The aim of the current exhibition is to give status of the project's development by presenting a set of films, installations and photographs produced by the artist in the recent years, and also to launch an international database of images reflecting the contradictory aspects of the 'small metropolis' of Bucharest. The exhibition and collateral events (symposium, publications) are aiming to establish a platform for reflection and debate - both locally and internationally - on the status quo and the future of metropolis in a broader Europe.


EMOTIONAL ARCHITECTURE is conceived as a 'flannerie' (in the sense used by Walter Benjamin) among a series of six video and multimedia installations / projections disseminated in the generous, yet fragmented spaces of the recently renovated early 20th century venue. Alternating hard and soft points, places for reflection and places for entertainment, the exhibition is meant as a non-linear discourse about cities.


- SampleCity (I), 2003, 12 min, sound - four channels video installation. The film is exploring the textual/human/architectural strata of the Bucharest cityscape, using as a guiding agent the contemporary impersonation of a character from an old Romanian folk tale. Sort of Tijl Uilenspiegel, he is carrying a door on his back, transforming therefore his body into a migrant architecture that wanders endlessly through the city. The character plays the role of a disturbing factor (the performer/the buffoon/the homeless shaman), and functions as a strange attractor for the voyeuristic inquiries of the camera, which has to deal with his presence constantly, while constantly scanning the cityscape.


- SampleCity (II), 2003, 12 min, sound - single channel video (split screen with 4 registers).


- SampleCity (III), 2003, series of large-scale photos (200 x 300 cm, 300 x 450 cm) with the emblematic images of the project.


- Knots and Keywords **, 2003. A database of photographic images generated by those who travel(led) and/or inhabit(ed) the city at a certain point in time, and felt the urge to use their camera in order to capture this encounter. Digitized and presented in a lounge environment, this material is supposed to provide the bricks for an on-line presence of the project.


- RA, (Romanian Art), 2000, 57 min. Through the portraits of nine artists, the film shows how a country with a complex history, social structure and cultural heritage is struggling with both the forces of globalization and a long totalitarian experience.


- Sony.wmf.pp - House of the Shaman 01, 2003, 3 min, sound - Video belonging to a series of events meant to shed a light on the under stream of shaman residues running through various manifestations of the Western civilization. The title is an abbreviation of the labels used in the performance (Sonny camera/WMF pans and cutlery) as 'product placement' (PP), and suggests that even the most trivial aspects of consumerism can be converted into spiritual experiences.
The footage is edited in strict relation to the sound track (Swamp Blues by Sleepy John Estes), which gives emotional coherence to the piece, so far that Sony/wmf/pp can be seen as a video clip on its own rights.


- House of the Shaman / Lost Toys, 2001, 3 min, sound - Two channels video installation. Lost Toys is a random database of images coming from various content pools (art history, military history, anatomy, biology, architecture, history of science). The source material - digitized and processed into short animation clips - is converted into a ground of playfulness and spontaneity. Lost Toys belongs to a series of events meant to shed a light on the under stream of shaman residues running through various aspects of today's society of codes.





Exhibition supported by: The Romanian Ministry of Culture and Religious Communities; Pro Helvetia, Bucharest; Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam; The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture; Artexpo, Bucharest; BAK (Basis voor Aktuele Kunst), Utrecht; European Cultural Foundation, Amsterdam; ICCA (International Center for Contemporary Art), Bucharest.
Sponsor: Giotto Advertising; Phillips.






Related event:

SHORT BREATH - EXPERIENCING ARCHITECTURE IN TIMES OF DISPLACEMENTS, symposium organized by ICCA Bucharest, with the support of The Royal Embassy of the Netherlands (12.12.03 - through Bucharest; 13.12.03 -Intrarea Soarelui nr. 1)
Participants: Ruxandra Balaci, Koos Bosma, Ole Bouman, Mariana Celac, Stefan Ghenciulescu, Cosmin Gradinaru, Iosif Kiraly, Marius Marcu, Vera Marin, Mihai Oroveanu, Wouter van Stiphout, Florin Tudor, Mona Vatamanu, Vladimir Vinea, Martien de Vletter.


http://www.icca.ro/engleza/index.htm

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