Friday 21 / 11 / 08 11h00

Collecting as an activity between Art and Antropology

by Dr. Laszlo Beke

Laszlo Beke is historian and critic of art living and working in Budapest, director of the Research Institute for Art History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

WRO Art Center presentation and screening

Tuesday 18 / 11 / 08 18h00

supported by the Polish Cultural Institute in Bucharest

The new WRO Art Center (Centrum Sztuki WRO), located at Plac Teatralny 5, Wrocław, arose from the experience and activity of the WRO Foundation Media Art Center, founded in 1989, the only independent organization in Poland specializing in contemporary art, media and technology. The WRO Art Center features regular presentations of contemporary art intertwined with the development of communications tools and processes.

The WRO Art Center offers exhibitions, showings, concerts, screenings, lectures, workshops and publications featuring both Polish and international art. It is designed for artists, curators, critics and art theoreticians as well as for the active and creative culture-oriented public, while original projects cultivating creativity encourage children and teenagers to get familiar with media art. The Center’s aims are to support artistic and educational activities, and to organize international cultural and intellectual exchanges by expanding the WRO collection, making it accessible, collaborating with renowned international art galleries and institutions and through a program of residencies for artists and curators. The WRO Art Center’s gallery, laboratory, archives, reading room and offices are housed in the renovated heritage interiors in the loft of the former Otto Stiebler coffee-roasting plant at the corner of Wrocław’s Plac Teatralny and Widok Street. The specially designed Widok Street façade and entryway also serves as a projection screen in the public space. The Center is open to the public from Tuesday through Sunday. The WRO Art Center is funded by the City of Wrocław and is based on the agreement between the WRO Foundation and the Wrocław municipal authorities.

The presentation will be followed by the screening of several video works from the centre’s archive:

1. Aki Nakazawa, Negai wo hiku, Japan / Germany 2006, 4:35 (premiul I)

2. Pascual Sisto, 28 Years in the Implicate Order, USA 2005 (premiul II)

3. Stadtmusik, Mauerpark, Austria 2007, 17:25 (menţiune specială)

4. Jonas Nilsson, Me & Myself, Sweden 2006, 3:00

5. Dawid Marcinkowski, Sufferrosa, Poland 2007

6. Kurt d'Haeseleer, Fossilization, Belgium 2005, 09:09

7. Łukasz Gronowski, Untitled Works, Poland 2007, 4:46

8. Tal Amiran, Untitled (Band in a Studio), UK 2006, 2:33

9. Istvan Kantor, Revolutionary Song, Canada 2006, 9:32

10. Laurent Vicente, Superarchiskate, France 2006 / 2007, 3:48

11. Dominik Boberski, Estate, Poland 2006, 4:32

12. Jae-kyu Byun, Moving Panorama, Japan 2006, 4:05

13. Monsieur Moo, Neon, France 2005, 00:58

14. Volker Schreiner, Cell, Germany 2006, 4:27

14 November 17h00

FEMINIST ART IN MEXICO: A PERSONAL JOURNEY

Is feminist art relevant in today's globalized world?

Monica Mayer will share her experiences as a feminist artist over the past thirty years and discuss the social, political and aesthetic issues that have interested different generations of women artists. Monica Mayer is present in Romania by the courtesy of the Embassy of Mexico in Romania, for Perspective 2008 project, curator Olivia Niţiş.

Mónica Mayer (Mexico City, 1954), studied visual arts at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas in Mexico City and in 1980 obtained a masters degree in sociology of art at Goddard College while participating at the Feminist Studio Workshop in Los Angeles, California.

A major area of Mayer’s work has been performance art. In 1983 she formed Polvo de Gallina Negra, the first feminist art group in Mexico with Maris Bustamante. The group presented performances in the media and different social interventions. Mayer also formed the group Tlacuilas y Retrateras, another feminist art group integrated by the participants in a two year workshop she gave to artists and art historians. Mayer has also performed on her own or with Victor Lerma in different festivals in Mexico and Japan, as well as presenting her work in museums. However, most of her performance pieces are social interventions designed specifically for each place and situation. Since 1989 she has participated in Pinto mi Raya with Victor Lerma, which is an on-going piece on the Mexican art system (www.pintomiraya.com.mx). She is co-director of the Pinto mi Raya archive, which specializes in contemporary Mexican art.