Mircea Cantor
Anetta Mona Chisa
Nicoleta Esinencu
H.arta
Daniel Knorr
Dan Perjovschi
Lia Perjovschi
Marius Babias
Sabine Hentzsch
Raluca Voinea
Final month of events. The project attempts to create a platform for trans-disciplinary discussions and debates that explore how public art could encourage a critical engagement with the dominant structures of power active in contemporary society. It includes a series of artistic projects, public debates, and media interventions that aim at confronting the public with social developments capable of initiating open discussion and emphasizing cultural contributions to the progress of democracy.
Final month of events
Curated by Marius Babias and Sabine Hentzsch
Assistant curator: Raluca Voinea
Project assistant: Irina Gheorghe
Participating artists: Mircea Cantor, Anetta Mona Chisa / Lucia
Tkecova, Nicoleta Esinencu, H.arta, Daniel Knorr, Dan Perjovschi and
Lia Perjovschi.
Spatiul Public Bucuresti | Public Art Bucharest 2007 is a pilot project which
attempts to create a platform for trans-disciplinary discussions and debates that
explore how public art could encourage a critical engagement with the dominant
structures of power active in contemporary society. The non-existence of an
uncompromised public sphere in Romania during communism had generated the conditions
for the unfettered capitalism of the post-communist period to acquire a monopoly on
the public space. Bucharest is one of the fastest developing cities in Europe,
however one where post-communism and globalization have created specific tensions
and eccentric juxtapositions visible in architecture, urban environment and social
life. The ways in which people in the city perceive, experience and respond to these
tensions define an active public space, which needs to be acknowledged by the
cultural discourse and analysed in open debates.
Spatiul Public Bucuresti | Public Art Bucharest 2007 includes a series of artistic
projects, public debates, and media interventions that aim at confronting the public
with social developments capable of initiating open discussion and emphasizing
cultural contributions to the progress of democracy.
Since its launch on 20 April 2007, several stages of the project have been
successfully completed: a symposium, two artists' residencies, the public screening
of Anetta Mona Chisa's work What the Fuck Are You Looking at?! and the launching of
the official website, http://www.spatiul-public.ro Now, the project is entering its
final stage with a month of events taking place between September 15 and October 15.
The events will be accompanied by the publication of two special editions of the
Romanian weekly cultural magazines: Suplimentul de Cultura and
Observator Cultural. These publications will include contributions by:
Marius Babias, Boris Buden, Eduard Constantin, H.arta, Sabine Hentzsch, Oliver
Marchart, Ciprian Mihali, Suzana Milevska, Vlad Morariu, Alina Serban, Simon Sheikh,
Ovidiu Tichindeleanu and Raluca Voinea.
Events and projects:
Tacerea Mieilor/ Silence of the Lambs -- Mircea Cantor
Silence of the Lambs (1998/2003) is a project documenting the ancient Romanian
custom of slaughtering lambs in connection to the celebration of Easter in Romania.
The stories of the people and traditions involved function as a metaphor for the
changes that the post-comunist Romanian society is undergoing as part of the EU
integration. The film will premier at the Romanian Cultural Institute in Bucharest
and will be broadcast on the public TV station TVR Cultural during October 2007.
A(II)Rh+ -- Nicoleta Esinencu
Nicoleta Esinencu's project is an invitation to explore the suburbs of Bucharest by
means of a theatric text about discrimination. The project follows the itinerary of
local Roma people who wander the city, every morning, in search of scrap metal.
Project Space -- H.arta
Project Space represents both a meeting and information point for Spatiul Public
Bucuresti | Public Art Bucharest 2007 and at the same time an invitation to a series
of daily events organized by the artist collective H.arta. Their program is
structured around four major themes: post-communism, feminism, education and
display, and takes the form of presentations, discussions, workshops and
performances.
Trams and Institutions -- Daniel Knorr
The project Trams and Institutions invites the public transport users of the
Romanian capital to discover and board four regular trams circulating in Bucharest
that have been decorated with the logos of some national institutions such as the
police, the military and the Red Cross.
Monument (History / Hysteria 2) -- Dan Perjovschi
Dan Perjovschi's live sculpture evokes in the memory of the locals a moment from the
recent history of Romania -- the miner-lead incursions into the heart of Bucharest
in the early 1990s intended to stifle democratic protests against the neo-communist
government of the time. Monument (History / Hysteria 2) will be performed daily for
a week in the same location, University Square, where the events took place 17 years
ago.
Contemporary Art Archive / Center for Art Analysis -- Lia Perjovschi
CAA (Contemporary Art Archive / Center for Art Analysis) has functioned as archive,
open workshop, alternative research and education project organized by Lia
Perjovschi between 1985 and 2007. Between September and October 2007, CAA will
undergo an inventory at the end of which it will be temporary closed in preparation
for its next stage.
hot art 6 - H.C.L.M.B. 10/ 25/01/2001/ Landscape in the City's Backyard --
Serban Sturdza - Virgil Scripcariu
This project confronts the inhabitants of Bucharest as well as the leaders of public
institutions with a moment of reflection on the systemic way in which the green
areas of the city are being destroyed and replaced by commercial and residential
developments.
A series of artists' books is published by IDEA Publishing House Cluj and
Walther König Cologne, 2007.
Initiated by the partner institutions Goethe-Institut Bukarest, Institutul Cultural Român (ICR), and Allianz Kulturstiftung. Supported by the Cultural Programme of the German EU Presidency in 2007 provided by the German Foreign Office, Erste Foundation, and the Order of Architects in Romania. Media partners: IDEA, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, Suplimentul de Cultura, Observator Cultural, E-cart.ro.
Official Opening: Saturday 15 September 2007, 14:00
Order of Architects in Romania
Str. Pictor Arthur Verona, nr. 19, sector 1, Bucureşti