In the mythical neighborhood of San Telmo, the Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires inaugurated "Danza Actual" (Modern Dance) curated by Francisco Lemus. The exhibition highlights the legacy of the experimental dance of the 1960s in Argentina, using archival material. It also shows dance through its contact with rock music, pop, design, visual arts, performance, and collective experiences.

Participating Artist: 

Ana Itelman

Ana Kamien

Ana María Stekelman

Cecilia Ingenieros

Dore Hoyer

Esther Ferrando

Graciela Martínez

Iris Scaccheri

José C. Campietelli

Laura Mouta

Lía Jelín

María Fux

Marilú Marini

Marucha Bo

Mercedes Robirosa

Miriam Winslow

Oscar Araiz

Otto Werberg

Patricia Stokoe

Renata Kestelboim

Renate Schottelius

Rodolfo Danton

Estela Maris

Susana Tambutti

Susana Zimmermann

An art space in the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest is dedicated to an amazing art installation, entitled "Black Cloud", inspired by the story of the migration of monarch butterflies.

The unique creation contains up to 25,000 hand-made black paper butterflies, inspired by 30 different species.

This surreal gathering of butterflies and moths, created between 2007-2018, brings the raw beauty of nature into the museum, in a sight which is both wondrous and foreboding. Artist Carlos Amorales describes the insects as a ‘plague’, which rises to envelop the viewer. (1)

The art installation has traveled the world, being displayed in many art galleries, shops, and even churches and trams. Now it is located in Bucharest. “A sea of black butterflies invites the viewer to explore the interplay between fantasy and reality in the Marble Hall of MNAC Bucharest. <<Black Cloud>> serves as a cautionary tale, going back to the British Industrial Revolution of the mid-19th century. During that period, rampant coal combustion cast a somber environmental shadow, triggering a natural selection process favoring black moths in cities. Prior to industrialization, light-colored moths thrived, camouflaged against pale trees and pristine walls. However, coal soot, widespread in northern England, spawned a new dark moth variety. As pollution ebbed with clean air regulations, the lighter moth form returned, possibly signaling the dark moths' impending extinction, revealing nature's vulnerability to industrialization's impacts”, we learn from MNAC (2).

“A famous Chinese parable tells us that Zhuangzi fell asleep and dreamt he was a butterfly. When he woke up, he didn't know whether he was really the man who dreamt of the butterfly or the butterfly who now dreams that it is a man. Which would you choose: man or butterfly? How does fantasy work when you're surrounded by a cloud of black butterflies? When you identify with a butterfly, how do you perceive yourself from the outside?

The butterfly or moth has a strong symbolic charge in understanding our subjectivity and fears: from the butterfly effect in chaos theory to the traditional representation of the soul or the undead (striga/molia), from the Greek term for butterfly (psychē) to the moth and lamp memes.

The black cloud, the sublime manifestation of the monstrosity that haunts us all, plays in everyone's mind with real fictions, fears, desires and forbidden places. Amorales creates an alternative world that transforms in every space, encouraging new forms of interpretation. Together we will take his proposal further and performatively explore the dark clouds of butterflies within each." (MNAC)

Since 1998, Carlos Amorales has been gathering a digital collection of vector images depicting various elements like birds, spiders, trees, and wolves. Titled Archivo Líquido (Liquid Archive), the images are sourced from books, magazines, downloaded from the internet, or from the artist's own captures, in order to be transformed into black, often hybridized, silhouettes. “Black Cloud” is the tangible 3D translation of the archive, materializing its capacity to evoke fear into a powerful installation.

From the initial idea, inspired by a dream, Mexican artist Carlos Amorales invites us to follow the journey of an installation that has travelled around the world and metamorphosed over the past almost 15 years.

Using his extensive collection of digital images, titled Archivo Líquido (Liquid Archive), Carlos Amorales recreates 36 moth varieties as thousands of life-sized, black paper cut-outs in his “Black Cloud” installation. Meticulously hand-glued to both walls and ceiling, the intricate creations have been transforming spaces across the world since 2007 into a breathtaking display. The dark swarm has set Bucharest as its home for the summer of 2023, via Timișoara, where it poetically infests a tram line.

“In his Black Cloud installation, Amorales embraces ambiguity, blurring the boundaries between beauty and wonder, good and bad, serenity and chaos. The artwork prompts imagination to reconcile diverse interpretations, calling upon mediation of enigmatic narratives.

Carlos Amorales' haunting paper butterflies reveal the ominous reality of their extinction, evoking an imbalanced and delicate ecosystem. With blackened wings as a forewarning, “Black Cloud” invites us to confront the escalating devastation of invertebrate populations disrupted by climate change.

Amidst the shadows of thousands of insects, you’ll find a mesmerizing blend of beauty and awe, fantasy and darkness, serenity and chaos. “Black Cloud” showcases esteemed Mexican artist Carlos Amorales' gothic sensibility, while untamed nature's raw allure finds its place within the museum's walls” (MNAC).

The exhibition “Carlos Amorales. Black Cloud”, part of the ArtEncounters Biennial, “My Rhino is Not a Myth: art science fictions” (Timișoara, 19.05.-17.07.2023), can be seen in the Marble Hall on the ground floor of the museum until October 1st, 2023.

Based on "Black Cloud", a satellite exhibition of the 2023 ArtEncounters Biennial, Mihai Lukács, together with Răzvan Leucea, also presented a video-performance workshop "Butterflies in the Head, Butterflies in the Stomach".

Carlos Amorales  works in a variety of media, including video, animation, painting, drawing, sculpture, and performance. He is a multidisciplinary artist who studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. His most extensive researches are Los Amorales (1996-2001), Liquid Archive (1999-2010), Nuevos Ricos (2004-2009), and a typographic exploration in junction with cinema (2013–present).

He has participated in residencies with Atelier Calder, Saché, France (2012); Mac/Val, Val-de-Marne, France (2011); and the Smithsonian Artists Research Fellowship, Washington, D.C. (2010). (3)

"Revelaciones" (Revelations) is the consecrating exhibition for Argentine plastic artist Cynthia Cohen, curated by Laura Batkis. Held at MC Gallery, located in the Palermo neighborhood, the proposal seeks to transport the viewer to a metaphysical plane through a series of Pop works that refer to consumerism, Camp, and Surrealism through the use of extravagance, humor, and absurdity.

Andr0meda is the pseudonym that Andra Bularca uses to sign the artistic installations placed in public spaces, the jewelry and the various artistic objects she works on. She is a graduate of "Hans Mattis-Teutsch" Fine Arts Vocational High School in Brașov (RO) and "Iuliu Hațieganu" University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca (RO). She is in fact a dental technician, but already gave up the idea of practicing and returned to art.

"In high school I started with mural painting, then I moved on to making jewelry, henna tattoos, string art, ceramics, some tailoring, and from 2018 I started to develop my passion for volumes, so I begun to work on installations made of natural elements, with the help of which I thought I could remind people how important it is to be able to free ourselves from the tensions acquired between the concretes of the cities and reconnect with our true nature.

After finishing my studies I had several attempts to integrate into this linear society, but my artistic spirit did not want to remain in the shadow, so I decided to declare myself an artist and do my best to make a living from it. Therefore, I am a visual artist and I like to work and learn the most diverse expression techniques, although since I was little I feel a stronger call towards volumes and installations", says the artist.

It is a form of art installation, which results in human shape, made of sticks, branches or roots, built in natural size, or various other structures. A recent project renders a DNA structure, for which she used wire, sticks and lights to accentuate its dynamism. In fact, lights are added to all installations, so the perception of the structure changes depending on when it is seen - day or night. Another of her installation is found in the center of Brașov, it is called "Mother nature" and it is a female figure, placed next to a tree. The project is part of Street Delivery Brașov.

"It is about recycling elements from nature, giving them an artistic touch. I wanted to highlight the idea of a bridge between humans and nature and the fact that without it we could not survive. It represents that cyclical rhythm in which we become one with the earth, becoming nourishment for nature, and it supports life.

The DNA structure was conceived within the Waha Festival, after the "roots" theme was nominated. In addition to using twigs and roots to design the installation, I dared to go a little further, to reach the root of life in the entire galaxy, the basis of our existence, namely that small, but surely the most precious structure in the nucleus of each cell, the DNA full of information", Andra explains.

Although she does not yet have a very extensive exhibition history, she has already managed to exhibit at two editions of the Waha Festival, then at Street Delivery Brașov, and will participate at Street Delivery Bucharest in September.

Andra can be seen on Facebook as Andr0meda and on Instagram – the page Andr.0.meda, where you can follow what she is creating. You will find her installations and original jewelry creations there, resulting from the juxtaposition of several types of materials, especially combinations of textiles with colored stones or beads. There you can find many other types of artistic objects created by Andra.

photos - Andr0meda 

Galeria Aparte (UNAGE Iași, Romania) presented the project "The story that could have been" (August 10-16, 2023), which included works signed by Oana Maria Nae, Ioana Păvăleanu (doctor) and Horia Ioachim Nae. In the current project, Oana Maria Nae is an artist-curator, responsible for both the exhibition concept and the artistic content and process. The exhibition is the story of a personal journey, from which the artist-curator extracted and then combined the practical and theoretical aspects of her own story and interaction with art over the years.

"Started as an intimate approach, an opportunity to reminisce and reactivate a personal creative process, the present exhibition becomes a support for the idea of the potentiality of an artistic career that did not happen", we learn from the curator. Oana Maria Nae is currently an art historian focusing on the area of modern art theory and modern design. However, several years ago she had a training in the field of visual arts, working with various artistic concepts and techniques. The exhibition consists of a fragmentary collage made of sketches, texts, works with various themes that Oana Maria Nae made from primary school to the period of her MA studies (approx. between 1990-2008). "Added to these are active and current process of self-analysis based on the temporal distance from that period. The period between the possible beginning of an artistic career and the present dominated by other concerns, professional or domestic, becomes a time in which the ability and freedom to choose, submission to choices and their acceptance, subtly transforms into a mechanism of regulation and understanding of the balance between reality and potentiality", Oana Maria Nae also conveys.

An obvious feminist reading of this artistic act is brought by the roles that Oana Maria Nae assumes and exhibits on this background. As a real echo of these ideas, several artworks made by Ioana Păvăleanu, a doctor, and Horia Ioachim Nae are brought to the exhibition, works that outline other creative potentialities, one of an amateur and the other of a child in training, which can be extinguished or, on the contrary, may increase or continue to exist.

"<<The story that could have been>> is an self-analysis exhibition of the creative process in its temporal evolution, signed by Oana Maria Nae, art historian, with an undeniable talent, enhanced by years of professional academic education. She could have been a visual artist - her cultivated talent fully recommends her, but her analytical spirit and pedagogic vocation opened other doors for her and it was not to be. The parable of the choices we make that shape or at least influence our professional destiny is obvious. But the humor, the self-irony, the appetite for mixed media and the collaborative text-image message are also remarkable. I also appreciated a nice nod to the passing of the years, with two guest artists - a transgenerational collaboration with Horia Ioachim Nae (in training) and a tribute to a friend in art, Ioana Păvăleanu, who finally chose medicine as a profession” - Cristina Simion, gallerist and curator at Tiny Griffon Gallery Nürnberg.

Oana Maria Nicuță Nae teaches modern and contemporary art courses at “George Enescu” National University of Art in Iasi. She is interested in the representation of women in modern Romanian painting, but also in the relationship between Orientalism and Westernism in modern art. She experienced the process of artistic creation for several years, especially the techniques of decorative art, being a graduate of the Mural Art specialization (2006) and participating in various exhibitions and collective artistic projects (2002-2008). She also created two mural art projects in Iasi (2002, 2006) and graphically illustrated the book "A super, mega, extra journey in the world of sleep" (ed. Sedcom Libris, 2022).

"Manifiesto Verde" (Green Manifesto) is an exhibition of Argentine artists at the Museum of Modern Art, as part of the annual exhibition program "El arte, ese río interminable" (Art, that endless river). Curated by Alejandra Aguado and Rodrigo Barcos as assistant curator, this exhibition highlights the pioneering art of ecological imprint created since the 1960s by Nicolás García Uriburu and proposes a dialogue with other Argentine artists whose works reactivate the imaginary of nature.

Sector 1 Gallery presented the performance "Reverse the Entropy" by artist Ștefania Crișan. The took place on Saturday, July 29th, at Băiculești 29, Bucharest.

<<"Reverse the Entropy" is a profound exploration, deeply intertwined with the video installation "Geamăna" currently showcased in the gallery, part of the group exhibition Mother's Nature. The genesis of this performance dates back to 2017 when Ștefania Crișan first encountered the haunting landscape of Geamăna, a Romanian village submerged under toxic waters from a settling lake. During the late 1970s, Nicolae Ceaușescu's regime sacrificed this village, nestled at the foothills of the Western Carpathian Mountains, to exploit the copper mines of Roșia Poieni, forcibly displacing 365 families. Tragically, the mining activities in the gutted mountains of Roșia Poieni continue to cause an ongoing ecological disaster, spreading over 130 hectares, with nearly 27 million tons of waste deposited in the lake annually.

Crișan's response to this poignant history involved collecting images, objects, and testimonies from the site. Through her profound sensitivity and understanding, she has masterfully translated these elements into performances, installations, sculptures, and intuitive chantings>>, the gallery informs.

Following the performance, there was an artist talk, where Ștefania shared her insights and inspirations behind "Reverse the Entropy", her creative process, and deeper meanings behind her work. The talk was moderated by Cristina Bută.

Ștefania Crișan (b. 1993, Romania) is interested in themes connected to the Anthropocene, questioning the paradoxes between the horror and the beauty of catastrophe, between observing the impossible inversion of the entropy and the healing virtues of ritual practices; between the death of a landscape and the death of painting. She is the winner of the 2022 Luxembourg Encouragement for Artists Prize (LEAP) and has exhibited at FRAC Lorraine, Casino Luxembourg, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken and Centre Pompidou-Metz. She lives and works in Metz, France.

"On the skin of the world there are clues. Colours that change afterwards. Asperities and strange alchemies. Tears and cuts, blisters and burns. Skin marked with a branding iron. Ștefania Crișan walks on this skin. Barefoot. She walks slowly, often stops, kneels down, lays her hands on the ground, approaches her mouth, presses her ear against it. She feels the vibrations, hears the rumblings, listens to the pulsations. She knows that she is walking on eggshells. That these eggs contain creatures that are already alive, not yet born, monstrous-looking because they haven’t yet reached their final appearance. 

She walks on quicksand and knows that on the other side, the world below cries out in silence. Lying on her stomach, she becomes one with it, absorbs, receives the waves, and, motionless, samples fragments, collects them, deciphers them, translates them. She stays there for a long while. When she gets up, she remains silent. Then she sings." (Excerpt from Célia Charvet, CHUT.E. CHANT. SON. Ștefania Crișan against the skin of the world in LEAP – the Luxembourg Encouragement for Artists Prize catalogue, 2022)

“Geamăna” is a project of poetic activism comprising several works. In 2017, Ștefania Crișan discovered the existence of Geamăna, a Romanian village submerged under the toxic waters of a settling lake. In the late 1970s, Nicolae Ceaușescu’s regime sacrificed this village at the foot of the Western Carpathian Mountains in order to exploit the copper mines of Roșia Poieni, forcing 365 families to leave. Today, the mining of copper and other metals in the gutted mountains of Roșia Poieni is causing an ecological disaster that extends over more than 130 hectares, with nearly 27 million tons of waste deposited in the lake every year. 

The only trace of the presence of the former village, the roof of the church, a symbol of the sacred, emerges from the water, which has turned orange due to the presence of cyanide. It acts as a ‘vestige of the future’ and a warning. Despite the tragic fate of their village, the local residents have never ceased to believe in God and in spirituality. Crișan collected images, objects and testimonies from the site and, through a sensitive understanding, translated them back into performances, installations, sculptures or intuitive chantings.

The performance "Reverse the Entropy", in dialogue with the video installation "Geamăna", was created after the artist’s first encounter with the landscape of Geamăna in 2017. At the time, she met two women living close to the contaminated lake. Despite their own sufferings, they offered her water, a place to sleep and their blessings. When the artist returned in 2018, she learned that one of the women had died. The performative sculpture Ophelia and the Anthropocene is a ‘portrait-receptacle’, a reflection on death, the disappearance and transformation of matter – in tribute to the deceased woman.

The performance is part of the exhibition Mother’s Nature, curated by Maya Økland and Cristina Bută. This project was financed with the support of EEA Grants 2014 – 2021 within the RO-CULTURE Programme.

Performers: Ștefania Crișan & Victor Mopin

On 20th of July took place an ecoperformative conference embodying results of an art research funded under Culture moves Europe program and Goethe Institute.

Two ecoperformative trajectories embodied, on the one hand, the building of the body of nature as body of collapse; on the other hand, the alchemical process for transmutation of matter.

The immersive event was designed to recreate and showcase the results of the artistic research undertaken by Alina Tofan and GCV (co-founders of Plastic Art Performance collective) in Norway.

The ecoperformative conference was guided using points of visual installation, object installation and sound-design. The public could explore it with all senses and become part of the performative journey.

Between April and May 2023, the two resident artists have been hosted in Vestfold, Telemark region in Norway, working together with Creatorium International, an active NGO based in Steinsholt, in order to develop an art methodology centered on ecoperformance and bringing together practices at the intersection of art and ecology.

As a result of the 3-week-long program of practices, co-developed with the participation of Vladislav Calestru, a series of art products emerged: a durational ecoperformance installation opened for the public in Kruttverket art gallery center in Oslo, site-specific performances in various Norwegian landscapes, two video-art / ecovideoperformances, sound-art installation, as well as nature-object installations.

The resulted methodology stands as the group’s corpus of practices, developed, tested and implemented throughout the last 3 years in Romania, in the territory of ecoperformance - an international artistic practice, movement and community sprouted in Brazil and guided for the past 30 years under Taanteatro Companhia, initiators of the vision, practice and the first Ecoperformance Festival.

Plastic Art Performance Collective is an art group active in the Romanian arts and cultural scene based in Bucharest, focused on connecting awareness, body and ecology through various art forms. The group creates ecoperformances, immersive events and multimedia projects centered around the relationship with the environment.

Creatorium is a non-for-profit organization based in Steinsholt, Norway, developing international projects focused on active learning methods, community building, internationalism and global awareness, with focus on the self-development needs and creative expression.

The art mobility was awarded a grant by Culture moves Europe program.

Sector 1 Gallery presented a premiere performance by Norwegian-Brazilian artist Kiyoshi Yamamoto, entitled “It Takes No Compromise to Give People Their Rights”, 2023. The event took place on Saturday, July 22nd, in Bucharest.

Kiyoshi Yamamoto’s works convey political messages and address social issues, with a focus on the LGBTQ+ community and human rights. Inspired by the indigenous cultures of the Amazon, such as the Tupi and Maracatu populations, who have been colonized and exploited by the Portuguese since the 14th century, Yamamoto uses the traditions of Native American cultures to express their vibrant colors in the context of the LGBTQ+ community. 

Kiyoshi also integrates industrial production as an artistic method through which he creates his works, giving them functionality, such as sunglasses, bandanas, and costumes. The title of the new artwork presented at Sector 1 Gallery is inspired by a phrase from gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk, recreated on the masks and costumes worn by the five performers, including the artist himself, each belonging to a different generation, from 20 to 60 years old. They will move to the melodies of Brazilian composer Villa-Lobos, wearing Yamamoto’s creations. Live music will be performed by Bogdan Postolache on cello and Monica Postolache on violin.

Kiyoshi Yamamoto (b. 1982) works in a variety of artistic techniques, including textiles, painting, printmaking, installation, and video. He has exhibited in various international contexts and holds a master’s degree from the National Art College in Bergen (2013). Currently, he lives and works in Bergen, Norway.

The performance was part of the exhibition “Mother’s Nature”, curated by Maya Økland and Cristina Bută. Partner: VISP – Produksjonsenhet for visuell kunst.