Bucharest Galleries Weekend #2
Bucharest Galleries Weekend, 2nd edition (October 24th – 25th, 2015) takes on the White Night of the Galleries (NAG) initiative for the promotion of Romanian contemporary art and emergent young artists to Bucharest audience. After its first edition in 2014 and running in parallel with the project ART ON DISPLAY, Bucharest Galleries Weekend returned this year with a diversified program of openings, exhibitions, performances, audio-video installations and more, presented by the 24 participating galleries.
We visited some of the events (recaps below), and also part of Bucharest Galleries Weekend #2 we reviewed:
SIMVLACRVM by Roman Tolici @ MOBIUS Gallery
Alina Marinescu’s solo show at Victoria Art Center, part of From Love. Moral Facts project
Gabriel Stoian – IKEA TEMPLE
October 15th – November 12th, 2015 / Centrul Artelor Vizuale Multimedia (16 Biserica Enei St.)
Gabriel Stoian (featured) introduces us behind the scenes in a reality that we fail to acknowledge, a result of the implementation of a way of thinking and behavioral patterns generated by what the artist defines as the IKEA Temple. Obsessive repetition of rules and unsettling instructions apparently meant to ease our lives, guide us towards a rather complicated system of imposed values that in fact are based on non-value.
“Everything seems to be handled so bizarrely well in the low-cost IKEA store, unless we start to wonder… Most people are drawn to this shop as if it would be a contemporary temple that manufactures flat-packs instead of wisdom. Is this apparent democratization of style creating a vivid reality, or is it more likely to limit our options in choosing the objects surrounding us? Through this project I want to generate an insight in relation to the IKEA products and question the authenticity of the – Do it yourself – concept which, from a different angle, looks more like: Don’t think about it. Don’t think at all. We will do it for you…”
Photos: The re:art
Is it wrong that I enjoy cutting people in Photoshop?
September 16th – October 25th, 2015 / Suprainfinit Gallery, Popa Nan Street, no.82, Sinatex Factory, 2nd floor
Artists: Alina Anca, Vlad Anghel, Anastasia Manole, Tristan, Anca Știrbacu, Alexandra Terzi, Tăietzel Ticălos
Suprainfinit Gallery had its official opening in September and plans to develop a programme focused on both Romanian and foreign emerging artists, which will include exhibitions of some important names in the Romanian art of the last 50 years.
Their first hosted group show features a series of digital narratives and dystopian scenarios generated by interacting with the online imaginarium. New gods shape this landscape of pleasures, where human relationships are redefined according to the newly-emerged realities and attributed identities, sometimes anonymous, lost in the virtual realm of infinite possibilities of connection and disconnection. In the digital world, there is a very thin line between the private and the public space, and intimate thoughts, inner struggles and personal problems reveal themselves intentionally or on the contrary in this medium instilled with a sense of decadence.
Photos: The re:art
Ștefania Becheanu – Ecoute, Listen, Ascultă
September 17th – December 5th, 2015 / EASTWARDS PROSPECTUS, 50 Plantelor Street
Ștefania Becheanu offers viewers a unique experience of sound based on senses and memory, that generate an image in the mind, recalling a certain moment in time and space when we might have felt the exact way. The exhibition is impressive through its potential to create sound landscapes that are both acoustic and somehow tangible in a very personal way.
“I wish to make the visitor sensitive to listening in general, while the accent is usually put on picture. The sound space given to the visitor in the exhibition arouses a sound attention, he will be able to recognize familiar sounds, be surprised by their use. I would like to offer a poetic way for a daily life embellished by all our senses. For example, the noise of cars could be perceived through their rhythm instead of being considered as noise pollution. I suggest to cultivate a listening attitude that could generate this daily poetry, this music for everyone. In the exhibition, one needs to let himself be carried by the sounds.” (Ștefania Becheanu, interviewed by Nathalie Filser)
First photos by Alex Nelu, last two photos by The re:art
Mircea Stănescu – Abstract Matters
September 17th – December 5th, 2015 / EASTWARDS PROSPECTUS, 50 Plantelor Street
The exhibition features the photography work of Mircea Stănescu from the past few years, during which the artist photographed New York in different seasons and times of day, turning familiar elements and architectural structures into abstract compositions.
“The abstract, for the reality to which you have access, is not one to encourage, but one that will instinctively oppose you, by trying to cover up its communion and complicity with the photographic protective contrast. Pliable, evasive and deeply duplicitous, the abstract evinces its own imagistic whims to frame the greys, one after the other, until extinction.
A link which should not be underestimated is the one between the abstract and alienation, between attitude and ambiguity, in which the selected reality remains nothing but a conditioned reflex of a guileful consciousness.”
First photos by Alex Nelu, last two photos by The re:art / View more from EASTWARDS PROSPECTUS
CONCEPT – MORA Emerging, 2nd edition
October 16th – November 12th, 2015 / MORA Art Center, Regina Elisabeta Blvd, no. 30
Artists: Ana Barbu, Bogdan Olaru, Daniel Roșu Gutman, ITI (featured), Kiki Mihuță, Laurențiu Zloteanu, Lucian Hrisav, Otto, Raluca Băjenaru, Roberta Curcă
The group show features ten emerging artists using various techniques, from graphic art to painting, jewelry design, video and installation. Among these works, the viewer is invited to open his eyes in the installation of ITI, where two worlds confront, the current reality of the deceitful and decaying urban lifestyle, opposed to an imagined world of serenity and simplicity possible by returning to nature and remembering our cosmic origins. The work can be viewed in 3D by using special glasses and also includes insertions of elements such as the garbage bag filled with logos of big corporations.
Through a series of video interviews, Kiki Mihuță and Bogdan Olaru, who have a work included in ART ON DISPLAY #2 as well, picture a world without animals. Raluca Băjenaru replaces gold with metal, creating her own alchemy using a candy machine that gives in return of a coin nails which were once part of something useful. Loosing their functionality, the nails gain a new meaning, becoming letters in an alphabet that nobody has yet the ability to understand, as if we are children trying to decode our first book before learning how to read. Through the symbol of the tree, Daniel Roșu Gutman depicts nature in an idyllic approach, reminding of its beautiful dynamic, while Lucian Hrisav projects the material nothingness that impacts our path in life, the past, present and future.
Photo of Kiki Mihuță and Bogdan Olaru via MORA. Rest of the photos by The re:art.
LABORNA & Friends / Still working/ II
October 24th – November 7th, 2015 / Laborna, 17 Icoanei Street
Artists: Marina Aristotel, Ioana Niculescu Aron, Codruța Cernea (interviewed), Ioana Ciocan, Suzana Dan (featured), Amalia Dulhan (featured), Cristina Garabețanu, Mandy Kunze, Cassandra Pop, Ela Stoica, Ana Ștefan, Naiana Vatavu, Simona Vilău.
The group exhibition presents a collective archive with the unfinished works of the invited artists, only women artists, revealing a sequence in real time of a stage of creation. Therefore, the visitor has the privilege to witness the creative process, each line, cut and detail that will at one point contribute and become whole.
Photos: The re:art
Albert Sofian – Incognito – The Architects
October 14th – November 4th, 2015 / Galateca Gallery, 2-4 C.A. Rosetti
Curated by Mihai Zgondoiu, the personal exhibition of Albert Sofian challenges the dichotomy between good and evil by exploring the symbols and theories on the subject in search of its origins and creators. We are not able to see the faces of the architects, but can anticipate their nature, constantly oscillating between divine and demonic.
Photos: The re:art / View more from Galateca
Ion Bârlădeanu – Cu mâinile curate
H’art Gallery Appendix, 91-93 Calea Victoriei
Cinematography is a fruitful source of inspiration for Ion Bârlădeanu, who creates collages which follow their own plots and intrigues, in an often humorous approach through the intersection of characters, with the gangster image in focus, and situations mixed from different stories and scenarios.
Photos: The re:art / View more from H’art Gallery
Oana Maria Stoica – materia signata
October 12th – November 9th, 2015 / Galateea Gallery, 132 Calea Victoriei
The exhibition, curated by Simona Tănăsescu, consists in a collection of small everyday objects, which lose their purpose in the artistic context, telling the story of the self, of habits, memories and intimacy. The juxtapositions and order of the objects seem random, yet show how they connect in the bizarre logic of our irrational behavior and needs.
Photos: The re:art
Bucharest Galleries Weekend @ Acuarela Bufet and Imbold
The artivist’s guide on making the world a better place
Acuarela Bufet, 3 Gina Patrichi
Artists: Andrei Argaetic, George Roșu, Raluca Băraru (interviewed), Marian Mardare, Alina Anca, Loreta Isac (fetaured), Nehotărât Alexandru, Victor Fota (featured), Lartist, Vlad Baciu. Curator: Andrei Argaetic.
The group show aims to bring to attention themes of global interests such as climate change, the importance of gender equality, peace and security.
Păcate capitale (Deadly Sins)
Imbold Gallery, 40 Polonă St.
Curator & graphic artist: Andrei Argaetic; Cinemagraphs: Schultz & Maria; Video mapping: Aural Eye & Răzvan Pascu; Programming: Daniel Bega; Sound designer: Ștefan Drăgușin; Sculptor: Marian Mardare.
The exhibition invokes the deadly sins of the city: traffic, kitsch, consumerism, pride, corporatism, impoliteness and prickness, which have become normality. There is a main installation presenting several situations to acknowledge these sins, and a series of cinemagraphs capturing different moments and sounds in the city.
Photos: The re:art
INTRO (VERSION)
October 16th – November 10th, 2015 / Atelier 030202, 11 Sfânta Vineri
Artists: Malvina Carola Liuba, Noemi Fabian, Andreea Medar, Irina Panţiru, Andrei Părăușanu, Alexandra Ungureanu (students at the Faculty of Arts and Design, Timișoara)
The group show, curated by Liliana Mercioiu Popa, coordinator Mihai Zgondoiu, presents a collection of works that capture a moment of existential transition, the permanent search for answers in the ambiguity of a reality where one cannot easily find a place and a purpose. The evolution of the self in today’s social contexts and challenges, our position in relation to ourselves and the other are themes that interests the artists.
First photo via the gallery, last three photos by The re:art. View more from Atelier 030202.
• •
The second edition of Bucharest Galleries Weekend is financed and produced by the Ephemair Association, the initiator of the project (contact: ephemair@gmail.com).
Institutional Partner: MNAC – The National Museum of Contemporary Art.
Law Affairs Partner: Țuca, Zbârcea & Asociații.
Partners: Fabrik, X Design Services, COROCOVA, Roy & Dâmboviceanu, Peroni.
Media Partners: Revista Arta, Radio România Cultural, Radio France International, The re:art, Igloo, Zeppelin, TV City, Senso TV, UNREST/ BUCHAREST, Bookblog, Weart.