Monday 12 May 2008 17h00

Can there be an Identity Overdose if you are an artist?

artist talk by Luchezar Boyadjiev (Bulgaria)

In his works, Luchezar Boyadjiev examines the visual and aesthetic consequences of the politic, economic, social and relational changes in ex-socialist capital cities like Sofia,Bucharest, Budapest, Moscow but also Istanbul, reshuffling an urban world that has been filled up with meanings.

Luchezar Boyadjiev, born in 1957, graduates as art historian at the National Academy of Arts, Sofia in 1980. He has been taking part in the most important Biennials of the world since the beginning of the 1990s (Prague and Moscow in 2007, Singapore and Iasi/Periferic 7 in 2006, Istanbul and Venice in 2005 etc.). Photography, Conceptual Art and New Media are his main fields of interest. Luchezar Boyadjiev also works as art critic, publicist and curator.

Archive in Residence

Vienna / Bucharest

April 2008


Opening: Monday 31 March 18h00

Ovidiu Anton + David Bosch Pujadas + Michele Bressan + Caecilia Brown + Diana Duta + Gabriele Edlbauer + Irina Gheorghe + Christina Gillinger + Helmut Heiss + Julia Hohenwarter + Phillip Hohenwarter + Katrin Hornek + Catalin Ilie + Cristian Iordache + Elvedin Klacar + Amelie Loy + Teresa Novotny + Ekaterina Obermair + Adrian Parvulescu + Alina Popa + Nora Rekade + Marusa Sagadin + Silvia Sencekova + Larisa Sitar + Gabriel Tempea + Anna Witt + Madalina Zaharia + Hannes Zebedin

If research on a particular geographic place is done from a distance, with different possibilities and perspectives than at the actual place itself, is this likely to lead to different results? Does a real situation oppose the research that already includes a personal interpretation? Gathering information eventually leads to a personal archive, which creates a basis that enables oneself to rethink, work over or possibly drop the idea for the project realised later in the specific place. In the process of our production these questions will be investigated and worked on. The exchange happens between students from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and the National University of Arts in Bucharest.

Tuesday, 1 April 18h00

Book launch:

TextImage – Perspectives on the history and Aesthetics of Avant-garde Publications (editor: Erwin Kessler)

Published by the Romanian Cultural Institute

PRIVATE HABITATS

24-28 March 2008

Opening: Monday, 24 March 18h00

Eugen Alupopanu, Marinela Botez, Sabina Borhan, George Cernat, Claudiu Ciobanu, Adrian Crasmaru, Ciprian Croitoru, Mihai Ene, Miruna Nicolaev, Petru Padurariu, Gheorghita Elena Vornicu, Maria Vornicu

painting and sculpture from the GEORGE ENESCU University of Arts, Iasi

PRIVATE HABITATS subjectively describes in a cinematographic-like narrative the perspectival dissolution of the everyday urban life, by means of a parallel montage of pictorial fragments of intimate living space, contrasted with painterly and sculptural representations of urban atopias. The private habitats suggested imaginary reconstruct the disrupted space of an ordinary Romanian apartment, in which a trivial and claustrophilic existence of anonymous individuals takes place in an absurd routine and lack of human communication. The space of this uncanny narrative questions, sometimes suspending, the borders between the real, the phantasmal and the virtual, as well as those between the private and the public space. (Cristian Nae)

The Human Fabric

Elena Andrei & Teodora Visineanu

26/02 – 14/03/2008
Opening: Tuesday, 26 February 19h00

Through selfportraiture, minute analysis of detail or by means of a multitude of creatures that appear in the works, the two young artists are involved in a dialogue with each other as well as in a discussion with their audience on the subject of what lies beneath daily routine and the web of things and happenings that so often distract us from what is truly important.

PASSATO PROSSIMO

photographs by Michele Bressan and Bogdan Girbovan

21 – 31/01/2008

Opening: Monday 21/01/08 19h00

UNAgaleria

Str. G-ral Budisteanu 10, sector 1, Bucuresti

In my attempt to write a text for the exhibition Passato Prossimo, I cannot escape a definition of photographers that I recently heard, a definition that for me is equal in profoundness to a saying of Hagi, the football player: „Football is football and the ball is round”. It is said that there are two kinds of photographers: the hunter and the farmer... Fortunately, Michele Bressan and Bogdan Girbovan do not fit into any of these categories...

At the time when Michele has started taking photographs, quite recently, Tom Waits launched three albums at once: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards... and, similarly, one could define his style of photography: a mixture of rush with sentimentalism and possession, a combo of hunter and farmer and something more. Something tender which cannot be explained but pleases the eye.

At the time when Bogdan began photographing, nothing important was going on. Hence, his images „have a voice of their own” ... quite literally! As in: the farmer meets the hunter and tells him something. Something brief that cannot be put into words yet it is pleasurable...

The exhibition in UNAgaleria is also a demonstration of craftsmanship in developing gelatin silver prints. Ten photographs of 100x150 cm., fiber based matte paper mounted on aluminium, limited edition of five plus a few small pictures perfect for framing, unlimited edition. On one hand leica format photographs taken with about 15 different cameras (indeed, Bressan carries a small camera in every pocket for fear of missing out on something) with grainy negatives and on the other hand medium format images, pure 6x7, taken with a heavy camera that releases the shutter in a loud yet firm manner. (no connection to Bresson)

These two students are worth looking after in their future artistic activity and, moreover, together with their peers, they shape a generation of students from the photography and video department that shows a lot of promise for the future.

Nicu Ilfoveanu, curator

The Key Spot

11 – 17/01/2008

Opening: Friday 11/01/2008 18h00

Oana Barleanu, Adrian Branea, Lucia Dumitrescu, Mihai Ilie, Maria Marin, Mihai Mihail, Emilia Panicu, and Bogdan Vornicu

The works presented are deformed images that, due to the laws of perspective, can be recomposed from a certain spot in order to form the correct image. The images realised through anamorphosis can be recomposed: either directly, in front of an observer placed at the key spot, or indirectly, in certain reflective surfaces (regular, conical or cylindrical mirrors). Anamorphosis can be a useful technique in fine arts because it forms images that are abstract at the same time as mimetic and also because it can be recomposed from a certain key spot that can be aesthetically exploited by the artist. Moreover, the anamorphoses harbour a degree of surprise and interactivity with the observer - participant in the re-shaping of the correct image.

Curator, arch. Bogdan Vornicu