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Anturaju & Other Stories - Calin Dan
25 November 2010 - 30 March 2011
curator Raluca Velisar
Between September 2005 and May 2007 Calin Dan has been involved in a collaboration with the inmates from the Penitentiary Colibasi – Romania, within the frame of a project commissioned to him by the Office of the Chief Government Architect of the Netherlands (Atelier Rijksbouwmeester). As an outcome of this process, in May 2007 a group of inmates performed for an enthusiastic audience the play Carne/Cane (Vlees/Hond), written and directed by Calin, and reflecting on the human condition of the criminals in modern Romania. The Odeon theatre hosted the one-off performance. Another outcome of the same process is Wings for Dogs (2009), a 20 minutes video distilling the artists’s experience in communicating with the inmates, witnessing their daily life and listening to their stories.
MNAC presented these two complete products and the edited documentary material, consisting of some 60 hours conversations with the inmates (recorded during the preliminary research phase of the project), and some 10 hours of recordings made during the rehearsals and at the performance proper in a large multi-media event.
The exhibition has been opened with a round table discussion about how public art commissions can handle sensitive social topics. The proposed speakers are: Jean Boumans (Huis voor de Kunsten Limburg; former curator Atelier Rijsbouwmeester and coordinator of the Colibasi project) and Arno van Roosmalen (Director, Stroom, Den Haag), Bruno Stefan (sociologist, author of The Romanian Penitentiary System), Mariana Celac (architect), Dana Cenusa (The National Administration of the Penitentiaries), Roxana Preda (Deputy Director Colibasi Penitentiary).
Works in the exhibition:
ANTURAJU’ & OTHER STORIES video installation, 2010, 180 min.
LEFT-OVERS FROM THE THEATRE PERFORMANCE CA(R)NE. THIS IS OUR CITY, 2007, Odeon Theatre Bucharest.
WINGS FOR DOGS video, 2009; beta sp, 18:30 min.
INTERVIEWS WITH THE INMATES PARTICIPATING IN THE PROJECT
On 3rd of March has been launched the catalogue of the exhibition. The event took place in the exhibition's space and was lively accompanied by the animations (Vali Chincisan) and the music (Matze) created for the Odeon theatre performance.
The
catalogue (available upon request) contains the translations of the preliminary interviews with the inmates of Colibasi penitetiary, the script of the theater play, images from the penitentiary, exhibition views and theoretical guidelines in texts signed by Jean Boumans, Bruno Stefan, Calin Dan.
With the support of: The Royal Netherlands Embassy, Mondrrian Foundation, the Netherlamds Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture, Zeppelin, ING, Murfatlar, the Colibasi Penitentiary