Alzek Misheff (

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

: Алцек Мишев) (October 8, 1940) is a popular Bulgarian-Italian

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

born in

Dupnica Dupnitsa, or Dupnica ( bg, Дупница (previously ), ), is a town in Western Bulgaria. It is at the foot of the highest mountains in the Balkan Peninsula – the Rila Mountains, and about south of the capital Sofia. Dupnitsa is the second la ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

. Misheff graduated in 1966 with a degree in painting from the

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute o ...

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

. In 1971 he left Bulgaria for

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

where he currently lives and works in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. Misheff is named after the Medieval Bulgar leader

Alcek Alcek or Alzeco was allegedly a son of Kubrat and led the Altsikurs to Ravenna that later settled in the villages of Gallo Matese, Sepino, Boiano and Isernia in the Matese mountains of southern Italy. Alzeco should not be confused with the Pannonia ...

who led the Bulgars to Italy and settled in the area of

Benevento Benevento (, , ; la, Beneventum) is a city and ''comune'' of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill above sea level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino (or Beneventano) and the ...

Career

He is well known in the international art world for the project ''Swimming Across The Atlantic'', which was executed in the swimming pool of the ocean liner

Queen Elizabeth 2 ''Queen Elizabeth 2'' (''QE2'') is a retired British ocean liner converted into a floating hotel. Originally built for the Cunard Line, the ship, named as the second ship named ''Queen Elizabeth'', was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic ...

in 1982 while traveling on the route between

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. In the book ''Europa-America - The different avant-gardes'' produced by

Franco Maria Ricci Franco Maria Ricci (2 December 1937 – 10 September 2020) was an Italian art publisher and magazine editor. Amongst his publications is '' FMR'', a Milan-based bi-monthly art magazine published in Italian, English, German, French, and Spanish for ...

in 1976,

Achille Bonito Oliva Achille Bonito Oliva (born 1939) is an Italian art critic and historian of contemporary art. Since 1968 he has taught history of contemporary art at La Sapienza, the university of Rome. He has written extensively on contemporary art and contempo ...

inserts Misheff between the more 30 avant-garde artists in Europe. Between his more meaningful performances ''Music of the sky'', concert-installation of 1979 in the Public square of the

Dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

. Replicated in 1979 in

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and

University of California Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

(near

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

). He was invited to the Venice Biennial 2000, where he realized ''Proliferating Truth of Sentiment '' (''Proliferante verità del sentimento''): dived in full transparent water cylinder he has played with Lightning II (an infrared controller) and he has directed his quintet "The Swimmers". In May 2005, at the Pavilion of Contemporary Art of Milan (PAC), he directed his "Concert for Stradivari violin, pianoforte Disklavier and quartet of mobilephones-violins" with the violinist

Eugene Sarbu Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...

, Paganini prize winner. He was invited for the second time to the Venice Biennial in 2007, with ''Chalk portrait music of Joseph Beuys'', then in sept. 16 in the same year the closing concert ''Harmonia mundi per Joseph Beuys" with the "Orchestra italiana di flauti" (Italian flute Orchestra).

Current projects

Currently he works at th
Octavia Thea Studio
which is located in

References

External links

Official artist site
Living people 1940 births Bulgarian male artists Italian artists Bulgarian emigrants to Italy People from Dupnitsa {{Italy-artist-stub