYOND THE ROLES.
THROUGH YEARS OF COLLABORATION, IVAILO STANEV HAS PHOTOGRAPHED MOMENTS WHERE THE PERSON BREAKS THROUGH THE PERFORMANCE.
ON SETS, BACKSTAGES, THEATRES, AND BETWEEN TAKES — EACH PHOTOGRAPH IS A MEETING WITH THE HUMAN BEHIND THE CHARACTER.
THIS IS NOT JUST A PORTRAIT EXHIBITION.
IT’S A CONVERSATION WITHOUT WORDS.
THE ACTORS ARE HERE — FACE TO FACE WITH THEMSELVES. AND WITH YOU.
THE EXHIBITION
THE EXHIBITION
“ART IN THE BAR”
“ART IN THE BAR”
THIS EXHIBITION IS PART OF “ART IN THE BAR” — A CONCEPTUAL PROJECT BY MONOCHROME HUB GALLERY AND EDDIE SICOY BAR.
Created by a team shaped by years in publishing — the same voices behind some of Bulgaria’s most influential lifestyle magazines.
NOW REIMAGINED IN A DIFFERENT CONTEXT.
STARRING
STARRING
FACES YOU KNOW. MOMENTS YOU DON’T.
FACES YOU KNOW. MOMENTS YOU DON’T.
ALEKSANDAR SANO, ALEKSANDRA SARCHADZHIEVA, ANA PAPADOPULU, ASEN BLATECHKI, BASHAR RAHAL, DARIN ANGELOV, DEYAN DONKOV, DJOKO ROSICH, HRISTO MUTAFCHIEV, HRISTO SHOPOV, IRINI ZHAMBONAS, IRMENA CHICHIKOVA, KALIN VRACHANSKI, KIRIL EFREMOV, LILIA MARAVILYA, LUIZA GRIGOROVA, MARIAN VULEV, MARIA SAPUNDZHIEVA, MIHAIL MUTAFOV, RADINA KARDZHILOVA, TATYANA LOLOVA, TEODORA DUHOVNIKOVA, TSVETANA MANEVA, VASIL MIHAYLOV, VESELA BABINOVA, VELISLAV PAVLOV, VLADISLAV KARAMFILOV-VARAGALA, YOSIF SARCHADZHIEV, YULIAN VERGOV
THESE AREN’T PHOTOS OF ACTORS. THEY’RE ENCOUNTERS. SOMETIMES BETWEEN ROLES — MORE HONEST THAN ANY PERFORMANCE.
Face2Face presents a group of portraits created by Ivailo Stanev across years of working with Bulgarian actors in film, theatre and editorial settings. The exhibition took place between 20 May and 30 June 2024 as part of Art in the Bar — a collaborative project developed by Monochrome Hub Gallery and Eddie Sicoy Bar in Sofia.
The portraits differ from Stanev’s editorial assignments, where an image must serve a specific narrative. Here, the attention falls on the moment when the performer steps out of the role — a pause before the next instruction, a brief interval between scenes, a look that is not directed toward character but simply exists. Stanev has observed these intervals over many years, often without staging, allowing the situation itself to determine the frame.
The exhibition brings together thirty portraits spanning several generations of Bulgarian cinema and theatre. Some were made in controlled interiors, others in the fragmented environment of film sets. Despite their differing origins, the images share a direct, unforced clarity: the individual appears without the weight of persona, without dramatic cues, without the usual codes of publicity.
Face2Face continues Stanev’s long-standing interest in photographing people, yet it occupies a distinct place within his work. The portraits do not seek transformation or performance; they acknowledge a more private register — the space in which recognition becomes personal and a moment of openness appears, however briefly. The exhibition is shaped around this encounter: a meeting that happens without dialogue, between the viewer and the person in front of the lens.