Igor and Ivan Buharov present their first solo exhibition at the acb Gallery. The artist duo has been creating experimental artwork in the frontiers between visual art and film since 1995. Their surreal short films, with their unique atmosphere and grotesque visual world, convey today’s Eastern European reality mixed with philosophical and transcendent ideals, as well as necro-realistic humour. Their short and feature films – shot with analogue filmmaking technique and, mostly, amateur actors – have been shown at numerous international film festivals and exhibitions, including the Manifesta 8 biennial. 

Their exhibition entitled Everything Included, has been inspired by crypto-anarchism and the idealism of McKenzie Wark’s A Hacker Manifesto, among others. In the works of Igor and Ivan Buharov, anarchism and social utopia serve as instruments of social critique and a reaction to the injustices present in the modus operandi of 21^st century society: the systematically uneven distribution of wealth, information, and education. While the ideals of anarchism have roots that go back hundreds of years, they have – save for a few exceptions – not been tried in practice. According to the Buharovs’ approach, anarchism is a possible activist answer to the perplexities and helplessness of present day society, as well as to the absence of civic courage. The exhibition also makes references to such apparent solutions to the conditions of hopelessness and being without means as the belief in mystical and esoteric teachings – highlighting the obscure nature of these doctrines through the use of unique “Buharovesque” tools.