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Extreme
East
contemporary
japanese architecture

1. SENSAI
8 November
2006 - 8 January 2007
Taro Ashihara,
Yasushi, Horibe, Kazuo Iwamura, Chitoshi Kitara, Hiroshi Naito, Akira
Sakamoto, Eizo Shiina, Yoshii Takehara, Akira Watanabe, Ken Yokogawa
2. CONTINUITY
VS MUTATION
8 November
2006 - 8 January 2007
Jun Aoki,
Ryuichi Ashizawa, Sou Fujimoto, Tetsuo Furuichi, Masahiro Harada &
Mao Harada/ Mount Fuji Architects Studio, Kumiko Inui, Jun Igarashi, Waro
Kishi, Kazuyasu Kochi / Kochi
Architects Studio, Kazuhiro Kojima, Kengo Kuma, Hironori Matsubara + BMA,
Hiroshi Naito, Tetsuya Nakazon / Naf Architect & Design, Kenji Nawa
/ Suwa Seisakujo, Taira Nishizawa,
Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA, Kuniaki Takahashi, Makoto
Tanijiri / Suppose Design Offi ce, Jun Sato Structural Engineers
organisers:
UAR, Arhitectura
main sponsors: Henkel Bautechnik, DuPont Romania
sponsors: Knauf, Velux, Bramac, Mons Medius, Delta Design, Hunter Douglas,
Steealcase prin corporate office solution, Isover, Lafarge
wih the support of: Bicau, Primaria sector 1, Min Culturii, AFCN, MNAC,
Ambasada Japoniei, Japan Foundation, Stage Expert, Xerox Romania, Compania
Nationala de Investitii,
media partners: Igloo, Arhitext, Biz, Business Review, Jurnalul National,
7 seri, Communicate de presa, TVR 2
Urs
Luethi
24 November 2006 - 11 February 2007
curator Florin Tudor

Just
Another Story About Leaving, Urs Luethi, photo series, 1974
The
series of photographical self-portraits Just another story about leaving
depicts the gradual transformation (but never the decline) of a face oscillating
between masculine and feminine, a face which as if anticipating its own
autobiography seeks to project itself through indistinctive identification
with the father or the mother figure.
The
complexity of the expression and the continuity of the theme coexist and
this paradoxical feature is only the first and the most conspicuous in
an entire series of dialectical opposites structuring the work of the
Swiss artist; his work thrives on the ambivalence between truth and appearance,
natural and artificial, order and chaos, high culture and kitsch, banality
and sublime, madness and wisdom, the tragic and the burlesque.
These
images seem to allude to the structure of the eye, to the sight of the
iris and the black opening of the pupil. And still, these works are merely
a portrait of the world gazing at itself, a portrait of us all. I'll be
your mirror. There is something provocative, a combination of both attraction
and repulsion that met the eyes of the spectator in the 70's portraits
as well. Lüthi wants to give us a mirror, as if to remind us of our
reversed image, gathering us around the emptiness of the desire, around
this abyss that somehow, paradoxically, sustains us.
Tiziano Santi
Nikolaus
Schletterer
6 December 2006 - 11 February 2007
curators Florin Tudor & Andrei Siclodi

The
title of the exhibition, Daylight, refers to a technical characteristic
of the analogue photography: the optimal sensitivity of the photographic
film while taking outdoor photos in the daytime. In this installation,
Nikolaus Schletterer investigates a deserted space, apparently cut out
from any spatial or temporal coordinates. Besides his videos, a series
of photographs, most of them in black and white, depicts an austere seaside
with ruined buildings. Some of the houses are in an advanced state of
decay while others seem to have been abandoned under construction. The
cause of the sudden disappearance of their inhabitants remains unknown.
Although we are left with the impression that a major event occurred,
the buildings have nevertheless been subject to natural degradation. Moreover,
the images elude any geographical / spatial framing of the area: all buildings
are photographed with the sea in the background. Only the road, stretching
out to the horizon, gives some sort of orientation, underlying the out
of this world feeling.
In
Daylight some may discover analogies with the zone from Andrei Tarkovsky
s Stalker. Indeed, like the zone in the film, Nikolaus Schletterer s zone
is a timeless mental space. The furtherance of knowledge, stemming from
the understanding of the complex mechanisms of visual perception, is at
the forefront of Daylight.
Andrei Siclodi
Work of the Month
Geta Bratescu & Ion Grigorescu - Ludus. Studio Play
15 December 2006 - 15 January 2007
chosen
by Magda Radu

For
Geta Bratescu, the studio represents a space of self-knowledge and play;
here, we can see the artist performing a series of actions which are familiar
to those who already know her work: the "automatic" drawing,
the ritual of the make-up, the white mask which stands for her self-constructed
persona, for her double. The camera lingers on the cupboard covered with
many posters, photos and postcards which make up a visual archive with
examples ranging from the Greek Antiquity to Matthew Barney. Ion Grigorescu's
reflection in the mirror, handling the camera, signals that he himself
is part of this visual memory. It also points to the close relationship
between the two artists, to the double play that takes place between the
artist behind the camera and the one who plays a role in front of it.
Indian
Lava & Ritz Mood Guru present
Salve Fiat Romuli
Painting Exhibition - Gorzo
curator Liviana Dan
5 October - 30 December 2006
Partners: Muzeul Brukental Sibiu, Galeria H'art Bucuresti, ICR Bucuresti
Thomas
Hirschhorn
conference:
"A propos du Musee Precaire Albinet"
participants:
Maria Rus-Bojan (Project Stichting Amsterdam) / Bogdan Ghiu
Friday / 17 November / 06 / 18h00 Auditorium / Calea 13
Septembrie / Bucuresti

Thomas
Hirschhorn
Musée Précaire Albinet
Semaine Léger, exposition
2004, Aubervilliers
courtesy : Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers et l'artiste
WORK
OF THE MONTH/November
DONALD
SIMIONOIU
Placid Couples
oil on canvas, 2006
chosen by Ruxandra Balaci
Simionoius portraits feature recognizable typologies of present-day
Romanians: they are antiheroical figures, grotesque touching or simply
risible. In between the subtle irony which reveals itself only at a second
glance and the rethoric of a clichéd Romanticism, the references
are made at the erotic pattern of a routined daily life in a block of
flats. Funny, forceful, and sophisticated his work is assuming the difficult
task of revealing le cache des individus et dune partie de la societe.
INDIVIDUAL COMMUNITIES
Scandinavian Video Art (screening)
wednesday 22 November 2006, 18.00
Curator:
Anne Szefer Karlsen
Works by: Bodil Furu (N), Mariken Kramer (N), Ane Lan (N), Peter Larsson
(S), Kjersti Solberg Monsen (N), Jakob Nielsen (DK), Lars Nilsson (S),
Ditte Lyngkær Pedersen (DK), Sixten Therkildsen (DK), Jakob Tækker
(DK), Kristin Tarnesvik (N) and Arne Vinnem (N)
A
selection of twelve video pieces made by Scandinavian artists are chosen
for this screening to present a view on what it is like to live in a vast
region with scattered population. The selected videos in Individual Communities
play on documentary, fiction, animation and poetic strategies and take
a look at some of recent social changes in the Scandinavia and the way
they affect the individual.
Supported
by: Office For Contemporary Art , Norway
http://www.szefer.net/24vs25850.htm
Through
Popular Expression
19 October- 19 November
curators Hu Fang si Zhang Wei, guest curator Simona Nastac
artists: Cao Fei, Jun Yang, MAP office, Xu Tan, Xu Zhen, Zhang Yuan, Zheng
Gougu
WORK
OF THE MONTH / October
THOMAS CIULEI
"Asta e"
92 min, 2001, 35 mm color, transfered on DVD
Chosen
by Ruxandra Balaci
martin
is not fanny
Martin Zet, a video retrospective, curated by Fania Kaplan
14 September 14 November 2006
performance 22 October, 18:00 h
with the support of the Czech Center Bucuresti

Saga-The Journey of Arno Rafael Minkkinen
curators
A.D. Coleman si Todd Brandow
6 September - 22 october
opening: 5 September/ 18h00
In 1970
the Finnish American photographer Arno Rafael Minkkinen began making images
of himself and never stopped. During these decades he has steadily generated
astonishing and memorable pictures exploring his body's interaction with
the physical environement. Saga, the most extensive presentation of Minkinnen's
project to date, distills 35 years of his life's work.
Work of the
month
Every month, the mediatheque of the museum (4th floor), will host a newly
created work exhibited for one month, chosen by a MNAC curator.
September
2006
Irina
Botea: Auditions for a Revolution
video and film 16 mm, 24 min, Chicago, 2006
chosen by Ruxandra Balaci
Chicago
2006: young people audition for roles in a reenactment of the first televised
revolution, the 1989 Romanian revolution.
The Romanian
artist Irina Botea, who withessed the events, juxtaposes actual footage
of the revolution* from the well known film of Harun Farocky,Videogram
of a Revolution with reenactments by non-Romanian speaking performers
of those same televised events.
The new
performance was recorded on video and also on 16mm film camera, a camera
the artist acquired from a documentary film company that quite likely
used the camera to film the 1989 revolution.
*Courtesy
Harun Farockys film Videogram of a Revolution
project
"PerForming the Body"
7 - 8 October
a project initiated by ArtLink
coordonator: Florin Fieroiu
artists: Dana Balint, Mihaela Dancs, Florin Flueras, Ionut Stana,Iuliana
Stoianescu
Parteners :
DanceWEB, Cultura2000, ArCuB - Centrul de proiecte culturale al
municipiului Bucuresti, Pro Helvetia - Programul Cultural Elvetian in
Romania, AFCN - Administratia Fondului Cultural National, CNDB - Centrul
National al Dansului Bucuresti, MNAC - Muzeul National de Arta
Contemporana, 24-FUN si MCC - Fondul de mobilitate
Parteneri ArtLink: comunicatedepresa.ro, TimeOut Bucuresti, port.ro,
Infinium, Wonderboy
www.artlink.org.ro
Dutch
Installation Art
20 May - 10 September
curator:
Annet Dekker
artists: Michiel van Bakel, Jasper van der Brink, Persijn Broersen &
Margit Lukacs, Rikkert Brok, eddie d, Jan Peter van der Wenden, Kirsten
Geisler, Bernard Gigounon, Nan Hoover, Andreas Siefert, Bill Spinhoven,
Eric Steensma, Martijn Veldhoen, Gerald van der Kaap

Gerald van
der Kaap, Chill Cave
Optical
illusions have fascinated man as far back as the Middle Ages, and continue
to do so. For some time now film has been the magical medium par
excellence, but since the rise of video film no longer has the sole claim
to this magic. With virtual reality and the computer the possibilities
seem unlimited. In the exhibition Dutch Installation Art a desire for
the extraordinary, which is at the core of any fantastic machine, travels
through as an undercurrent - and is often transferred to the viewer as
an experience for the senses.
The
artists in the exhibition reveal the magic in media art. By playing with
space, light and shadow, extreme close-ups or computer techniques the
"art magique" is brought to life. When you enter the darkened
space of the video installation Dislocations by Martijn Veldhoen your
eyes are immediately drawn towards a white cross on the floor, lit from
above by a spotlight. And just as in the plaza in front of St. Peter's,
this marks the spot where something happens, where the horizon shifts
and opens up a different perspective. The single channel video Starship
by Bernard Gigounon is a spectacle of scudding spaceships, or are they?
The images in Starship form an impressive entity, in no way inferior to
science fiction films like Star Wars. However, as you watch longer, it
appears that the airships did not originate in the imagination of the
artist. And laying down in the Chill Terminal, artist Gerald van der Kaap
brings people in a state of "total hoverty" - 'No other drugs
required. All senses operative.'
Co-organiser:
Netherlands Media Art Institute Montevideo / Time Based Arts
With the support of: the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Bucharest, Mondriaan
Foundation
Sponsors:
Paravion.ro / Millenium, JW Marriott. Bucharest Grand Hotel, ATIPIC PLUS,
Peroni, Five's
Media partners: 24 Fun, Re:PUBLIK, Igloo, Arhitectura, Rfi
Josef
Dabernig. Films.
(featuring G.R.A.M. and Markus Scherer)
26 April - 3 September
curator Florin Tudor

Rosa
coeli (Josef Dabernig), 2003
This film selection presented now in Bucharest contains works done by
Josef Dabernig between 1996 (Wisla) and 2005 (Lancia Thema). The films
can be read like a layered narrative of different contexts, not necessarily
explaining them but working with the tension generated by their internal
contradictions. The script is constructed similar to Dabernig's minimalist
architecture interventions and grid structures, using rational methods
to organize camera movements, tempo, actions - but at the same time considering
imperfections, absences or lapses. His characters are performing usual,
familiar gestures in a repetitive yet fragmented, disrupted way.
(Florin Tudor)
The work
of Josef Dabernig sometimes seems to be a sort of personal archaeology
of modernity. It displays an admiration for the utopian and rational,
but also a certain pleasure at gaps, mismatches and failures in such ideally
conceived structures. It is important that he sees modernity as marked
by contradictions and as heterogeneous in spite of its claims for universality.
Admiration for the rational forms and structures of modernity and a certain
obsession with them are always combined with an ironic and distanced attitude.
(Igor Zabel, 2003)
List of films:
Wisla
1996,
16mm to DVD, b/w, 8 min
Concept and Realisation: Josef Dabernig
Camera: Thomas Baumann
Editing and Sound: Josef Dabernig, Martin Kaltner
Cast: Josef Dabernig, Martin Kaltner, Emil Brix, Jerzy Fedorowicz, Ludwik
Mietta-Mikolajewicz, Rembert Schleicher
Timau
1998,
16mm to DVD, b/w, 20 min
Concept and Realisation: Josef Dabernig, Markus Scherer
Camera: Christian Giesser
Cast: Josef Dabernig, Wolfgang Dabernig, Markus Scherer, Marino Grassi,
Cesira Leschiutta
Jogging
2000,
35mm to DVD, colour, 11 min
Concept and Realisation: Josef Dabernig
Camera: Christian Giesser
Music: Olga Neuwirth
WARS
2001,
16mm to DVD, b/w, 10 min
Concept and Realisation: Josef Dabernig
Camera: Christian Giesser
Cast: Josef Dabernig, Ingeburg Wurzer, Otto Zitko
automatic
2002,
16mm to DVD, b/w, 7 min
Concept and Realisation: Josef Dabernig, G.R.A.M.
Camera: Christian Giesser
Editing: Volker Sernetz, XXKunstkabel
Cast: Martin Behr, Josef Dabernig, Günther Holler-Schuster, Gerhard
Peckary
Music: Binder&Krieglstein
Rosa coeli
2003,
35mm to DVD, b/w, 24 min
Concept and Realisation: Josef Dabernig
Words: Bruno Pellandini
Voice: Branko Samarovski
Camera: Christian Giesser
Sound design: Michael Palm
Cast: Wolfgang Dabernig, Kurt Fellinger, Thomas Schmid, Josef Dabernig
Lancia Thema
2005,
35mm to DVD, colour, 17 min
Concept and Realisation: Josef Dabernig
Camera: Christian Giesser
Sound design: Michael Palm
Cast: Josef Dabernig
"Two German Architectures: 1949-1989"
15 May - 27 August
curators:
Hartmut Frank & Simone Hain

The
ifa exhibition presents a historical retrospective of the evolution of
architecture between the two German states and tries, along with some
newly discovered materials from East and West as well, to encourage reflection
and comparison, referring to the housing problem in the first place but
also to the problem of monuments dealing with tradition and innovation.
In the same time the exhibition illustrates the cultural, the political
and the economical contexts of the development of these two architectures
and analyses historically the factors that influenced their course.
This
project is made possible also with the collaboration of "Planwerk"
from Cluj, The Order of Romanian Architects and the "Arhitectura"
magasine.
Eastern Alliance 3 / Teledivision Show
10 May - 27 August
Curators:
Ivan Mecl, Jiri Ptacek, Spunk Seipel, Leonor Nuridsany, Alena Boika, Petrit
Hoxha, Hana Vojackova, Marisol Dodriguez
Artists: Akhe Group / Alexander Györfi / Anneta Mona Chisa and Lucia
Tkácová / Cécile Paris / Cecilia Lundquist / Ciprian
Muresan / David Krippendorf / David Ortsman / Debora Hirsch / Dimitry
Gutov / Dimitry Gutov and Radek Community / Dorotea Etzler / Gabriel Acevedo
/ Gabriela Golder / Guma Guar / Gustavo Galuppo / Jakup Ferri / Jan Suk
/ Jan alio / Jaap de Ruig / Jim Holland / Jirí Havlícek
and Filip Cenek / Joaquin Segura / Joep Van Liefland / Kuang-Yu Tsui /
Lebel and le Goff / Linda Urbánková / Luciana Lamonthe /
Maix Mayer / Marie Denis / Mark Ther / Mark Ther and Ondrej Brody / Martin
Zet / Matej Smetana / Matt Saundres / Michal Pechoucek / Nine Budde /
Oleg Lystsov / Oliver Pietsch / Ondrej Brody / Ondrej evcík
/ Pavel Ryka / Petr Strouhal / Petra Petiletá / Philipp Hirsch
and Heiko Tippelt / Philippe Meste / Radim Labuda / Rudina Xhaferi / Sebastiano
Mauri / Sláva Sobotovicová /Tim Coe / Thorsten Schlopsnies-
Todosch / Zoran Todorovic / Zornitsa Sophia
Martin Zet
Eastern Alliance brings a real parade of contemporary video art and experimental
feature films, each projection having the format of aTV show. The project
tries to fill a gap and make the video art more accessible, by democratic
means.
"
Enough with watching video art secretly, in artistic venues. The TV audience
cant even here about it. We have decided to give the video art back to
the real video fans. Video art is one of the most important cultural phenomena
today, a type of art which easily transcends inner borders by connecting
films, installations, pop culture, comics, games etc. The video works
that we can see in galleries are definitely facing a serious lack of interest
from the media.
The video works will be conceived as typical TV shows shown on erotic,
news, documentaries or children channels and they will be accompanied
by leaflets. The leaflets will be designed as a typical TV program where
the audience will be able to find out more about the video works and tehir
heroes, but also about the time and place where they can see those shows.
The source of the shows is the artistic creation all around the world.
The most represented this time will be the Czech Republic, with a selection
of works done by Ivan Mecl and Jiri Ptacek and Germany, with works selected
by Spunk Seipel."
co-organisers:
Centrul Ceh, [Ksa:K]
partners
: BRD, HP, Divus, Aston Rent
media partners: 24FUN, rfi, RePublik, Igloo, Arhitectura, Umelec
PREVIEW
SINGLE CHANNEL WORKS / 2002 - 2005/
MNAC Mediateque presents starting from 24 February 2006 a selection from
the film collection of the Netherlands Media Art Institute / MONTEVIDEO
TIME BASED ARTS
Artists:
Jeroen Kooijmans & Roy Cerpac / Leon Grodski / A.P. Komen & Karen
Murphy / Robert Hamilton / eddie d / Antonin de Bemels / Julika Rudelius
/ Pierre-Yves Cruaud / Ezra Eeman / Jeroen Offerman / Bas van Koolwijk
/ Jan van de Pavert / Shiho Kano / Seoungho Cho/ Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay
/Sebastian Diaz Morales / Janet Merewether / Martijn Veldhoen / Yael Bartana
/ Robert Arnold / Michiel van Bakel / Bernard Gigounon/ Janneke Küpfer
/ Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukàcs / Bea de Visser/ Peter Bogers
/ Adad Hannah / Sami Kallinen / Anouk de Clercq /Jan van Nuenen / Jordan
Crandall / Arno Coenen / Sterling Ruby / Martijn Veldhoen / Nicolas Provost
/ Christoph Draeger / reMI / Jasper van den Brink / Corinna Schnitt /
Lin de Mol / Caitlin Hulscher / Sterling Ruby / Els Opsomer / Guido van
der Werve / Anouk de Clercq, Joris Cool & Eavesdropper / Mike Stubbs
/ Ra di Martino / Jeremy Drummond / Emmanuelle Antille / Manuel Saiz /
Pia Wergius /Jan de Bruin /Azorro Group / Pieter-Paul Mortier / Rob Johannesma
www.montevideo.nl
Photographic
experiments from the collection of IVAM, Institut Valencià d'Art
Modern
13 April - 21 May
curator Josep Vicent Monzo
America SÁNCHEZ, John BALDESSARI, Constantin BRANCUSI, Jose (Pepe)
CALVO NOVELL, Pere CATALÀ PIC, Paul CITROËN, Luis CONTRERAS,
Dis Berlín (Mariano CARRERA), Cesar DOMELA NIEUWENHUIS, Marcel
DUCHAMP, Manuel FALCES LÓPEZ, Joan FONTCUBERTA, George GROSZ, Richard
HAMILTON, Alfonso HERRAIZ SERRANO, Eduard IBÁÑEZ MAGRANER,
Jan KAMMAN, Gustav Gustavovich KLUCIS, Jos LEONARD, El LISSITZKY, Chema
MADOZ, Jose María MENDOZA RODRÍGUEZ, László
MOHOLY-NAGY, Henry PEACH ROBINSON, Arnulf RAINER, MAN RAY, Josep BERENGUER
RENAU, Jorge RUEDA, Antonio SAURA, Cindy SHERMAN, Anton STANKOWSKI, Grete
STERN, Stefan THEMERSON, Eugen WISKOVSKY.
Cindy
Sherman, Untitled no 91, 1981
Organised
by Instituto Cervantes Bucarest, with the support of the ASTROC Foundation
(Spain)
Happy
Sundays @ the museum #11
Henning Lundkvist (Sweden) / live performance
Tugget
(Sweden) dj set
25 June
Fluid
Images, Grenoble
26 May - 19 June
artists: Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan, Vali Chincisan, Pierre Dugelay,
Vlaicu Golcea, D. Fabbri Lawson & J. Corréard\
Gallery
3/4, National Theater, Bd. Balcescu 2
VI/SAS/GAME - contemporary dance performance
27 - 28 May
Dancers
& choreographers: Cosmin Manolescu, Pascal Allio / lights & video:
Stefano Piermatteo
Produced by Proiect DCM & Institut Francais Bucarest
White Night in MNAC (The Night of the Museums)
20 May 20h00 - 21 may 06h00
One night
each year, most of the European museums are opened to public. All MNAC
exhibitions will be open till dawn. A special 10hrs video and music programme.
20h00, opening of Dutch Installation Art
21h00 VideoNight
curator: Jozsef Bartha
.................................
21h30 Launching of Omagiu #3
.............................................
22h30
Mihai Popoviciu / dj set
The Model / dj set
Tom Wilson / dj set (TBC)
Underconstruct / vj set
VideoNight / curator Jozsef Bartha
Dj & Vj sets / TBA.
NowHere
Europe
Trans:it. Moving Culture Through Europe
10 March - 12 May
 |
|
Mario
Airò, Can Altay, Patrick André, An Architektur,
Atelier van Lieshout, Baktruppen, Shigeru Ban, Massimo Bartolini,
Matei Bejenaru, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Irina Botea, Eva Brunner-Szabo,
Campement Urbain, Mircea Cantor, Monserrat Cortadellas Bacaria,
matali crasset, Calin Dan, Esra Ersen, Gelatin, Ion Grigorescu,
Gülsün Karamustafa, Kimsooja, Iosif Király,
Athanasia Kyriakakos, A.P.Komen & Murphy, Aydan Murtezaoglu,
Lucy Orta, Osservatorio Nomade, Maria Papadimitriou, Cesare
Pietroiusti, Oda Projesi, Bülent Sangar, School of Missing
Studies, Skart, Sean Snyder, Simon Starling, Socrates Stratis,
Anne-Violaine Taconet, Krassimir Terziev, Barthélémy
Toguo, Gert Tschögl, Urban Void, Jeanne van Heeswijk,
Erik van Lieshout, Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor, Zafos
Xagoraris, Edwin Zwakman.
*curator
: Bartolomeo Pietromarchi
|
|
Trans:it.
Moving Culture Through Europe is an itinerant project that deals with
the most urgent themes of contemporary culture and artistic production
in Europe . An observatory/laboratory on the various practices of artistic
intervention on the territory.
The
members of the Advisory Board for NowHere Europe are: Ruxandra Balaci,
Iara Boubnova, Anselm Franke, Germana Jaulin, Katerina Koskina, Marco
Scotini, Pelin Tan, Nina Vagiç.
Cycle of documentary films by
Bartolomeo Pietromarchi
The
cycle of documentary films of the project Trans:it. Moving Culture through
Europe represents the synthesis of field research carried out along three
itineraries. The documentaries were made using an approach that was both
critical and curatorial, considering video the ideal means to deal with
the fluidity of the issues analysed.
Structured
according to the geographic routes through the cities in which research
was carried out, the documentaries include interviews with artists, architects
and critics and present the contexts in which the interventions were realized.
The Invisible
Community
Documentary film, Italy, 2003-2005
DVCAM, 46' 23"
Original language Engl./Fr./It. (subtitled in English)
This
first documentary covers the first phase of research for the project,
looking at an itinerary that passed through Paris, Rotterdam, Amsterdam
and Rome. The research investigates suburban and urban contexts in which
"invisible communities" have grown up as a result of the redefinition
of social relationships and the development of cultures parallel to those
of the country in question. Multiculturalism, abandoned places, collective
imagination and memory, visual and social transformation, the image of
the city and the sense of public space in the European context, are all
themes examined.
Ruins
for the Future
Documentary film, Italy, 2004
DVCAM, 46'
Original language: English.
The
second documentary film was shot in Berlin, Bucharest, Sophia and Belgrade
where, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, artists, architects and art
critics contributed to redesigning the urban landscape. Through new geographies
and visual transformations, memory and identity are questioned when the
city's form changes and the city itself seems to become more vulnerable.
Ruins speak of the existence of a lost time which artistic practice endeavours
to rediscover: artists seek to construct a common plane on which to merge
individual experience with collective experience, personal responsibility
with civil responsibility.
Fluid
Cities
Documentary film, Italy, 2004
DVCAM, 32' 47"
Original language: English
During
the third phase, the projects for public space developed by artists active
in Athens, Istanbul and Cyprus show a particular interest in traditions
and local culture, manifested in light of globalising pressures arriving
from the world at large.
These cities have been transformed into multicultural laboratories. Migratory
flows, collective memories and spaces undergoing rapid change have given
shape to the concept of fluidity, a characteristic common to various territories
and demonstrative of the continual, rapid and increasing process of transformation
to which the urban context is subject.
Artists
projects
ROTTERDAM
Atelier
van Lieshout
AVL- Ville
2001
Video documentation, 60'
In
the year 2001 Atelier van Lieshout realised AVL-Ville, a free state at
the port of Rotterdam. This large-scale project can be viewed as a grand
work of art that represents the culmination of AVL's work so far. AVL-Ville
had its own flag, currency and constitution, as well as facilities such
as a power plant, working and living units, a mobile farm, compost toilets,
a water purification system, a fully operational hospital, a restaurant
and a distillery.
After eight months, AVL-Ville was closed down, but recently AVL created
the first export-product of AVL-Ville in Park Middelheim in Antwerp: AVL
Franchise Unit. The unit can be considered the first building of a new
settlement.
Erik van
Lieshout
Respect
2003
Video, 8' 25''
The
video Respect depicts an absurd multicultural context in the southern
suburbs of the city of Rotterdam. A group of black, African and Arab kids
act along with the artist, offering their own take on some disconcerting
aspects of the urban experience and ethnic identity in contemporary society.
They created their own screenplay on how to get rich by dealing drugs
and involving Erik and his brother Bart in their illegal activities. It
seems a banal story, but it is their story, and most importantly, the
story they wanted to tell.
ROME
Osservatorio
Nomade
Immaginare Corviale
2005
Documentary film, 30'
The
video documents the project Imagining Corviale realised by Osservatorio
Nomade in collaboration with several artists, architects and filmmakers
in the neighbourhood of Corviale.
Corviale is a 958-metre-long public housing complex inhabited by about
6000 people, located in the south-western perifery of Rome. The project
deals with the imagery, memory, life and transformation of a public space.
The artists involved worked in cooperation with the inhabitants to create
a new image for the residential complex. Imagining Corviale developed
through laboratories for the creation of a local television station, and
for the production of events and artistic interventions. Three dimensions
emerged from a dialogue with the residents: the real and subjective experience
of the place, the image of the place, and the memory of the place. These
three dimensions led to the development of the three platforms of the
project: ON/Field, ON/UniverCITY and ON/Network.
Armin
Linke e Renato Rinaldi
Nuovo corviale, 2005
PARIS
Campement
Urbain
Qui decide de la beauté ? (Who decides beauty ?)
I and Us project
2003
Video, 26'
The
project I and Us was conceived for the recently-constructed Beaudottes
district of the city of Sevran, which has developed around the RER station
along the "B" metro line between Paris and the Charles de Gaulle
airport, and now houses thousands of people. The neighbourhood, consisting
largely of public housing and hosting an emarginated population made up
of a majority of foreigners, has become infamous for social problems.
The intent of Campement Urbain, as the video shows, is to create, within
an area of great urban tension, a special place available to all and protected
by everyone (I and Us). It is an on-going project the goal of which is
to act "from within", and to experiment with new forms of responsibility
and sharing.
BUCAREST/BUCHAREST
Harun
Farocki and Andrei Ujica
Viodeograms of a Revolution
1992
16mm film, 106'
Videograms
of a Revolution, concerns the Romanian revolution of 1989 - including
the fall, flight attack and Christmas day execution of President Nicolae
Ceausescu and his wife Elena - and was put together under the direction
of Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujica from independent and state television
video and film sources. Videograms is intended as to represent the closing
of the parentheses of the Twentieth century in Eastern Europe. Crowds
are seen from above scattering under gunfire: revolutionary leaders are
shown seizing the stages at popular demonstrations, and major events in
the story are presented from multiple perspectives.
Ion Grigorescu
My Beloved Bucharest
1978
8mm film, 14'
The
film, shot during the construction of the Bucharest metro, focuses on
the gradual proletarianization and degradation of what was once the elegant
capital of Romania. Grigorescu uses the worksite to represent the gradual
change in the regime's policies. Areas under demolition designated for
the construction of new housing for the working classes and for the metro
are not the subject of an in-depth analysis, but rather the situation
captured by the filmmaker as he walked around with a hand-held camera
is. Political slogans, displayed on large billboards all over town or
published in newspapers, promoted the "golden future" of communism:
they read, for example, "Long live communism, the shining future
of the human race!", or "Tell future generations of our sacrifice!"
SOFIA
Antoniy
Donchev
Art on the Tiles
1989
35mm film, 13'
In
September 1989 a group of young avant-garde Bulgarian artists organized
an exhibition on the roof terrace of the Artists Union building in Sofia.
This happening is documented by Antoniy Donchev's video, which, through
a series of interviews with the artists who participated, focuses both
on the works presented in the show and on the situation of contemporary
art in Bulgaria in the period imediately preceding the fall of the Berlin
wall. Between the art works on display, View to the West by Nedko Solakov
was presented: a telescope was placed on the parapet of the terrace, and,
looking to the West, focused on the red star of the Communist Party building
in Sofia. The work raised much controversy and censorship, which the artist
refers to in an interview. The exhibition seemed to anticipate the changes
that would soon revolutionize the social and political panorama of Eastern
Europe.
Luchezar
Boyadjiev
Super! Super!
2003
Video, 4' 26''
The
video Super!Super! takes its cues from the project Hot City Visual, which
explores urban visual logics and intervenes on the visual environment
of the city of Sofia. The visual interface of the neo-capitalist city
is defined by a law which makes it possible for anyone to display anything,
anywhere, as long as he can afford to pay for it. The work of Luchezar
Boyadjiev consists of promoting a reversal of this stratified visual hierarchy
in which vast visual spaces for corporate billboards are located on high,
while crude, handmade small family businesses logos are affixed lower
down. Super! Super! advertises a small Roma family business in a corporate
way, by positioning a huge billboard in the centre of town. The decision
to publicize Stefan's family businesses is due largely to the fact that
the Rom gypsy minority, although certainly visible on the streets of Sofia,
has no presence in the advertising context and is presented in a negative
way by the media.
BELGRADE
kart
kart in short
2001
Documentazione video / video documentation, 3' 13''
kart
in Short is a video documenting the various projects that the kart
collective has carried forth in recent years, subverting the mass media
system and creating a new kind of art economy. The project Your Shit-Your
responsibility began in 2000 and consisted of a series of urban actions
regarding the concept of responsibility. 10 With Onions-Embroidery Project,
on the other hand, is a yearly itinerant project that involves several
female collectives living in the area around Belgrade, like ChoircheKart,
which uses the choir as a symbol of togetherness. The urban actions organised
by kart attempt to involve people on several planes of collective
responsibility and self-awareness, as in Coupons Actions (1998-on going)
which reuses the coupons the regime used to print for bread distribution
as a means to rename new forms of limitations and share new feelings.
ATHENS
Athanasia
Kyriakakos
Coffee World
2004
Video documentation, 6'45''
Athanasia
Kyriakakos' work is a sort of journey springing from her own memory and
experience as an artist and a woman. The coffee performances/coffee readings
were born out of a need to create an environment, a space that was both
public and intimate, one that would challenge a community to form around
it. Not too long ago women would gather on their verandas to share a cup
of coffee and share their dreams, hopes, and fears. Coffee became the
catalyst for such a connection. The Greek artist has chosen to share this
personal material with other people in order to build new possibilities
of relationships in the public context, new ideas of communality and original
perceptions of space and time. The environments and communities thus created
are both temporary and mobile, like the society we live in. The simple
action of sharing or giving has the consequence of slowing down time for
the public, who in turn give their time to be part of this exchange, this
dialogue.
Maria
Papadimitriou
Transbonanza Platform (Luv Car)
2003
Video documentation, 13' 40''
Since
1988, and within the context of the work in progress T.A.M.A. (Temporary
Autonomous Museum for All), Maria Papadimitriou has been working with
a community of Vallach-Romanian origin that lives on the outskirt of Athens.
She intervenes in the community's living conditions, and it is this intervention
that she proposes as her work. Trans-Bonanza Platform (Luv Car) is a truck,
the open bed of which has been converted into a platform that can be used
as a stage for live concerts. The truck roams through the neighborhoods
of Athens, inviting passers-by to partecipate in an impromptu celebration,
a kind of carnival, in which roles are reversed and at the same time delineate
a sphere of rebellion. The truck transcends the prescribed borders of
various leisure zones, transgressing not only urban but also ideological
boundaries: the truck is a stereotype of the mythology that has been built
up around the Rom, often used as an index of exoticism emptied of meaning.
ISTANBUL
Can Altay
'We're paperman' he said
2003
Video, 9' 56''
Minibar
2001-2003
Video, 3' 30''
The
papermen as they call themselves go through the garbage of the city, sifting
through trash and garbage to extract and recycle objects they can earn
a bit of money from. In general, theirs is an activity aimed at earning
money in a very organized and territorialized manner. Unrecognized and
unofficial, the papermen move through the streets with their carts, occupy
sidewalks sifting through garbage. They act against the official garbage
collection system, and against the system in general, but what they do
supports the system itself, due to the enormous increase in recycling
rates.
The project Minibar is based on the temporary utilization of existing
urban elements around and between buildings by youth for night-life and
socializing. Minibar is not a radical "taking over" yet it encourages
shifting and subversion of the meanings appointed to these already existing
spaces which are neither public nor private. In Minibar, space is produced
without building anything, and there exists no commercial entity, no service
provided, just people hanging out, bringing their own drinks.
Esra Ersen
Brothers and Sisters
2003
Video, 23' 27''
The
video Brothes and Sisters is the result of many months of work carried
out by the artist in collaboration with a group of African immigrants
in the city of Istanbul. Esra Ersen reflects on the urban experience and
the perception of the city space by people normally marginalized from
community life, illegal immigrants living temporarily in Turkey before
moving on to Western European countries. The transitory status of these
immigrants influences the way they use the urban fabric (houses as camps,
meeting places
) and the characteristics of their identities, divided
between their own traditions and a future social position.
Gülsün Karamustafa
Objects of Desire/ A Suitcase Trade (100 $ Limit)
1998-2001
Video documentation, 9'22''
Gulsun
Karamustafa's project reflects on the possibilities of coexistence between
the Eastern perspective and the Western attitude: political, economical,
religious, sexual tensions between opposites are experienced directly
by the artist. By observing market relations in the city of Istanbul,
referred to as the "suitcase trade", "tourist trade"
or the "border trade", the artist reflected on these trends.
Carrying a suitcase filled with illegal goods that he had recently purchased
from the informal markets of Istanbul, Gusuln Karamustafa crossed the
borders to various destinations where she sold the contents of her suitcase
so as to share her experience with the public.
Oda Projesi
Oda Revisited
2004
Video documentation, 25' 43''
The
documentary video Oda Revisited covers the different phases of a project
realized by the art collective Oda Projesi in Istanbul's city center Galata
neighbourhood. Interviewing the residents of the district and documenting
the different activities promoted there, the video analyses how the group
bases its work on the creative potential of everyday life. Their primary
interest is to involve inhabitants of the neighbourhood to increase the
possibilities of developing a "social sculpture" in progress,
moulded by the relationships between individuals and spaces in everyday
life.
Presentation
of the book The [un] common place. Art, public space and urban aesthetics
in Europe.
The book documents more than fifty artistic and urban projects and interventions
realized or in the process of realization in Europe. 254 pages with theoretical
contributions by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, Hou Hanru, Katerina Koskina,
Theophilos Tramboulis, Claudia Zanfi, Ana Paula Cohen, Maartje Berendsen,
Lidia Porcar, Ramon Parramon, Ute Meta Bauer, François Hers, Jean-Baptiste
Joly, Iara Boubnova, Ruxandra Balaci, Mihnea Mircan, Yorghos Tzirtzilakis,
Raluca Velisar, Pelin Tan, Jochen Becker/ Metrozones, Erden Kosova, Teresa
Macrì, Eric Corne.
www.transiteurope.org
Happy
Sundays@The Museum #10
30 April 16h00 - till late
The Happy Sundays are back. Special guests as DJs. TBA.
Michael
Bielicky, Kamilla B.Richter / Falling life
(projection on the MNAC façade)
30 April from 22h00
An ongoing
project that was introduced for the first time in Berlin in August 2005
and the last September at the Ars Electronica festival in Linz. This urban
screening project doesn't need a curator or a gallery; it doesn't need
a fixed place or an access to electric power. The artists are using facades
of buildings that can be immediately changed into a projection screen.
Michael Bielicky and Kamila B. Richter are using a minimalist language
of constantly appearing and disappearing white pictograms or words.
With
the support of the Czech Center Bucharest
Hardcomics Anthology / Launch
4 May 2006 / from 19h00
special guest Dorit Chrysler / concert and more
www.hardcomics.ro
George
Apostu, Roman Cotosman, Paul Neagu
Artists in Exile
curator:
Mihai Oroveanu
February - March

Wj's
workshop and performances
a project by the Romanian Ministry of Culture
20-23
March 2006
Participating
artists: Lucille Calmel, Sylvie Astié, Jean- Baptiste Bayle, Olga
Kisseleva, Vali Chincisan, Dorel Naste, Suzana Dan, Mihaela Kavdanska.
curator : Anne Roquigny
programmer : Stéphane Kyles
coordinator : Cosmin Tapu
The very
first WJ's international workshop in Bucharest represents a collaboration
between French and Romanian artists during the Etats Genereaux de la Francophonie.
The workshop will end with eight live web performances of the participating
artists starting from 18h30 on thursthday 23/03 in MNAC's Mediathéque.
WJ-s is a
flexible, high speed connexion public device for web performances (WJ-s/ession)
which allows actors of the Internet ( WJs, webjockeys, sound and image
artists, netartists, bloggers, graphic designers, flashers, programmers,
curators, hacktivists, newmedia theorists, pioneers and web mutants...)
to play live with the full scope of contents available in the wideness
of the web.
www.wj-s.org
Rokolectiv
- festival for electronic music and related visual arts
27, 28, 29 January
www.rokolectiv.ro
!The Beginning!
Hard to imagine and hard to digest, Bucharest is the only place where
such festivals don't happen. This is urgent!
We've all hidden our frustration and succeeded to fight against isolation.
We all ran to take a closer look to frenetic creative hotbeds like London,
Paris, Tokyo or Berlin and then returned to spread the rumor.
Rokolectiv is the long awaited international festival for electronic music
and digital culture in Bucharest. With the creative effervescence that
only festivals have, Rokolectiv digs for Romanian emerging talents and
dispatches international artists.
The
festival is organised by Rokolectiv and MNAC.
Parteners
Club Transmediale Berlin, Goethe Institute, French Institute, Czech Centre,
Cultural Centre of the American Embassy, Austrian Embassy, Pro Helvetia,
Japan Foundation, Cervantes Institute
Media partners
B24FUN, Clubbing Mag, RePublik, Radio Delta RFI, AKM, 4elemente
Friday
27.01.2006
19h00
Gojira&Kosak/
visuals by MiKa / Romania
Christian Fennesz / Touch Music / Austria
Yvat&Cut
/ SubliminalTapeClub LaStrada Music / Romania
Jeí Táhne na Berlín /
muteme / Czech Republic
DJ Elephant Power / Sonig Records / Belgium
Saturday
28.01.2006
16h30
Club Transmediale / Berlin- festival presentation/ panel -Invited guest:
Remco Schuurbiers / CTM / Disk / Berlin
Screening Paranoid, 2005, Remco
Schuurbiers
19h00
Brazda lui Novac/ visuals by Dilmana / Romania
Mlada Fronta / Parametric / France
Rec_Overflow / Spa.RK / Spain
Materidouska / muteme / Czech Republic
Jason Forrest aka Donna Summer / Sonig Records / USA
Sunday
29.02.2006
19h00
Aoki Takamasa & Tujiko Noriko / Progressive Form / Japan
Discordless / Romania
Electronicat / DiskoB / France
My Robot Friend / Proptronix / USA
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