Spatiul Public Bucuresti / Public Art Bucharest 2007 announces its final month of events
15 September – 15 October 2007
Bucharest, Romania
Curated by Marius Babias and Sabine Hentzsch
Assistant curator: Raluca Voinea
Project assistant: Irina Gheorghe
Participating artists: Mircea Cantor, Anetta Mona Chisa / Lucia Tkácová, Nicoleta Esinencu, H.arta, Daniel Knorr, Dan Perjovschi and Lia Perjovschi.
www.spatiul-public.ro
Spatiul Public Bucuresti | Public Art Bucharest 2007 is a pilot project which attempts to create a platform for trans-disciplinary discussions and debates that explore how public art could encourage a critical engagement with the dominant structures of power active in contemporary society. The non-existence of an uncompromised public sphere in Romania during communism had generated the conditions for the unfettered capitalism of the post-communist period to acquire a monopoly on the public space. Bucharest is one of the fastest developing cities in Europe, however one where post-communism and globalization have created specific tensions and eccentric juxtapositions visible in architecture, urban environment and social life. The ways in which people in the city perceive, experience and respond to these tensions define an active public space, which needs to be acknowledged by the cultural discourse and analysed in open debates.
Spatiul Public Bucuresti | Public Art Bucharest 2007 includes a series of artistic projects, public debates, and media interventions that aim at confronting the public with social developments capable of initiating open discussion and emphasizing cultural contributions to the progress of democracy.
Since its launch on 20 April 2007, several stages of the project have been successfully completed: a symposium, two artists’ residencies, the public screening of Anetta Mona Chisa’s work What the Fuck Are You Looking at?! and the launching of the official website, www.spatiul-public.ro Now, the project is entering its final stage with a month of events taking place between September 15 and October 15. The events will be accompanied by the publication of two special editions of the Romanian weekly cultural magazines: “Suplimentul de Cultura” and “Observator Cultural.” These publications will include contributions by: Marius Babias, Boris Buden, Eduard Constantin, H.arta, Sabine Hentzsch, Oliver Marchart, Ciprian Mihali, Suzana Milevska, Vlad Morariu, Alina Serban, Simon Sheikh, Ovidiu Tichindeleanu and Raluca Voinea.
Events and projects:
Tacerea Mieilor/ Silence of the Lambs — Mircea Cantor Silence of the Lambs (1998/2003) is a project documenting the ancient Romanian custom of slaughtering lambs in connection to the celebration of Easter in Romania. The stories of the people and traditions involved function as a metaphor for the changes that the post-comunist Romanian society is undergoing as part of the EU integration. The film will premier at the Romanian Cultural Institute in Bucharest and will be broadcast on the public TV station TVR Cultural during October 2007.
A(II)Rh+ — Nicoleta Esinencu
Nicoleta Esinencu’s project is an invitation to explore the suburbs of Bucharest by means of a theatric text about discrimination. The project follows the itinerary of local Roma people who wander the city, every morning, in search of scrap metal.
Project Space — H.arta Project Space represents both a meeting and information point for Spatiul Public Bucuresti | Public Art Bucharest 2007 and at the same time an invitation to a series of daily events organized by the artist collective H.arta. Their program is structured around four major themes: post-communism, feminism, education and display, and takes the form of presentations, discussions, workshops and performances.
Trams and Institutions — Daniel Knorr
The project Trams and Institutions invites the public transport users of the Romanian capital to discover and board four regular trams circulating in Bucharest that have been decorated with the logos of some national institutions such as the police, the military and the Red Cross.
Monument (History / Hysteria 2) — Dan Perjovschi
Dan Perjovschi’s live sculpture evokes in the memory of the locals a moment from the recent history of Romania — the miner-lead incursions into the heart of Bucharest in the early 1990s intended to stifle democratic protests against the neo-communist government of the time. Monument (History / Hysteria 2) will be performed daily for a week in the same location, University Square, where the events took place 17 years ago.
Contemporary Art Archive / Center for Art Analysis — Lia Perjovschi
CAA (Contemporary Art Archive / Center for Art Analysis) has functioned as archive, open workshop, alternative research and education project organized by Lia Perjovschi between 1985 and 2007. Between September and October 2007, CAA will undergo an inventory at the end of which it will be temporary closed in preparation for its next stage.
Serban Sturdza & Virgil Scripcariu
This project confronts the inhabitants of Bucharest as well as the leaders of public institutions with a moment of reflection on the systemic way in which the green areas of the city are being destroyed and replaced by commercial and residential developments.
A series of artists’ books is published by IDEA Publishing House Cluj and
Walther König Cologne, 2007.
Initiated by the partner institutions Goethe-Institut Bukarest, Institutul Cultural Român (ICR), and Allianz Kulturstiftung. Supported by the Cultural Programme of the German EU Presidency in 2007 provided by the German Foreign Office, Erste Foundation, and the Order of Architects in Romania. Media partners: IDEA, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, Suplimentul de Cultura, Observator Cultural, E-cart.ro.
Contact: ecart.ro@gmail.com