From rifle to flute: Constantine Zlatev's art for peace

A Bulgarian mountaineer made a career in America, but the pandemic brought him home

published on 10/2/24 3:49 PM

Photo: madeinconstantine.com

Twenty-seven years ago, a Bulgarian mountaineer left his country in the grip of social and economic instability to fulfil a long-held dream. With about $3,000 in his pocket and a backpack, Constantine Zlatev set off for the US to climb one of the rocky peaks of Yosemite National Park in California.

"I decided to stay because I wanted to continue climbing and develop in this environment. Climbing there is very different from climbing in Europe. The rocks are granite, which means they have extremely smooth crevasses that you have to know how to step into. In Europe, we have limestone or granite cliffs where there are always some holds to hold on to," says Constantine Zlatev.

One of the first people he met while pursuing this passion was the owner of a tree maintenance company, where Constantine started working to buy the equipment he needed for his climbs. However, he soon decided to set up his own business:

"Living among mountaineers, I started a company producing sports and mountaineering equipment. The first prototypes were sewn in Bulgaria and then imported to the USA. Over time, I realised that I needed to get more serious about design. I studied industrial design and then worked as a computer designer for a long time. At some point I also got involved in several NASA projects, designing satellites for the private company the agency was working with. The satellites had to be able to take pictures and send them back to Earth 24 hours a day.

When industrial design failed to satisfy him, he turned to art - modern art, to be precise.

However, during the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, art was one of the hardest hit areas. Commissions dropped dramatically or disappeared altogether. Constantine tells us that he didn't receive a single email for more than two years.

"Although the years of the pandemic were hard on my family - my father died, as did my wife's mother - it gave us a chance to rethink our lives and where we were going.

First, we were stranded in Pakistan, where my wife is from. For three months we couldn't leave the country because everything was closed. I'm actually grateful for that because it meant we got to spend more time with her family, who we'd only seen for a few days at a time.

The first chance we had to fly we went to Bulgaria. We stayed with my dad for the next 9 months. We are in Gabrovo now because my parents used to live there. In short, as terrible as it was for some people, it helped us make the decision to move to Bulgaria earlier".

"My career as an artist and sculptor basically began in America," Constantine Zlatev told Radio Bulgaria. Collectors of contemporary art in New York and San Francisco took an interest in his work. Now living in Bulgaria, he continues to create art that sends messages to a world plagued by war and violence.

In response to the growing number of incidents in which innocent young people are killed in mass shootings in the United States, Zlatev repurposes guns to do the opposite of their intended function. This led to the creation of two flutes made from double-barrelled hunting rifles.

"There are six of these guns that I have converted into robotic installations. They are time-consuming and take at least a year to make. The weapons speak a very strong and seductive language, because they are so perfect. When I deactivate a rifle and change its function, I want to use the same language of perfection to show how we can put our efforts into something else.

I observe that we humans use our best resources to create weapons, but today's weapons are not as simple as the ones I work with. A modern war with nuclear weapons is not like the Russo-Turkish war of liberation, after which you could sow your land and live a normal life for a few years. Such a war would destroy everything forever."

Photos: Facebook /Made in Constantine, Structura Gallery, madeinconstantine.com

Translated and posted by Elizabeth Radkova

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