Krassimir Krastev (b. 1972) spent two years routinely training as a bodybuilder to produce the artwork Corrections. From 1996 to 1998, the Bulgarian artist undertook strict dieting, bulk-building techniques and workout routines with a specialist trainer in order to gain optimum muscle mass. In its final form, the durational artwork is documented as five videos of 35-45 minutes and two photographs, Before and After, both standing at 210cm x 90 cm. A highlighted moment in Krastev’s career is his transition from an artist to an artist brand as a form of social commentary on the political changes in Bulgaria. The artist changed his name to RASSIM® and began to treat his artworks as products in the circulation of the art market commodity. Contextualised in a post-communist climate, politically motivated art became synonymous with performance and the body as subject, in this fashion, Rassim uses his transformation to join the discourse of Bulgaria’s national visual identity in occidental transition. The collective feeling of a misplaced identity is theorised as the borderline experience, unsure of the future or a country’s own traditions. In this period, Bulgarian artists of the 1990s practised in a decade of political and economic turmoil, this was reflected in the art commodity and institutions. Searching beyond Bulgaria for commissions and support equated to success, while this ensured artworks like Corrections could be realised it exposed a weakened society and a topic for artistic themes. Rassim’s bulky body is at the centre of the artwork and holds purpose for political response, the act of bodybuilding seen as a form of excess comments on the promised freedom leaving communism and the reality of the economic crash. In Corrections, the artist’s own body is sculpted into a readymade committing to the product identity, it is biologically and commercially manipulated for consumption.
The barbaric and the hyper-masc, Before and After (1996 -1998), are the two photographic works involved in the Corrections installation. The subject at the centre of both images is the artist himself, stoically posed in Before and ready to pounce in After. He is captured in the same stance in both images, legs shoulder width apart and arms hovering away from his body, a white backdrop is also repurposed, even his outfit is repeated consisting of only tight black shorts with the logo RASSIM® intentionally visible. Yet the one key detail that is essential to the entire artwork and distinguishes the two images is the great muscular difference. The consistency in reproduction, therefore, is vital for examining the artist’s transformation or correction. The body in the before shot is considerably leaner, wearing more body hair and appearing relaxed in expression, whereas the second shot sees the artist’s upper-body muscles enlarged, fists and jaw clenched and body shaved from head to toe. Rassim is carrying a heavier body in the latter image, reflected in the way he is standing and acting with a more alert presence. His transformation has evoked more than just bulk but a new attitude. To be in the presence of these two beasts, one might see a soldier in preparation for battle or a crafted bodybuilder dedicated to the gym. Canonised by Soviet philosophers such as Józef Tischner and Aleksandr Zinovyev, the theory of the homo sovieticus is the image of the ideal labouring man in the Soviet society,1 Rassim critiques this condition and subverts such philosophical social commentary in Corrections. The artist is shielded behind the image in an arena of his own body, a full frontal exposure of flesh and bones awaiting scrutiny. The documents are a strict two year time frame apart, where Before is the dissatisfaction of the figure and After is the execution of beauty. The importance of a before and after image in this work is a piece of evidence or a placeholder for the workout actions, whereas the complimentary video component is the documentation, both symbiotic depictions to the overall performance artwork that is Corrections.
Complimentary to the two photographs, video tapes recording the process reveal the performance in a multi-media light. Five screens stream a compilation of VHS tapes for a rough 30-45 minutes each, the scenes are short and focus on certain sections of the gym with the artist at the centre. A date stamp in the bottom right corner indicates time passing, as do the subtle changes in the man's appearance. Bodybuilding was formally banned in Bulgaria until 1989 as it was seen as an excessive sport.2 The two posters of fake-tanned and oiled up bodybuilders remind us of the inaccessible luxuries during communism and of Rassim’s goal, to correct himself. Unlike Western commercialised gyms, the videos depict a space with no music, no lighting and no other visitors; an empty location filled with the grunts and heavy exhales from Rassim and the echo of clanging metal equipment. The artist circulates through different workout repetitions mainly targeted at the upper body; dumbbells, bench dips, pull-ups, bicep curls and deadlifts. To some, the bodybuilding lifestyle becomes an addiction, an addiction to pain and pleasure. Scenes of Rassim reflecting on his achievements in the mirror are more intimate, the camera is pointed at the mirror where we can see his eyes examining his muscles. The clip ends with Rassim wiping the sweat off his face with a t-shirt that has ‘RASSIM CORRECTIONS’ printed in bold. The video component could be an advertisement for the brand identity, it could also be an artwork, regardless the filmed documentation questions the ontology of the performance. The artist holds the ability to edit his image as he sculpts his body, therefore the media choice is supplementary to the legitimisation of the performance.
Rassim’s work sits within a decade of reconstruction, an era of economically turbulent consequences that redefined the position of contemporary art in Bulgaria’s upcoming society. The art market prior to 1989 was controlled by state-owned Bulgarian organisations such as the Union of Bulgarian Artists (UBA). They were responsible for staging annual ‘General Art Exhibitions’, providing artists with studios, formal training and the financial security of commissions. The historically unstable political changes after the fall of communism in the 1990s impacted Bulgaria’s financial system and led to a decade-long economic crisis.3 These repercussions were felt in the art community, as the transition to market capitalism shocked the art market and institutions.4 Adjustments to funds and institutional structures mimicked the tumultuous governmental replacements and essentially endangered the production of contemporary art by neglecting its importance. Simultaneously a new generation of artists emerged in Bulgaria in conjunction with these economic setbacks. After the political quarantine of the past four decades of Soviet-style socialism with strict artistic rules, Bulgaria’s creative scene emerges into an international light amidst the tyranny of the globalisation of art. Bulgarian art theorist Vessela Nozharova reviews this period of art as quick to measure the pulse of economic changes and react as contemporary art should, with political undertones.5 For the possibility of commissions and with the accessibility to travel, Bulgarian artists began to search beyond their borders and towards Western European and American funds for commodifying their work.6
Rassim trained from 1992 to 1998 at the National Academy for Fine Arts in the department of painting and sculpture, this solidified his role in contemporary art at a crucial point of exposure for Bulgarians. The years he spent in art school were the years of highly active restructuring in the Eastern bloc; hyperinflation, low income, food shortages, privatisation of land and the devalued national currency,7 all greatly affecting citizens and further damaging the view on contemporary art. Rassim changed his name and dropped his last name to turn himself into a brand identity, he printed stickers and shirts ready mimicking the tactics of Westernised consumption. It worked, Rassim’s idea caught the attention of the French curator Ami Barak who at the time was the director of the Frac Occitanie Montpellier. The regional fund organisation commissioned the production of Corrections (1996-98) right at the pinnacle of financial hardship in Bulgaria, accelerating Rassim’s profile and cementing his position to an international audience.8 Corrections travelled around Europe and North America in group shows at the luxury of the Western touch. Just as the artist consumed protein powder to gain muscle weight, his work was consumed, photographed and bought by collectors. Corrections now lives in the permanent collection of the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden. To borrow an idea from Amy Brezegl who writes on performance art in Eastern Europe, the body is located in a system whether it be political or artistic. Corrections embodies a critical recognition of the power a body has in the position of Bulgaria and the globalised art market.
The literary meditations on Rassim’s work emphasise his sculptural practice, beauty standards and the use of his body as the canvas. Comically referring to himself as Michelangelo with his sculpture of David in the artist statement,9 Rassim speaks to the shallow understanding of his context. The writing and criticism on this topic are typically found in archival documents, personal blogs and in this case provided by RASSIM in the ‘reviews’ tab of his website.10 Here lay the curated and mostly positive remarks on Corrections chosen by the artist. Bulgarian curator Iara Boubnova advertises his work in Flash Art Magazine 2001 by stating “his life is the permanent exhibition of the project..simulating an other-identity”11 and in Christopher Phillips’ iReport from Sofia’ in Art in America 1997 he describes the work as “sarcastically evok[ing] the country’s recent social crisis”.12 Bias picks or not, they detail two important factors of the work - the subject and context. Rudolf Frieling adds a new dimension to the criticism of Corrections. In his 2004 essay on ‘Hybrid Processes Between Art and Life,’ he equates Rassim’s practice to an “ironical rejoinder to the Western body cult”, this directly accuses the artwork of obeying the logic of image value which is an important tool in Westernised contemporary art. Friedling’s writing on hybrid body installations believes they have a porous nature, where the body moves between the public and private view through the vessel of photo or video medium. On the same website, Friedling publishes an artwork analysis of Corrections. He is keenly fixated on the capitalist value of images that he believes Rassim is toying with in the artwork, where the act of bodybuilding is a capitalist social mould.13 Frieling associates this artwork with Marie-Jo Lafontaine’s 1987 video installation Les Larmes d'Acier, a gigantic sculpture of video screens stacked on top of each other in the shape of a large human. The screens play the same video of a muscly man in a sweaty workout routine. While these stances remain true to RASSIM’s ethos, they fail to consider the artist’s personal experiences. Art Historian Amy Bryzgel applies historically retrospective qualities to Eastern European body performance.14 In her writing on Rassim’s practice, she uncovers that Corrections draws memories from the artist’s conscription in the army and that this artwork is a means to cope with reality before it can be conceived as art.15 While the commodifiable perspective of Corrections understands the work in a broader art historical situ, national self-identification can be applied more liberally to this artwork to unravel the concept of masculinity further.
Bulgaria’s self-identification leaving communism was as unstable as their economy, artists involved in this discourse reflect on a communal borderline experience.16 This form of identity crisis, which artistically converts to identity politics, emerges in the space of freedom collectively felt by Eastern bloc states in transition. Bulgarian scholar Yordan Ljukanov characterises the concept of ‘borderline identity’ as a notion borrowed from post-colonial studies. The term in art history is frequently paired with labels such as marginal, composite, hybrid and liminal in describing art practices from countries on the periphery of Western canons.17 Stemming from these ideas, the Balkan experience sits at a literal and figurative crossroad between the East and West. Post-communist theorists such as Ljukanov and Bulgarian writer Alexander Kiossev appropriate the thoughts of Edward Said and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak to define the intersection between post-colonial studies and post-communist studies.18 Anchored is the issue of occidentalism and orientalism, where the former is a distorted image of Western society and the latter is the reciprocal. The encroaching development of conceptual art during the later stages of communism is labelled as nonconformist, it personified underground art circles in Bulgaria and was informed by degrading Eastern and Western binaries, this only increased in the post-communist phase. Rassim’s practice in this era reflects a historiography of the Bulgarian image. This body-bulking artwork, therefore, is a symbol of the wake of a new generation and era of society. Other Bulgarian artists working at the time also dealt with their asynchronicity to the West. Nedko Solakov’s Top Secret (1989-1990) is a readymade filing cabinet of real and fake documents from his time as a state security officer, this historically informed work responds to national shame and secrets. An artwork like Corrections leaves the Bulgarian sphere to travel around Europe, it thus represents Bulgaria as a pavilion would at a biennale. The work comes from a borderline identity, it comically mocks American bodybuilders while remaining uniquely spirited to Rassim’s home country. A national essence is in Corrections, it evokes the same pride depicted on the Bulgarian coat of arms by three rampant lions. Nozharova describes the artist’s actions in Corrections as “alive and completely sincere”.19 Rassim’s art is didactic in its expression of the Bulgarian persona, one that has finally captured authority and redefined the previously pushed and pulled identity.
The body is the star of the artwork, it is also the symbol and idea, a material and a canvas, and it dictates the politics in the work. Rassim’s almost naked figure has undergone a calculated transformation into a stronger man, also known as the ideal man for labour. Instead of bulking for self-satisfaction or confidence, he is bulking for his nation’s politics. This follows in the shadow of the homo sovieticus, a man devoid of individuality. In classical Soviet Union propaganda, the image of the working class is pictured as homogenised so both the man and woman are expected to work. In the socialist states, including Bulgaria, a certain degree of surveillance was exercised. Public spaces were monitored, gatherings were suspicious and any form of uprising was policed, this scrutiny remained ingrained in the society for decades to come. Subjecting the body to control has thus informed many of the sociopolitical factors of body-based art in the 1980s and 1990s since the artist occupies a space with their corporal presence. This surrounds an argument in the history of Bulgarian body art, typically in feminist works, where the body is always located in a system of control. Rassim’s Corrections is involved in this history and couples the themes of surveillance with his own history in the army and as a sculpture student in art school. Amy Brezgel believes that much of Eastern Europe’s body art originates from the cheap and readily available resource of one's own body,20 think Marina Abramovic’s Rhythm 0 (1974) or Tomislav Gotovac’s Streaking (1971), artworks that clearly rely on just the presence and existence of the artist’s body. Yes, the documentation of Corrections informs the work holistically, but the essence of the work is in the biological changes we can’t visually see, the material inside the canvas. The internal changes in Rassim’s body that result from protein smoothies and steroids have long-lasting effects beyond the artwork. He has manipulated his body, and damaged his muscles through working out, thus Corrections can be read as a reparative artwork, since the muscle fibres have been torn they must grow new myofibrils and therefore repair by increasing in thickness. Rassim is the surveillance and the body, Rassim is also the passive character, at once removed through the documentation and present in the performance.
Corrections (1996-1998) is a spotlight in Bulgaria’s post-communist art history. The work is a photograph and video in execution, representative of Rassim's spirited performance over two years. Undeniably this work is informed by the economically turbulent era of the 1990s in Bulgaria. Approaching the new millennium with the nation’s expansion and globalising opportunities, a new image of Bulgarian art is being crafted and Rassim is the translator. The act of bodybuilding, previously banned in Bulgaria as it was seen as an indulgent activity, positions this work in the realm of body and identity politics. Similarly, the act of bulking comments on the image of national identity and the masculine in society, Corrections reclaims what it means to make art as a young Bulgarian and represent the country. The context in Rassim’s work is important, much of the literature on Corrections views his work as symptomatic of the cultural isolation of Bulgaria’s communist regime and emblematic of tapping into the global art canons. Financed and approved by a French commission this work wouldn’t have garnered the same attention, yet it stands out as a sincere delineation of Eastern European performative work. Having previously trained as a sculptor, Rassim’s own corporal presence is now the material. The muscular enlargement in After sits at the intersection of body art, performance art and political art. The artist’s body is directly involved in the work, biological alteration is the key artistic intervention here, therefore a changed mindset is equally applied. Employing his mind and soul into the work completes the inspiring immersion of Corrections.
Krzyszto Tyszkaf, "Homo Sovieticus: Two Decades Later," Polish Sociological Review, no. 168 (2009): p. 508.
“Rassim,” Performance Art in Eastern Europe, Amy Bryzgel, https://amybryzgel.wordpress.com/rassim/
Elena Simeonova, "A Revolution in Two Stages" in The 1989 Revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe, 192-209. (Manchester University Press, 2015), 192.
Vessela Nozharova, Introduction to Bulgarian Contemporary Art (1982– 2015). (Open Arts Foundation and Sariev Contemporary Gallery: 2018), 54.
ibid, 36
Klaus Müller, “Speaking English: A Dialogue with Eastern and Central European Museum Professionals,” Curator: The Museum Journal 48, no. 1 (January 2005): 60. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2151-6952.2005.tb00154.x.
Elena Simeonova, "A Revolution in Two Stages: The Curiosity of the Bulgarian Case" in The 1989 Revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe: From Communism to Pluralism, (Manchester University Press, 2013), 204.
Vessela Nozharova, Introduction to Bulgarian Contemporary Art (1982– 2015). (Open Arts Foundation and Sariev Contemporary Gallery: 2018), 134.
“Portfolio,” Artist Statement, Krassimir Krastev, Open Art Files, https://openartfiles.bg/en/people/1015-krassimir-krastev-rassim
“Reviews,” Rassim, Krassimir Krastev, https://www.rassim.com/reviews.html
Iara Boubnova, "Aperto Sofia," Flash Art Magazine, (November-December, 2001): p. 53-55.
Christopher Phillips, "Report from Sofia," Art in America, (October, 1997): p. 47-53.
“Rassim Krastev,” Rudolf Frieling, Media Art Net. http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/corrections/images/4/.
“Rassim,” Performance Art in Eastern Europe, Amy Bryzgel, https://amybryzgel.wordpress.com/rassim/
“Performance Art in Bulgaria,” Open Art Files, Amy Bryzgel, 2019 https://openartfiles.bg/en/topics/1396-performance-art-in-bulgaria.
Klaus Müller, “Speaking English: A Dialogue with Eastern and Central European Museum Professionals,” Curator: The Museum Journal 48, no. 1 (January 2005): p. 67. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2151-6952.2005.tb00154.x.
Yordan Ljuckanov, “Bulgarian Cultural Identity as a Borderline One,” Interlitteraria 20, no. 2 (December 31, 2015): p. 87, https://doi.org/10.12697/IL.2015.20.2.9.
Alexander Kiossev, “The Self-Colonisation Metaphor,” Cultural Aspects of the Modernisation Process, no.3 (1995): p. 3.
Vessela Nozharova, Introduction to Bulgarian Contemporary Art (1982– 2015). (Open Arts Foundation and Sariev Contemporary Gallery: 2018)p. 134.
Amy Bryzgel, Performance Art in Eastern Europe since 1960: The Body, 1st ed (Rethinking Art's Histories: Manchester University Press, 2017) P.106.
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