Bio : Rassim (Krasimir Krastev) born 1972 in Orehovitsa, Bulgaria. Lives and works in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Description : Between 1996-98, over an 18 month period, the artist corrects or alters his body by bodybuilding. He trains in the gym, takes proteins, vitamins and amino-acids, creating a live sculpture of contemporary naked body. Since the early 1970s, using one’s own body ranks among one of the essential components of most performances. Insisting on the reality of the body was a stance in opposition to an ideological and realistic-social mould. In the 1990s, this clearly articulated opposition could no longer be sustained. Through the video documentation of his action piece Rassim reacts to this drastic and perceptual expulsion of the body’s value in East European countries. In achieving the ideal image of the successful person, he points toward the logic of a capitalist value of images. In the end these “corrected” images are again received by the Western art market as part of the tomfoolery of his project’s logic.