art gallery
Aurelia Mihai: "Living Monuments" at Sector 1 Gallery in Bucharest
October 13, 2024 | Cosmina Marcela OLTEAN ArtPage
Cooperativa FIR, with the support of AFCN, in partnership with The Goethe-Institut Bucharest and Sector 1 Gallery, presents "Monuments In Time” - LIVING MONUMENTS, a two-part exhibition focusing on the work of visual artist Aurelia Mihai.
LIVING MONUMENTS presents the artist's latest work, the 4-channel installation Living Monuments I & II (2023-ongoing), taking over the gallery's generous space. "Situated between performance and film, the installation reflects on the invisible connections between people and places by staging these "living monuments" in the urban environment. A visual metaphor of humanity in the form of a living organism, Living Monuments unfolds as a performance caught on camera, in which 15 people, different in origin, skin color, gender and age, come together as one body" - states the curator.
The project "Monuments in Time" includes alongside the exhibitions a series of discussions and presentations with guest curators and artists, between September-November, at Goethe-Institut Bucharest.
Her films and video works have been presented in international exhibitions, including at The Chelsea Museum of Art, New York, Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, Museum Ludwig Köln, K21 Düsseldorf, "The Worldly House", Documenta 13, Kassel, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany, Cobra Museum Amstelveen, Netherlands, Palace of the Arts in Naples, Italy, MACRO - (Contemporary Art Museum Roma), Kunsthalle Salzburg at the Salzburg Museum, Austria, MOCAK, Krakow, Poland, Kaunas Pinakothek Lituania, BIENALSUR, Cordoba, Argentina, Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain, Centre Pompidou, les Abattoirs, Frac Occitanie Toulouse Museum, France, The National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) Bucharest, Romania, Periferic 8, Contemporary Art Biennial, Iași, Romania, Timișoara European Capital of Culture 2023, Romania, TRIADE Founadtion, and important festivals and cultural institutions among which "Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin" at Louvre Auditorium (Paris), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), DaKino International Film Festival (Bucharest), and the FIFA International Art Film Festival (Montréal).
Cristina Bută (b. 1992, Timișoara) is a contemporary art curator and writer with an interest for topics of decolonization. She has been a curator in training at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, where she worked on the solo shows of Maria Lassnig and Walid Raad (AICA Prize 2020), a co-curator of the 5th edition of the Art Encounters Biennial in Timișoara (2023), My Rhino Is Not A Myth. Art science fictions and the curator of many solo and group exhibitions. She is based in Bucharest, working on projects in collaboration with artists, galleries and cultural institutions.
"Monuments in Time" is a project organized by Cooperativa FIR and co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund - AFCN.
The gallery invites the public to discover the artist's latest work, "Living Monuments" (I & II), 2024, that unfolds as a performance caught on camera, in which 15 people, different in origin, skin color, gender and age, come together as one body - the gallery informs.
"Known for works that combine visual and cinematic arts, Aurelia Mihai explores monuments, myths, cultural identity, migration and belonging. Sensitive to critical social issues, her videos and films foreground a notion of humanity in a broad sense. Her body of work includes video, photographic and performative interventions with historical and social references, combining scientific findings with subjective memories and creative processes, often responding to the current global context" - curator Cristina Bută.
LIVING MONUMENTS presents the artist's latest work, the 4-channel installation Living Monuments I & II (2023-ongoing), taking over the gallery's generous space. "Situated between performance and film, the installation reflects on the invisible connections between people and places by staging these "living monuments" in the urban environment. A visual metaphor of humanity in the form of a living organism, Living Monuments unfolds as a performance caught on camera, in which 15 people, different in origin, skin color, gender and age, come together as one body" - states the curator.
The project "Monuments in Time" includes alongside the exhibitions a series of discussions and presentations with guest curators and artists, between September-November, at Goethe-Institut Bucharest.
The events program begun on September 3rd, 7 pm, with an artist talk by Aurelia Mihai, in dialogue with curator Cristina Bută, held at the Goethe Pavilion.
Notes on the artist's biography and activity
Aurelia Mihai (b. 1968, Bucharest, Romania) is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Hamburg. She studied at the National University of Arts in Bucharest and later at the Academy of Visual Arts in Düsseldorf and the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. Between 2009 and 2021 she was a professor at the University of the Arts in Braunschweig. Aurelia Mihai has received numerous awards and scholarships throughout her career, including Villa Aurora (Los Angeles), the German Academy Villa Massimo (Rome), and grants from IASPIS Stockholm and Stiftung Kunstfonds.
Her films and video works have been presented in international exhibitions, including at The Chelsea Museum of Art, New York, Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, Museum Ludwig Köln, K21 Düsseldorf, "The Worldly House", Documenta 13, Kassel, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany, Cobra Museum Amstelveen, Netherlands, Palace of the Arts in Naples, Italy, MACRO - (Contemporary Art Museum Roma), Kunsthalle Salzburg at the Salzburg Museum, Austria, MOCAK, Krakow, Poland, Kaunas Pinakothek Lituania, BIENALSUR, Cordoba, Argentina, Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain, Centre Pompidou, les Abattoirs, Frac Occitanie Toulouse Museum, France, The National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) Bucharest, Romania, Periferic 8, Contemporary Art Biennial, Iași, Romania, Timișoara European Capital of Culture 2023, Romania, TRIADE Founadtion, and important festivals and cultural institutions among which "Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin" at Louvre Auditorium (Paris), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), DaKino International Film Festival (Bucharest), and the FIFA International Art Film Festival (Montréal).
About the curator
Cristina Bută (b. 1992, Timișoara) is a contemporary art curator and writer with an interest for topics of decolonization. She has been a curator in training at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, where she worked on the solo shows of Maria Lassnig and Walid Raad (AICA Prize 2020), a co-curator of the 5th edition of the Art Encounters Biennial in Timișoara (2023), My Rhino Is Not A Myth. Art science fictions and the curator of many solo and group exhibitions. She is based in Bucharest, working on projects in collaboration with artists, galleries and cultural institutions.
"Monuments in Time" is a project organized by Cooperativa FIR and co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund - AFCN.
Partners: Goethe Institut Bucharest, Galeria Sector 1
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Photos & info: Sector 1 Gallery
Photos & info: Sector 1 Gallery
