"I WAS an athlete while I was at the academy. Many people don't know this, but for seven years running I was the Bulgarian Champion in the 400m sprint. Being an athlete, for me, was a way to be able to travel, when it was almost impossible. So when other students had to make do with reproductions of works of famous painters and sculptors, I visited the Louvre, the Dresden gallery, and several other interesting museums and galleries in Greece, Moscow and Poland," says Valentin Starchev who will be 70 this year.
We sit in a little office-like room in his atelier. There is a traditional Bulgarian table (Sofra) and wooden benches covered in hand-woven cloth.
"You wouldn't refuse some Scotch," he says, while he'd already poured me a big glass.
Like many artists in the past, Stachev had some scrapes with the Cultural Committee of the Socialist Party. Some of his works were refused exhbition on political grounds and were considered "dangerous" and "modern".
"During socialist times, I like any other artist enlisted to be part of exhibitions, whether the themes were more cultural, historical or more political. In any case, I always strived to be a professional and I take pride in my work. But sometimes my work was refused for political reasons. This however changed drastically after, among other people, Svetlin Roussev became vice chairman of the Painter's Union. They realised which artists did serious work and had to be encouraged and tolerated. And even the same people that threw my work out of exhibitions slowly but surely realised that socialistic realism that they so much wanted to keep, didn't have a future."
In 1981, Starchev made the monument in front of NDK (National Palace of Culture) called 1300 Years Bulgaria. This monument has become a point of political debate.
"When Yeltsin, who at the time was first secretary in Moscow, came to Sofia and saw the monument, he asked: `Why don't we get a monument like this in Moscow?' The French foreign minister had his picture taken in front of it. Then the photographer of Pierre Cardin came and waited all day to take pictures of the monument in different positions of the sun. I still have them. I might put them together for my next exhibition in the autumn of 2005. In 1986, the directors of UNESCO and the Minister of Culture of Costa Rica, who is a sculptor himself, also had their photographs taken in front of the monument. So, this is one point of view, when it comes to this monument. The Bulgarian version is very often: `Oh, but it's made in the time of a totalitarian regime' at the moment nobody wants to take responsibility for its upkeep for that reason. The Sofia municipality says: its upkeep is not our job, it's the Ministry of Culture who should cough up, the Ministry of Culture says, finances should come from the municipality. Meanwhile, the 1300 Years Bulgaria is deteriorating at such a rate, that bits and pieces have been falling out of it. Water gets into the monument and in wintertime frost makes pieces burst. Now, 800 000 leva is needed to fix it, and nobody wants to pay. That's the situation. And people have called this monument all kinds of vulgar names, but fact is people used to gather around it, and still do." Now, in the year of his seventieth birthday, Starchev is preparing for a new exhibition. It's going to be an ode to women and the beauty of the female body. This exhibition will consist of lithography's and sculptures. "Women and eroticism have been themes that I have been working on for many years. I think every artist has eroticism in his work, whether it's abstract, hidden, out in the open or even brutal. In the end, for me there has to be a little bit of a scandal in it. That's the nice thing about it. Ah, yes... women, they are quite something", he sighs.

Until March 12, sculptures and drawings by Starchev are being exhibited in the GreenCat Gallery on 6 Varbitsa Street, Sofia. The theme of the exhibition will be: woman and the beauty of the female body.
Painter Svetlin Roussev on Starchev:

"Valentin Starchev represents a kind of transition of contemporary Bulgarian sculpture, a pathway of freedom of the expressive forms, inner integrity and personal independence. His expressive works are above the limits of time and space, and in spite all historical, cultural and social vicissitudes of life represents a visual reflection of the Bulgarian spirit. Valentin Starchev is a symbol of the harsh reality of the national tradition combined with the leading European expression of forms. His works bear some figurative characteristics, and yet they cannot be defined as illustrative, while at the same time their form is expressive and yet it cannot be defined as abstract. Valentin Starchev is a sculptor who reigns space and is familiar with the inner life of the sculptural form and its specific expressions. Today Starchev greets the world of eternal spiritual values, and life has granted him the talent to turn them into sculpture by means of unveiling their mystery. A sculptor of his time, who is living in his own spiritual world. A sculptor of the infinite."

 

 

Biography

 

• Valentin Dechev Starchev was born on August 14 in Stara Zagora.  
• In 1959 he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia, specialising in sculpture.  
• His works include sculptures and sketches.
• Starchev made a lot of monuments, apart from the one in front of NDK, symbolising 1300 years of Bulgarian history 
• A number of his works were given as presents to Pope John Paul II and The King of Spain, Juan Carlos.
• His works are found in a number of galleries and private collections in Bulgaria as well as countries like Italy, the US, The Netherlands, Japan, France, India, Mexico, China, Romania and Belgium. 
• Starchev participated in several group exhibitions in Italy, former Czechoslovakia, Poland, Syria, Austria and The Netherlands. One-man exhibitions were held in Bulgaria, Austria, France, Denmark, Japan and Latvia.
• The sculptor is a professor of the Architecture Faculty of UACEG/ University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Sofia.  
• Starchev lives and works in Sofia.