Plamen Yankov is a visual artist based in Sofia, Bulgaria, working in the fields of photography, performance and installations.
'Planet of the Wastes' is a series of performative self-portraits and a typology of waste items that are combined to form a photography installation. Photographed on an illegal landfill situated in Bulgaria in August, 2019.
It focuses our attention on pollution, the impact of human activity on the environment and the process of “terra-deformation".
The Photography transfers the viewer to a distant white planet with abandoned landscapes, covered with garbage and scrap. In this alienated place the artist photographs himself wearing a monkey mask. The monkey tries to interact with the viewer with different tools - human waste- found at this place. The monkey-human counterpoint is a key element in the project’s concept. The monkey character is an opposition to the act of transformation of the environment done by humans. The artist questions if this should be the final stage of the human evolution. The monkey remains a lonely spectator and witness of a world destroyed by the humans.
However, in reality this planet is not as distant as it seems, it is real and is actually very close to us.
"This is our planet. We are running out of time and the monkey passes the ball to us, because only we can stop this".
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