Anton Terziev

“I think therefore I play” is an aphorism I heart by chance that sticks with me in the most needed times. An idea coming not from a philosopher but a phootballer. An idea by a homo sapiens who happens to be homo ludens if you are reading the fine print.
“I think therefore I play” is a simple yet elegant sign off to the bestseller biography of the famous football player and a perfect example for the versatility of meaning. An example for a double meaning in the political context as well. The game here though has quite the field and the score has an enormous magnitude for different social groups around the world and that's what interests me as a painter. Today games are played constantly, games with a prize pool in which people are drowning.

But let us get back to the game at hand, the game which is a long lasting fascination and an interest to me. I`m eager to tackle the broad spectrum of meanings coming from this single, yet multilayered word - game. The Olympic ones, the children ones and of course the ones that have nothing to do with rules, keeping score or arriving to a winner.
The aphorism of the football player is a mere word play keeping up with the need of the market. Quite evident is that the footballer doesn't have anything to do with the Platon`s genesis of the game. Everyday such a word play can and will be seen all over the media channels. A slogan sells us by playing with our conceptions for meaning. A game in which the more arrogant the writer the better the attention. Advertising has gotten more sinister and to achieve so it has changed the rules of the game or even more so it has changed the game. Today we are not motivated by reason but rather by cheap thrills so the game in which we are involved has ever changing rules and a clock that is always running fast.

The game is just a form of communication but do the players tune in to the same frequencies? How many games are there in the global political game board? Who keeps score and who uses it to gamble? From whom are these games hidden? We can see that there is something going on, we see the passes, sometimes even can read the offside but never can we witness the game in whole. It is not for the everyday spectator even if this spectator is also a pawn on the field.
Our fear of not having entire control over our lives pushes us in thinking that someone somewhere is playing a hidden game. And there isn't any fairplay.

But “Hidden games”* don't end here there are numerous connotations that are yet to be explored.
What are the political boundaries of the Game? Shared rules make up the world where we operate. Physically or mentally, self conscious or not, you will be submitted under the game's goals and rules and invited to the field. And this field can be spread from the four walls of a office to the borders and a country or even a continent. Determining the layout of the play field gives the players a grasp of their potential in the game.