Publications

  • [ENG] Zagorov, V. (2023). Dicks or Hearts. What Can Modern Wall Self-expression Tell us? BBDS – Black Book: Drawing and Sketching, 3(1), 6 – 18. https://doi.org/10.48619/bbds.v3i1.589

Abstract: The article looks at modern graffiti, in the widest sense of understanding this notion, as a means of studying the prehistoric rock art. Based on the case study approach, a number of locations have been presented of self-expression of modern humans, which are current conveniently forgotten by civilized people practices of the past of human civilization. The object of research is a city wall, which has been a mediator of an active process of written and visual communication for the last decade. An analysis has been made of the means of expression, the motifs and techniques of the messages. Based on this study, the potential of such objects to help the research in the field of prehistoric rock art is present. A series of questions have been posed that can be useful when applying the contemporary methods of studying the early steps of visualizing human thought.

Keywords: Social Communication, Graffiti, Prehistoric art, History, Modern Manifestations, Comparative Analysis

  • [ENG] Zagorov, V., & Hristov, H. (2023). Contemporary Graffiti as a Tool for Studying Prehistoric Art: A Classification Attempt. Springer Nature, Human Arenas. Published online: 7 November 2023. doi: 10.1007/s42087-023-00369-z Available here: https://rdcu.be/dqrpZ

Abstract: This article aims to present a classification of contemporary graffiti to support the study of Prehistoric art. The classification is based on two-year field observations of both completed and newly created works of contemporary graffiti and street art. The classification is oriented to the result of the creative act in view of its communicative significance. The scientific approach does not aim to create direct parallels between specific artistic samples, but to study the basic principles, stages, and starting points of the creative act. Thanks to the classification, on the principle of analogy, a series of questions have been prepared, and addressed to archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, and art critics with a greater degree of training in the field of Prehistoric art. The current research seeks to explain some aspects of Prehistoric art through modern graffiti. Of course, this approach is not intended to negate the scientific hypotheses and results achieved so far in the field of Archaeology and History of Art but to help scholars of prehistoric art study to ask or reformulate a series of questions that will contribute to a more comprehensive view and understanding of Prehistoric art.

Keywords: Graffiti, Prehistoric art, Research, Comparative studies, Classification

  • [BG] Holts, Slavyana. Tantsuvane sas syankata – sotsialno-psihologicheski aspekti na tvorcheskia akt v grafiti izkustvoto. – V: Obshtestvoto na znanieto i humanizmat na XXI vek : XXI natsionalna nauchna konferentsia s mezhdunarodno uchastie Sofia, 1 noemvri 2023 = Knowledge Society and 21st Century Humanism. The 21st International Scientific Conference Sofia, 1st November 2023. Sofia: Za bukvite – O pismenehy, 2023, pp. 219-229. Available here: https://buditeli.unibit.bg/

Abstract: In this article I analyze the social-psychological aspects of the creative act in graffiti art on several levels. The first has a descriptive character and includes a semiotic classification of graffiti creativity, on the basis of which an adequate reading of the social-existential code of this subcultural phenomenon is possible. The second is an elucidative level within the theoretical frameworks of contemporary analytical psychology and neuroscience, where the dynamics of the mental processes driving this creative impulse and contemporary expression are elucidated on the one hand, and the prehistoric origins of these dynamics as part of primary mental systems are demonstrated on the other. The parallels between contemporary graffiti and rock art thus become the subject of future scientific work.

Keywords: graffiti art, social analysis, analytical psychology.

  • [BG] Hristov, Hristo. Grafiti komunikatsiyata – sahranyavane i predavane na informatsia chrez izobrazhenia.– V: Obshtestvoto na znanieto i humanizmat na XXI vek : XX natsionalna nauchna konferentsia s mezhdunarodno uchastie Sofia, 1 noemvri 2022 = Knowledge Society and 21st Century Humanism The 20th International Scientific Conference Sofia, 1st November 2022. Sofia: Za bukvite – O pismenehy, 2022, (2022), s. 294–303. ISSN 2683-0094. Available: https://buditeli.unibit.bg/lib/avtori/christo-christov/3-kulturno-nasldstvo/123-h-hristov

Abstract: Street graffiti artists are unwittingly carrying the memory of all artists before them, even when they have no professional training. They construct the world around them as a process of turning artistic activity into specialized labor, and its profiling into narrow professional categories can be considered one of the formal signs of a general artistic evolution. Contemporary graffiti has several functions. The main one is self-expression, the others are a means of dialogue, part of the development of each individual’s creativity, and last but not least, the preservation of pictograms until today despite the alphabetic system, which can be considered as a form of mediated communication.

Keywords: prehistoric art, test groups, experiment.

  • [BG] Zagorov, Vasil, Hristov, Hristo. Motivi i podbudi pri savremennoto gradsko stenno izkustvo. // Ustoychivi politiki za integralno sahranyavane na materialnoto i nematerialnoto kulturno nasledstvo: Sbornik s dokladi ot Nauchna konferentsia, provedena na 7-8 yuni 2021 g., gr. Malko Tarnovo. – AI Za bukvite – O pismenehy, 2021. – s. 27-33. Available: HERE

Abstract: Prehistoric rock art presents individual and social ideas and concepts that are not foreign to modern man. Historical research unequivocally proves that Neolithic, Eneolithic, and modern man differ not in their mental capacities but in the set of external extensions used in everyday life. On the basis of this assumption, the hypothesis is put forward that comparing graffiti culture with cave art can help to ask a series of questions whose answers will contribute to a better knowledge of the early manifestations of human art, which may lead to the search for other similarities and parallels of a more general nature.

Keywords: graffiti, history, prehistoric art.

“…Graffiti are the oldest form of self-expression and of materialization of human thought – their use and understanding, purely technical, distinguishes man from the monkey. On a global scale there is a globally recognized phenomenon – graffiti culture and graffiti art. I will only stress here that opera is not for everyone, you do the thinking if you can. The evolution of both the urban environment and individual artists and graffiti writers goes from the small and ugly to the large and beautiful…”

Keywords: graffiti, opinion, Sofia

  • [BG] Hristov, Hristo. Paralel v evolyutsiyata na kreativnostta, vaobrazhenieto i abstraktnoto mislene ot praistoricheskite risunki do savremennoto urbanistichno prostranstvo. – V: Obshtestvoto na znanieto i humanizmat na XXI vek : HIX natsionalna nauchna konferentsia s mezhdunarodno uchastie Sofia, 1 noemvri 2021 g. = Knowledge Society and 21st Century Humanism The 19 th International Scientific Conference Sofia, 1st November 2021. Sofia: Za bukvite – O pismenehy, 2021, (2021), s. 200–207. ISSN 2683-0094. Available: https://buditeli.unibit.bg/lib/3-kulturno-nasldstvo/2-hristo-hristov

Abstract: Despite its recent formalization, the art of street graffiti remains a counter-reaction to all that surrounds it. For almost forty years now, this art has claimed its existence, manifesting itself as an autonomous model in contemporary art that has nothing to do with tradition, if only because it was imported and developed in a completely unfamiliar environment.

Keywords: prehistoric drawings, graffiti, counterculture, urbanization.

  • [RU] Hristov, Hristo. ОТ ДОИСТОРИЧЕСКИХ ПЕЩЕРНЫХ РИСУНКОВ ДО ГЛОБАЛЬНОЙ СЕТИ // Труды БГТУ. Серия 4: Принт- и медиатехнологии. 2021. №1 (243). URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/ot-doistoricheskih-peschernyh-risunkov-do-globalnoy-seti (дата обращения: 12.09.2023). Available here: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/ot-doistoricheskih-peschernyh-risunkov-do-globalnoy-seti

Abstract: The development of the modern mind, the evolution of creativity, imagination, abstract and contemporary thinking has deep roots in the earliest history of mankind. The motives of the creative act “today” are close to the motives of the creative act in the distant “yesterday”, determining the main engine of human culture and civilization – storage and transmission of information through the image.

Keywords: prehistoric drawings, street wall art, graffiti, information.

  • [EN] Hristo Hristov, Vasil Zagorov. IDEA, EXECUTION, INTERVENTION – OR HOW WORKS OF ART SLIP OUT OF THEIR AUTHORS’ HANDS MODERN DIMENSIONS in EUROPEAN EDUCATION Volume 11 МЕЖДУНАРОДЕН ПЪТУВАЩ СЕМИНАР НА УНИБИТ „СЪВРЕМЕННИ ИЗМЕРЕНИЯ НА ЕВРОПЕЙСКОТО ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛНО И НАУЧНОПРОСТРАНСТВО.  БЪЛГАРО-КИПЪРСКИ КУЛТУРНИ ОБЩУВАНИЯ“28 МАЙ – 04 ЮНИ 2023 Г., ГР. ЛИМАСОЛ, КИПЪР

Abstract: In the history of art and culture there are moments when influenced by various circumstances, it happens that corrections are made to already existing works of art. Some are successful, but most are unfortunate, often ridiculous, even malicious. Adjustments are most often made to works of architecture, but it happens in literature as well. The most recent trends involve new editions of books by Mark Twain, Astrid Lindgren, even works by Ivan Vazov. The same are the examples of “remake films” – started by one director and finished by another. The accumulation, addition, crossover and erasure are phenomena that can be traced back to the dawn of fine art. It can also be found in the urban environment, in the authors of contemporary graffiti. The similarities in this practice, to add or to diminish a previous creation, warrants a comparative analysis between cave art and contemporary street art, which are outlined in this paper.,

Keywords: prehistoric art, contemporary street art, graffiti, crossing

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