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REVOLUTIONS
RELOADED from 10th of May |
Curated by Marco Scotini and Mihnea Mircan (curator of the MNAC in Bucharest), the aim of this exhibition is to present a selection of the top exponents of recent generations of Romanian artists, through a temporary picture and video archive. It takes place 15 years after the fall of communism in the Eastern European block, at a time in which the importance of the 1989 events seems strongly reduced, if not a remote past.
Revolutions Reloaded is not limited to a plain post-communist cartography. It tries to focus on the contradictory spaces and the growing disparities of this very real “laboratory of the European future” in which the conflicts between different historical times and different resources coexist within the state of transition from the “welfare” condition to the new-liberal system. Revolutions Reloaded aims in fact to be a sort of database of Romanian artists’ political reactions. A politically oriented art, not defined geographically, which finds a more vulnerable and realistic terrain here, in the impact with globalisation. The “revolutions” to which the title alludes are the sign of diverse ways in which emergency can be faced, freedom is understood, democracy is prepared and Romanian reality after the Revolution of 1989 is registered.
Revolutions Reloaded stems from an important work such as “Dialogue with Comrade Ceausescu” (1978) by Ion Grigorescu. Ion Grigorescu (1945) is one of Romania’s leading voices under the dictatorship. Since his first performances in the 1970s, he has been working on themes such as “reality” and “identity” – This work is both political and public, and has remained underground until the 1990s when even the videos we are now presenting exit a long period of censorship.
Alongside other works with a historical connotation, such as “La Révolution dans le boudoir” by Dan Mihaltianu (class of 1954) and the picture archives of the famous group subREAL (founded in Bucharest, in 1990), there will also be works from the younger and emerging scene, such as media artists Florin Tudor & Mona Vatamanu (1974&1968), Aurelia Mihai (1968), Szabolcs Kiss-Pal (1967), who participated in the Prague Biennale 2003, Dragos Platon, Arnold Estefan, Dan Acostioaei, Irina Botea. An astute analysis of the contradictions in today’s Romania will be presented by the docu-fictions by Kriszta Szabo and Duo van der Mixt.
The works by these artists have a strong socio-political connotation, being centred around the theme of contemporary urban condition and in particular around the image of Bucharest. It is the true paradigm of crisis and escape, as in the analyses of the great communist housing estates by Florin Tudor & Mona Vatamanu and in the research by Calin Dan who through the “Sample City”” video (2003) tries to recount the anthropological dimension of a city situated at the crossroads between European identity and Jewish diaspora, gypsy folklore and Stalinist aesthetics.
The exhibition opens with a video with two tour-operators who lead us through the incredible Ceausescu Palace, now the Palace of the Parliament, and ends on the opposite side, with one of the most emotional, Rossellini-like shootings of the poverty of the entire Romanian countryside
Dan Acostioaei (b.
1974). Visual artist and assistant professor at the Art Academy, Iasi.
Solo exhibitions in Bucharest and Iasi. Group exhibitions:
Prague Biennial, ‘New Europe, New Video’ (Renaissance Society,
Chicago). Artist-in-residence programs in Graz and Vienna.
Matei Bejenaru (b. 1963, lives and works in Iasi). Visual artist and
lecturer at the Art Academy, Iasi, director of the Peripherci Biennial.
Artist-in-residence programs in Vienna and Chicago. Solo exhibitions
in Iasi, Bucharest, Chicago, Vienna. Group exhibitions in Munich, Budapest,
Berlin, Barcelona, Venice (Romanian Pavilion, 2001).
Irina Botea (b. 1970, lives and works in Bucharest). Solo exhibitions
in Bucharest, Luxemburg and Vermont. Group exhibitions in Bucharest,
Boswil and Istanbul. Artist-in-residence programs in Vermont and Istanbul.
About to enroll in a MFA program at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Calin Dan (b. 1955, lives and works in Amsterdam and Bucharest). Theorist
and visual artist, working independently or in the group subREAL. Solo
shows in Bucharest (MNAC), Stockholm (IASPIS), Venice (Romanian Pavilion
1999), Karlsruhe (ZKM), Stuttgart (Akademie Schloss Solitude). Group
exhibitions in Vienna, Munich, Ljubljana, Budapest.
Ion Grigorescu (b. 1945, lives and works in Bucharest). Solo shows in
Bucharest, Iasi and Paris. Group exhibitions in Bucharest (MNAC), Kassel,
Vienna, Graz, Ljubljana.
Arnold Estefan (b. 1978, lives and works in Bucharest), solo exhibitions
in Bucharest, Timisoara, Istanbul; group exhibitions in Bucharest, Budapest,
Berlin, Rivoli, Wellen.
Iosif Kiraly (b. 1957, lives and works in Bucharest). Visual artist and
photography lecturer at the Art Academy in Bucharest, working independently
or in the group subREAL.
Szabolcs Kiss-pal (b. 1967, lives and works in Budapest). He has just
been nominated for the Nam Jun Paik award. Solo exhibitions in Budapest,
Vienna and Hull. Group exhibitions in Vienna, Ljubljana, London, Venice
(Romanian Pavilion 2001), Berlin.
Dan Mihaltianu (b. 1954, lives and works in Bergen and Berlin). Visual
artist and professor at the Bergen Art Academy, former member of subREAL.
Artist-in-residence programs in Glasgow, Berlin, New York, Vienna. Solo
shows in Bucharest, Berlin, New York, Berlin. Group shows in Istanbul,
Berlin, Leipzig, Bonn, Bucharest.
Aurelia Mihai (b. 1968, lives and works in Hamburg and Cologne). Currently
artist-in-residence EMARE, Hull Time Based Arts. Solo shows in Bremen,
Dusseldorf, Wiesbaden. Grioup exhibitions in Cologne, Munster, Karlsruhe.
Duo van der Mixt (Mihai Pop, b. 1974; Cristi Rusu, b. 1972). The group
was formed in 2003 in Cluj. Exhibitions in Cluj and Luxemburg.
Dragos Platon (b.
1980, lives and works in Iasi). Solo and group exhibitions in Iasi.
subREAL (Calin Dan, Iosif Kiraly). The group was formed in 1990 by Calin
Dan and Dan Mihaltianu, later joined by Iosif Kiraly. Solo shows: Stockholm,
Bucharest, Vienna, Montreal, Stuttgart, Berlin. Group shows: Oslo, Graz,
Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin.
Kriszta Szabo (b. 1976, lives and works in Tg. Secuiesc). Group exhibitions
in Cluj.
Florin Tudor (b. 1974) & Mona
Vatamanu (b. 1968). They live in Bucharest
and work together since 2000. Solo exhibitions: Budapest (Ludwig), Bucharest.
Group exhibitions: New York, Madrid, Barcelona, Londra, Graz, Venice
(Romani).