RASSIM® – Krasimir Krastev (b. 1972) is among the most prominent harbingers of the radical change in the understanding of art on the Bulgarian art scene during the 1990s. His most famous series, Corrections, presents the artist using his own body to reproduce contemporary social stereotypes—the typical attractive macho from advertisements, the muscular bodybuilder, the drug addict, the “other.” This concept has made him an iconic figure not only on the Bulgarian but also on the international art scene.
RASSIM® has participated in significant international exhibitions such as Body and the East, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana (1998); After the Wall: Art and Culture in Post-Communist Europe, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1999), Hamburger Bahnhof Museum, Berlin (2000); Blood & Honey / Future’s in the Balkans, The ESSL Collection, Vienna (2003); the 26th São Paulo Art Biennial, Brazil (2004); RASSIM number one, Horse Champ Gallery, Strasbourg (2005); Glamour and Globalisation, Phoenix Halle, Dortmund (2006); Reality Crossings, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim (2007); EXBODYTYON, Studio 25, Sofia (2008); Transitland. Video Art from Central and Eastern Europe 1989–2009, Transmediale, Berlin (2009); XXL Group. Reminiscences of the 1990s, Sofia City Art Gallery (2010); Gender Check. Femininity and Masculinity in Eastern European Art, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw and MUMOK, Vienna (2010); {Poem 88}, Tanner-Hill Gallery, Atlanta (2011); On Your Marks. Body, Sport and Society, Deutsche Hygiene-Museum, Dresden (2011); RASSIM Broadcast, Studio 25, Sofia (2011); Olympiss Games, Arosita Gallery, Sofia (2012); and KRASSIM®IR, Sofia Arsenal – Museum of Contemporary Art, Sofia (2016).
In 1997, his exhibition Another Angle was awarded “Exhibition of the Year” by the Ata-Ray Gallery in Sofia. RASSIM® is also one of the founders of the XXL Gallery, one of the most influential independent art spaces in Sofia during the 1990s. In recent years, the artist has continued to develop new conceptual projects and exhibitions. In 2024, he presented the exhibition Unfinished Works 2024–2007 at One Gallery, Sofia. In 2025–2026, his works are included in the group exhibition “Surfacing,” curated by Dr. Maria Vassileva at the Kazanlak Art Gallery. In 2025, the work Corrections (Short Version) (1996–1998) entered the collection of the Centre Pompidou – Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris. In 2026, he will present the solo exhibition Bleu Futur at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Paris.
