Open Encounters

23 – 30 May 2009

Opening: Saturday 23 May 19h00

Saturday May 23^rd is Open Day at the Bucharest National University.

On this occasion, we have the pleasure to invite you to “Open Encounters”, a dialogue between students from the Graphic Design and Painting Departments curated by Sandra Demetrescu and Ioana Mandeal, students at the Art History Department who challenged their colleagues to step away from the studio and into the gallery.

Life after Life
Wojciech Wilczyk
27.03 - 16.04.2009

Opening: Friday 27 March 18h00

curator: Adam Mazur (Warsow Zamek Ujazdowski Center of Contemporary Art).

Car fetishes, former owners cannot abandon, transform into side roads monuments, poetic collages, poor relatives of stylized advertisements of motor business, completely magical objects...

supported by The Polish Cultural Institute in Bucharest

Evolution and Strategies of Italian Fashion System
Monday 16 March 2009 18h00
Presented by Fabrizio Tovaglieri (Istituto Marangoni)


The lecture aims to introduce the main features of the Italian fashion system. More precisely, the presentation will stress the value of the Italian fashion industry in terms of total turnover, employment rate and commercial balance through a snapshot of some key economic data. In order to understand the origins of Italian Fashion System, a look will be also shed towards the time of French haute couture and to some French styling campaigns from the 40’s and 50’s.The focus will be then shifted to some success factors of the Italian fashion system and, namely, the supply chain, the diversified structure of industrial fashion groups, the industry clusters, creativity and the unique combination of image and communication, i.e. the role of styling. Some concluding remarks on careers in fashion will be made at the end of the presentation.
Summary:
Part 1 – The Italian Fashion System, key economic data
Part 2 – The time of French fashion
Part 3 – From French Haute couture to Italian “prêt-à-porter”
Part 3.1 – The role of Italian textile companies and fashion designers
Part 3.2 – Main Italian fashion designers Part 4 – Features of Italian fashion industry
Part 4.1 – The supply chain
Part 4.2 – Fashion industrial groups
Part 4.3 – Industry Clusters (Business clusters and Geographic Clusters)
Part 4.4 – Creativity
Part 4.5 – The value of image and communication: Styling
Part 4.6 – Styling projects
Part 5 – Careers in the Fashion System
Part 6 – Questions and Answers session

TRACES: CONTEMPORARY ROMANIAN ART

10 – 24 March 2009

Opening: Tuesday 10 March 18h00

Artists: Ana Banica, Gabriela Boiangiu, Rozalinda Borcila, Emanuel Borcescu, Care Cutare,Cozo (Cosmin Paulescu), Suzana Dan, Gorzo, Mirela Ivanciu, Stela Lie, Ioana Marinescu, Aurelia Mihai, Gili Mocanu, Vlad Nanca, Lila Passima, Delia Popa

Curators: Ann Albritton (Ringling College of Art and Design, FL) Elaine O’Brien (Sacramento State University, CA) Carmen Iovitu (MNAC, Bucuresti), Mirela Ivanciu (Universitatea Nationala de Arte, Bucuresti)

TRACES: CONTEMPORARY ROMANIAN ART presents sixteen young Romanian artists who—sometimes straightforwardly and often ironically—explore issues of culture as well as gender through a variety of work: photography, videos, hand sewn projects, small objects, and paintings.

The exhibition first traveled to CIAC Gallery in Pont Aven, France, July 12 to August 14, 2008; to the Robert Else Gallery, Sacramento State University, Sacramento, CA from Sept. 2 to Oct. 15, 2008; and to the Selby Gallery, Sarasota, from Nov. 14 to Dec. 16, 2008

Supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York

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.