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.

"Fulguraciones" is a solo exhibition by Argentine artist and set designer Renata Schussheim held at the Borges Cultural Center. Schussheim exhibits sculptures of ethereal swimmers suspended in the dome of the building, the most beautiful space in this place. The exhibition continues in the Berni Pavilion, where she exhibits large-scale intervened photographs showing strange men disguised as polar bears who, in turn, are photographed with young and old. According to the artist, it is the strangest exhibition she has ever done.

Catinca Tabacaru Gallery recently presented in Bucharest a solo exhibition by Ana Pascu - "Towards Inmost", curated by Iselin Huluba.

“Towards Inmost” is a 5-channel video installation that investigates the interaction between the human experience and the external environment. Through performance, video, sound and object, the installation invites the viewer to reflect on the mechanisms that shape our relationship to the physical reality.

<<The performance captures the fluidity and dynamism of human experiences, translating inner thoughts and outer interactions into a choreography of feelings, while the sound reproduces the soundscape of the border between the two spaces.

The installation highlights two planes - one physical and one intangible, both explored through movement. Through the interaction of the characters moving along the screens and through the imposing presence of the oversized self observing from the outside, the installation presents the metaphysical journey within the human-environment relationship>>, points out the artist.

<<At a form level, the objects within the installation detach themselves from their ordinary functionality and become casings for the screens they contain. This relation between the containing object and the containing screen launches a first attempt to thin the boundary between the two media.

Within the installation, the screen in its original function, becomes a window, which reveals the space proposed by the video material. In addition to the existing screens inside the objects, the concept of the internal is also supported by the two projections that are found on the outer walls of the space. In this way, the two spaces are demarcated even more strongly by relating to the architecture of the exhibition space.

The video content consists of capturing the body movement within a white cube space, a space whose borders are defined by the communication between the screen and the subject that contains it. From this moment, we can talk about the existence of a third space, only formed at the level of perception and investigated by the performative action of the character present in the screens.

The video is divided into all the screens of the installation, and its continuity is ensured by the singular and sequential presence of the subject in each object. Although, on a technical level, these are separate videos, the sensation perceived by the viewer is an integral one, of the same material, which is discovered from different perspectives through the objects that contain it>>, adds the artists.

<<With the 5-channel video installation, “Towards Inmost,” Ana Pascu invites the viewer to embark on a metaphysical journey of self-discovery and spatial awareness.

Integrating screens within domestic artifacts, the installation aims to open a dialogue between the inner and outer worlds; mediating the meeting through technology and performance. In an attempt to evoke the complex, yet eerily fluid human experience, Pascu transgresses her performers across the multiple screens while simultaneously introducing a larger than life “self” figure looking “in” from outside the insect-based installation.

The artist asks the viewer to reflect on the mechanisms that shape our perception of ourselves and our surroundings; to question the boundaries between the personal and the impersonal, the familiar and the foreign, the physical and the intangible>>, we learn from the curator.

"Towards Inmost" project is part of the Graduation exhibitions of the Photo-video computerized image processing department of the National University of Arts Bucharest, class of 2023.

Art Installation by Ana Pascu

Coordinator: Răzvan Tun

Choreography & performance: Anca Stoica

Soundscape: Shai Lavi

Photographer: Cătălin Georgescu

The opening of the exhibition “Mother's Nature”, curated by Maya Økland & Cristina Bută, took place on July 13th at Sector 1 Gallery, Bucharest, along with a performance by Monica Winther. “Mother's Nature” is a group exhibition which "tackles instances of the notion of mother in various contexts and art practices. From a personal to a post-anthropocentric dimension, the exhibition traces the potential meaning of the notion of mother in various contemporary art practices", we learn from the curatorial team. The exhibition is ongoing until August 28th.

<<In Norwegian, the word føde means both food and give birth. Nature is commonly referred to as Mother Earth, as she is portrayed in almost every culture: to the Aztecs, Earth was called Tonantzin - "our mother"; to the Incas, Earth was called Pachamama - "mother earth", the word pacha in Quechua also signifying "space-time" or "universe". The Chinese Earth goddess Hou Tu is similar to Gaia, the Greek goddess personifying the Earth. In other words, mother is simultaneously the symbol of our entire existence, and the everyday woman we all must relate to whether we like her, or not. She can be a he, she, them or they, biological, cultural, or spiritual. Absent, present, good, and bad. We dream of her unconditional love just as much as we find it hard to resist the desire to control her. Honored and blamed, the multitude of ambivalence in her relations holds no limits. She can destroy us and nurture us, all at the same time.

In her writings, philosopher of science Isabelle Stengers calls Gaia/Earth a devastating power that shifts our categories of thought. Mother Nature is not the constant giver promising us nourishment, or, in a paradoxical fashion, the land of resources our capitalist societies continue to exploit. The title of the exhibition references both Mother Nature beyond her romanticized personification, as well as the relations and non-relations that we have with our mothers and other maternal figures and constructs. Within a society that is still prejudist towards gender, race and sexuality, in which certain stories and histories are or remain silenced, ecologies of care appear. How do we negotiate the relationship between care and emancipation? How do we grow with the other? From queer and feminist perspectives, the artworks and performances of Norwegian and Romanian artists Cristina David, Jasmina Al-Qaisi, Kiyoshi Yamamoto, Monica Winther and Ștefania Crișan trace existential affection, power, anxiety and love while calling upon Mother.>> - excerpt from the curatorial text.

The exhibition program includes three performances throughout the month of July:

• July 13, Monica Winther - „Paction drawing"

• July 22, Kiyoshi Yamamoto - „It Takes No Compromise to Give People Their Rights"

• July 28, Ștefania Crișan - „Reverse the Entropy”

The project is financed with the support of EEA Grants 2014 – 2021 within the RO-CULTURE Program, having VISP – Produksjonsenhet for visuell kunst as project partner.

The EEA Grants represent the contribution of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway towards a green, competitive and inclusive Europe. There are two overall objectives: reduction of economic and social disparities in Europe, and to strengthen bilateral relations between the donor countries and 15 EU countries in Central and Southern Europe and the Baltics.

RO-CULTURE is implemented in Romania by the Ministry of Culture through the Project Management Unit. The Programme aims at strengthening social and economic development through cultural cooperation, cultural entrepreneurship and cultural heritage management. (www.ro-cultura.ro)

"¿Cómo sentir? Diarios íntimos para el presente" (How to feel? Intimate diaries for the present) is an exhibition of visceral contemporary art by Argentine artists that invite to go through different states of mind taking as a starting point the mental health during -then- the pandemic. The exhibition, curated by Nicolás Cuello, takes place at the Casa Nacional del Bicentenario, a cultural space for contemporary artistic production.

The exhibition "The sublime" by artist Martyna Benedyka is on display at "Dan Hatmanu" Gallery, in the Central Hall Passage in Iasi, Romania. The art project is ongoing between June 27 - July 18.

The artist and the curator reveal us the aspects related to the concept and the philosophy behind this new art project.

“Exploring the infinite, we experience a deeper, often unforgettable, sense of wonder. Here, the infinity is realized through cropped compositions, blackness, repetition, and the potential to evoke a mixture of emotions and feelings in the viewer. According to Burke, beauty brings relaxation and sublimity brings tension. The paradox of the sublime arises when we find peace in the things that overwhelm us. Both captivate us, despite the dangers. I decided to express the sublime and the infinite, referring to the sense and power of the image in the real world. Depriving it of details, a rather enigmatic selection of paintings evoke notions of the sublime as an aesthetic experience and a monumental vision that strikes the viewer with power and raises the boundless question of whether the sublime in art can coexist with beauty”, adds Martyna.

“The personal exhibition The sublime problematizes the coexistence of the concepts of sublime and beautiful, in the form of a visual experience whose latent tensions are generated by the paradoxical relationship between these two notions. Martyna draw a minimalist, ascetic (mono-/dia-) dialogue between stylized forms that undermines, as an act of rebellion, the limits of the exhibition space by placing the works either on the periphery of the gallery walls, or in one of its corners, or on plinths that assigns them an object - facility character. The artist's works betray fragments of faces and buildings that create a unity of stylistic and chromatic invoice”, sais Ioana Palamar, curator of the exhibition.

Martyna Benedyka is a visual and sound artist, photographer and coloratura soprano. Working in a wide range of media including painting, film and digital photography, collage, installation, video and sound art, she focuses on human existence, voice and identity, nature and the clandestine life of objects.

She studied Art and Design at the Gray’s School of Art in Scotland, UK and graduated with a First Class BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art Painting in 2014. She has exhibited in the UK, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Czechia, Romania, Estonia, Switzerland, South Korea, Canada and the USA.

Her work has been chosen by the Federation of British Artists for the Futures - UK’s largest annual survey of emerging contemporary figurative art at the Mall Galleries, London, among others. Recent projects include: Photo Romania Festival (winner 2022), Classix Festival (winner 2022), DongGang Photo Festival, South Korea (winner 2022-23), or De Structura Project, Estonia (winner 2022-23).

She is a member of Futures Photography, Amsterdam, NL (winner 2022) and she specializes in early and classical music.  More about this and other of her projects, here - https://martynabenedyka.com/

"Acrilia" is the solo exhibition of Argentine architect Ana Rascovsky at the Borges Cultural Center, located in the heart of downtown Buenos Aires. The artist creates a world of fantasy, from the children's imaginary and the search for the future, from a hundred pieces and models made with scraps and leftovers of acrylic that re-signify the worldviews of fairy tales and the dispute between nature, man, and technology.

Cluj-Napoca Museum of Art presents the exhibition "Unboxed Stories. Urban Comics with ArtiViStory Collective" in partnership with the Artivistory Association and the UniversitArt Association of the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca (UAD). The opening of the exhibition took place on Friday, June 16th.

Unboxed Stories. Urban Comics with ArtiViStory Collective is the third exhibition organized by the ArtiViStory Collective, in an effort to illustrate the experiences and concerns of young artists in their search for their identity and the questioning of the everyday creative context. The artists of ArtiViStory Collective (Evelina Grigorean, Teodora Predescu, Melinda Urecki, Lucian Barbu, Adrian Buda, Mihai Guleș) continue in this exhibition project to explore the mechanisms of community activation, in this case of young artists, as a form of collective research of an imaginary resulting both from subjective documentation, self-referential and introspective analysis, and from rigorous and lucid observations anchored either in the immediate reality of the contemporary society or in alternative constructs of fictional worlds.

Curated by Alice Iliescu and Anamaria Tomiuc from the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, together with the exhibition commissioner Alexandra Sârbu (Cluj-Napoca Museum of Art), the exhibition proposes both a reflective journey on the human memory and identity and an encounter with the creative laboratory of the young exhibiting artists, students and graduates of the comic strip and animation courses within the Bachelor's (Fine Arts - Graphic Arts) and Master's (Comic Strip and Cartoon) degree programs of UAD Cluj-Napoca together with their coordinator, Alice Iliescu: Evelina Grigorean, Teodora Predescu, Melinda Ureczki, Lucian Barbu, Adrian Buda, Mihai Guleș, Adina Constantin, Miruna Urbanek, Rahel Rudolf, Andreea Homan, Raluca Pavelescu, Andreea Tabita Curelaru, Andrada Băeș, Iris Golgoțiu, Borbély Szilvia, Siklódy Fruzsina, Maria Brâneț, Mara Bisa, Ana-Maria Bozdog, Sarah Popuț, Dariana-Ionela Ilie, Ionela-Georgiana Purcel, Daria Axente, Sabina Georgescu, Andreea Juncă-Guzu, Gabriela Baciu, Delia Elena Șuteu, Starmüller Boróka, Roberta Gașpar, Bianca Maria Berlea, Ana Savu.

“Based on the basic principles of sequential art, as a highly versatile visual narrative practice, the selected projects are rendered in a variety of artistic media including comics, animation, engraving, sculpture, multimedia, and installations, and bring to the fore multi-varied perspectives on themes that reflect the constant concerns of these young artists. In a conceptual approach that combines auto-biographical comics with socially engaged comics, the exhibition takes the visitor on a symbolic journey through intimate or fictional, subjective or collective, historical or fantastic narrative universes, unboxing countless stories.

Last but not least, in addition to subjective identities and narrative spaces (Siklódy Fruzsina), initiatic journeys and inner quests (Borbély Szilvia, Bianca Maria Berlea, Ana Savu, Sabina Georgescu, Roberta Gașpar) other series of projects approach from a critical perspective the relationship of the individual with the society, the inter-human relations and the social identity (Evelina Grigorean, Andreea Tabita Curelaru), reflecting on myths, traditions and collective memory (Andrada Băeș, Andreea Juncă-Guzu, Sarah Popuț, Melinda Ureczki) in gestures of recording the historical past (Andreea Homan) or imagining future worlds (Teodora Predescu). In addition, starting from these concepts explored in the projects presented above, some comic strip publications by the artists Bernát Zsófia, Pánczél Évi, Andrada Nedelcu, Eunicia Zidaru, Mátyás Réka, Andreea Radu, Roxana Andreea Iordache, Diana Amarandei, Iulia Rad, Raluca Vlad are presented”, we learn from the curatorial team.

“In order to enhance these visual discourses, the exhibition also includes a series of one-page comics on the theme Walking into society - Find Your Trust as well as a series of 16-page comics and short animations on the theme For the First Time by second and third year students participating in the comics and animation courses of the above mentioned undergraduate programme: Szilágyi Csenge, Andreea Catana, Sofia Martina, Ioana Man, Cosmin-Alexandru Grigoraș, Cristina Boştină, Péntek Kincső-Virág, Cătălina Grițcu, Bianca Manea, Ioana-Flavia Popa, Alexandra Lazăr, Dan-Ciprian Memei, Denisa-Maria Pădurariu, Adelina Abrudean, Adriana Gabriela Liciu, Ana Constantin, Andreea Vasiu, Anna Peter, Daria Barbu, Denisa Dănuleț, Erik Raul Sas, Estera-Hermina Csatlovszky, Fabiana Ginghină, Lakatos Antonia, Mihai Alisa, Miruna Anton, Paula Roșca, Radu Coroian, Cristina Ilie, Pierpaolo Scrivano. These projects join the ArtiViStory Collective's initiative to build a safe space in the exhibition area, where, through sequential art, artists enter into a dialogue with the public, and where the subjects addressed can become a mirror of the concerns common to the young generation, supported by a solidarity of age, experiences, daily needs and challenges of the contemporary society.

In addition to the stories revealed, the exhibition is also a broad exploration of visual narratives and sequential art that illustrate the complexity of the creative processes involved in the projects on display, sketches, character constructions, conventional and unconventional narrative frames and sequences, symbols, chromatics, stylistics, set design and other elements inherent in their construction mechanisms”, added the curators.

The ArtiViStory Collective is a community of artists, curators, researchers and other professionals from interdisciplinary fields working together, mainly through comics and sequential art, for social engagement. The practice of the artists in ArtiViStory Collective investigates the urban imaginary and social identity in subjective ways and is based on the belief that art is always connected to real situations, contexts and processes and should engage directly with the society, by either depicting ordinary aspects of everyday life, by stirring up reactions, conversations or discourse on various specific topics, or by engaging in projects and processes that act for the well-being of the community.

Artivistory Association is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that was founded in 2023 to support, promote and engage young artists in the community through the use of sequential art, comics and other socially engaged contemporary art forms in order to create a positive impact on how the general public perceives these forms of artistic expression. The association aims to inspire alternative ways of communicating, relating and developing creativity among the public through comics and socially engaged contemporary art.

UniversitArt Association is a non-governmental, non-profit, apolitical and independent organization of public interest, founded in 2017 within the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, with the aim to represent the interests of its community, to promote its members locally, nationally and internationally and to support the university in fulfilling its cultural mission by organizing artistic and scientific events (research projects, artistic projects, exhibitions, conferences, creative workshops). UniversitArt Association supported the first stage of development of the ArtiViStory Collective, within the project "(in)VISIBLE: Creative documentation & process evaluation in support of E2A Framework and community engagement for Learning Hub Cluj" funded by Fondation Botnar within OurCluj initiative and coordinated in 2022 the first two exhibition projects of the ArtiViStory Collective, Imagining Futures and Voices of Youth at Cluj-Napoca Art Museum and Casa Matei Gallery.

Photography, Feleki István

A new contemporary art exhibition, "Monumental Needs" by artist Radu Carnariu, curated by Dana Lungu, opened on June 15 at ArtEast Gallery in Iași, Romania. The exhibition can be visited until August 31th.

In "Monumental Needs", Radu Carnariu artistically explores the imaginary surrounding the "need", as it is reconstructed, hybridized, metamorphosed in the hyper-contemporary reality. For this, he makes a real tour de force of the artistic means used, using both painting, drawing, metalwork, collage, digital graphics in collaboration with artificial intelligence and video.

Curator Dana Lungu presents the artist's project as follows: << Radu Carnariu runs at the speed of his era. For him, nothing is too new. Any change in the air of our time is detected with ultra-fine antennae, intelligently theorized, dissolved with analytical irony and above all researched with the most surprising and sophisticated conceptual art tools.

Whether we're talking about the relationship between Artificial Intelligence and artistic imagination in the digital age, the blurring of the boundaries between "real" and "virtual", the new sociability in augmented reality or post-digital artifacts, Radu Carnariu offers us personal artistic investigations. At the center of his toolkit is the concept of "cognitive shock", which forces us to see and be present through powerful images that illuminate the mentality and context with the force of small intuitive-cultural revelations. Unlike the "aesthetic shock" which primarily delights us visually, the "cognitive shock", without disparaging the artistic mastery in any way, awakens us, intrigues us, problems us, insulates us >>, points out the curator.

<< This artistic project ironically explores the imaginary of "need" from the perspective of new relational contexts determined by the unprecedented impact of technology, artificial intelligence, in particular, on human life and the environment, but also on the way we redefine the image and artistic imagination. The concept of "need" is visually explored at the intersection of fiction and fact in relation to contemporary hyper-consumerist hedonism based on post-artificial imagery metaphors, such as "bioluminescent nuclear power plants" or "commercial constellations", determined through a critical dialogue game between AI and artist>>, explains the artist.

Radu CARNARIU (b. 1979), lives and works in Iași, maintaining an intense artistic activity on the national and international scene. He graduated from the "George Enescu" University of Arts, Faculty of Visual Arts and Design. In 2012 he obtained his doctorate in the field of visual arts with a work dedicated to the fantastic and surrealism. 

He had 19 personal exhibitions (graphic, painting, installation, object, ready-made, sculpture-object, installation in situ) in Iasi, Bucharest, Berlin and collective and group exhibitions in Iasi, Bucharest, Belgrade, Chisinau, Godsbanen, Budapest , Rome, Sophia, Tel Aviv, Buedelsdorf, Taipei. In 2011, he was awarded the UAP Iași graphics award and received more than 7 other national and international awards and distinctions.