Architectures/Dessins/Utopies

MNAC - The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest

Works from the Centre National Des Arts Plastiques, Paris. The exhibition presents drawings (collages, drawn interventions) pertaining to architecture by visual artists and drawings by architects that go beyond architecture stricto sensu. Architecture is envisaged as a central theme, a protagonist, resembling concrete or imaginary iconography in the artistic process of many contemporary artists. Artists are using architecture as a framework to point out contradictions of contemporary life.

comunicato stampa

Vito Acconci, Elisabeth Ballet, Yves Belogey, Etienne Bossut, Rosemarie Castoro, Philippe Cognee, Enzo Cucchi, Horia Damian, Richard Deacon, Nathalie Elemento, Yona Friedman, Garouste & Bonetti, Dan Graham, Yong Ping Huang, Alain Josseau, Jean-Paul Jungmann, Ilya Kabakov, Tadashi Kawamata, Kcho, Per Kirkeby, Jan Kopp, P.Nicolas Ledoux, Sol LeWitt, Markus Lupertz, Najia Mehadji, Didier Mencoboni, Tania Mouraud, Matt Mullican, Roman Ondak, Dennis Oppenheim, Lucy Orta, Yazid Oulab, Claude Parent & François Letaillieur, Giuseppe Penone, Gaetano Pesce, Françoise Quardon, Evariste Richer, Georges Rousse, Yvan Salomone, Fred Sandback, Richard Serra, Veit Stratmann, Tatiana Truve, Tamas Zanko

curator: Ruxandra Balaci, MNAC Artistic Director
coorganizer: Claude Allemand-Cosneau, Director of the Fonds National d'Art Contemporain/CNAP

The Architectures/Dessins/Utopies exhibition presents drawings (collages, drawn interventions) pertaining to architecture by visual artists and drawings by architects that go beyond architecture stricto sensu. It will be on display at the National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest from January to April 2011 and relies on a selection of works, rarely or never shown before, from the prestigious French state collection, the Fonds National d'Art Contemporain/Centre National des Arts Plastiques.

Architecture is envisaged as a central theme, a protagonist, resembling concrete or imaginary iconography in the artistic process of many contemporary artists. Artists are using architecture as a framework: scenographical, philosophical, socio-anthropological and symbolic, to point out contradictions of contemporary life, to focus on psychological and behavioural knowledge, on urban culture and civilization with all the vast and complex issues of today's megacities. Architecture is perceived and metonymically acts as an evolving parameter of development or, on the contrary, as a sensor for alienation, high anxiety caused by globalisation, excessive economic growth, recession, social disparity and political conflicts. It connects, on the one hand, to the de-humanisation of inhabitable spaces, to the proliferation of surveillance, of restrictive/oppressive enclosures, of inclusion/seclusion (through physical, mental or symbolic barriers). But on the other hand, to the potential of making living spaces more harmonious and ethically bearable, to transform the natural landscape, to create openings and enrich spaces, gaining utopian dimensions, becoming, ultimately, a metaphor for human life.

Drawing turns out to be a concrete investigative tool to structure factual reality and to lead towards real architectural propositions. But also a playful tool for shaping the imaginary and the utopian, suggesting a fictional order where weightlessness, newly created metaphysical armony, the expansion of space and the abolition of time are possible.

Drawing allows both elaboration and improvisation. As if through the sketch—in the cognitive visual process—a kind of a Zen like state of "awaking consciousness" is maintained.

The exhibition is accompanied by the no. 8 issue of Cahiers de la Creation Contemporaine / CNAP / Paris.

Project realised with the support of:
Ministere Francais de la Culture et Communication,
Institut Francais Paris
MNAC partner: BRD Groupe Societe Generale
Sponsors: ING Bank, Chocolat, Cramele Rotenberg
Media partners: Igloo, Zeppelin, 24 Fun, Radio France Internationale, feeder.ro, Cocor MediaChannel

Image: Vito Acconci, "Projet de piste de skate board"/ Project for the skateboard track," 1999.
Colour pencil, black marker, silver marker, collage, photocopy, colour print. © Vito Acconci /CNAP. Photo by Y. Chenot, Paris.

Press contact:
Cosmin Tapu tel. 0040-21-3189137; 3139115 cosmin.tapu@mnac.ro

Opening: 24 January, 18h00

MNAC, Izvor St. 2-4, wing E4, Bucharest, Romania / Entrance from Calea 13 Septembrie
Open:
Wednesday - Sunday: 10.00 - 18.00
Monday and Tuesday closed

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Six exhibitions
dal 25/11/2015 al 19/3/2016