THE PIPE / Descriptive Processes is a continuation and conceptual expansion of the project previously realized at +359 Gallery – The Water Tower.
The exhibition examines the process of creating the installation in the Water Tower, tracing its development, logic, and transformations. The two projects will operate in parallel, creating a dialogue between the completed work and its internal construction, between the result and the process.
The work emphasizes the most fundamental social medium — the movement of ascending and descending that inevitably accompanies every exhibition experience. Here, it is transformed into the primary means of expression. The architecture is based on functionalism, yet the concept seeks to transform it into a social sculpture, shifting the focus toward experience.
The permanent circular movement functions as a humanoid kinetic mechanism. The restrained intervention does not impose rigid boundaries but invites the viewer to traverse the entirety of the space and physically experience the presence of an invisible limitation. Physical effort and immersion in the process are the primary mechanisms for a deeper understanding of the work.
The socialization of the work reaches the fundamental reason for the existence of the idea itself — the construction of a simplified whole through concise means within human consciousness, through the phenomenology of hidden factors that remain latently present in every artwork.
Installation view
THE PIPE
Site-specific installation by Ivaylo Avramov
23.12.2025 – 16.01.2026
Gallery +359
The Pipe is a socio-spatial dissection of the architecture of the Water Tower. It is an invisible object that becomes visualized retrospectively in the viewer’s mind. It is created through circular markings of topographic projections which, when placed one above another, generate the entire volume vertically and fully enclose the outline of a circle. Throughout the experience, the viewer has the choice to move within either the inner or the peripheral spatial sector of the pipe.
The work emphasizes the most fundamental social medium – the act of ascending and descending, which has been transformed into the primary means of expression. The architecture is based on functionalism, while the concept seeks to turn it into a social sculpture by shifting the focus toward experience. The permanent circular movement is the humanized kinetic mechanism that visualizes the parameters of the work.
The restrained intervention does not impose rigid boundaries on the space of observation. It invites each viewer to traverse its entirety and to physically sense the presence of the invisible limitation. The effort of physical engagement and immersion in its process are the primary mechanisms for understanding the work in depth. Its socialization reaches the principal reason for the life of the idea itself – the construction of a simplified whole through concise means within human consciousness, thanks to the phenomenology of the hidden factors that remain latently present in every artwork.
The installation consists of seven circular projections on the terraces of the Water Tower, extending the rotation of the staircases. Each projection has a radius of R = 1.90 m, a diameter of D = 3.80 m, and a circumference of C = 11.93 m. Their linear lengths are:
Basement: C = 8.76 m
Ground Floor: C = 7.84 m
First Floor: C = 8.50 m
Second Floor: C = 8.50 m
Third Floor: C = 8.50 m
Reservoir: C = 10.60 m
Attic: C = 10.05 m
Total linear length of the projections: 62.75 m.
Pipe dimensions: 23.75 × 3.80 × 3.80 m.
Installation view
About the artist
Ivaylo Avramov was born in 1968 in Sofia, Bulgaria. He graduated from the National Academy of Arts, majoring in Sculpture under Prof. Krum Damyanov (1996). Doctor of Art History and Fine Arts (2020). National Award for Sculpture “Acad. Ivan Lazarov” (2022)
Solo exhibitions:
Possibilities of Empathy, Cube Gallery, Toplotsentrala, Sofia (2025); Retrospective Translation, Boris Georgiev Gallery, Varna (2025); Connected Balance, Arosita Gallery, Sofia (2024); Supports. Sculpture in Architecture, Vladimir Dimitrov-Maistora Gallery, Kyustendil (2023); Capacity, Vaska Emanuilova Gallery, Sofia (2023); Credo Box: Tilted / Наклонен, Credo Box, Credo Bonum Gallery, Sofia (2023); Night Light / Night Light; Bitter Curses, Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries, Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA (2019); Subjects, Krug+ Gallery, Sofia (2007)