Winter 2016 / spring 2017 exhibition program

Marshalling Yard
MNAC Coordinator: Irina Radu
Exhibition design: atelier ad hoc
November 10, 2016–October 8, 2017
Ground floor

Continuing to look at its own collection as a random database of artifacts (approach inaugurated in the exhibition The Collection as an Archive, 2015), MNAC uses the landmark spaces from the ground floor of its venue (formerly known as “the Palace of Ceaușescu”) as a marshalling yard, where art works are brought in the open for (visual) browsing, but also for maintenance, in view of a thorough re-organization of the art depots.

The Ephemerist. A Mihai Olos Retrospective​
Curator: Călin Dan
Assistant curator: Sandra Demetrescu
Exhibition design: skaarhitects
Partners: Olos Estate, Galeria Plan B Cluj / Berlin
Partners: Negrești-Oaș Museum, Baia Mare Art Museum, the Museum of the Municipality of Bucharest / Ligia and Pompiliu Macovei Art Collection
1st floor

Active between Romania and Germany in the years 1970-2000, Mihai Olos left an impressive body of work, exploring various techniques (painting, sculpture, drawing, ceramics, fashion, performance, poetry), and several stylistic trends (late modernism, conceptualism, minimalism). The Ephemerist is the first attempt at a comprehensive look into the work of probably the most important artist in post-WW2 Romania, spirit kindred to Buckminster Fuller, Yona Friedman and other such visionaries.

Nistor Coita. Retrospective
Curator: Ruxandra Demetrescu
MNAC Coordinator: Mălina Ionescu
2nd floor

This retrospective shows the large series made after 2000, from St. George and the Exercises in cohabitation, to the Mythological Studies, Passages and Cosmographies. The exhibition emphasizes the virtues of drawing, as Nistor Coita (1943–2013) defined himself as a graphic artist, and not a painter, cultivating drawing as an art form has brought him nearer to the virtues of writing, in its original meaning of pictogram, and to the late modernity of Lettrism.

Oliver Ressler. Property is Theft​
Curator: Adriana Oprea
Supported by: ERSTE Foundation, BKA – Kunst, Otto Mauer Fonds
3rd floor

The famous statement made by French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in 1840 serves as the title of Austrian artist Oliver Ressler’s first survey exhibition in Romania. Focusing on films and video-installations, the selection raises issues of financial and economic crisis in relation to aggravating ecological problems and the reaction of social movement to it – the strikes, protests, blockades of fossil fuel industry and occupation of factories and squares.

This is a Set-Up
Artists: Ioana Păun and Cătălin Rulea
Curator: Alexandru Bălășescu
Architect: Cristina Nicolaescu
MNAC Coordinator: Cerasela Barbone
Winner of the MNAC 2015 Call for Projects
Sponsor: AQUA Carpatica
November 10, 2016–January 15, 2017
3rd floor

In order to exist, all current and future events—from global pandemics to cyber attacks, terrorist killings or creation of life in laboratory—need a set-up stage for their performance to be both produced and consumed. The exhibition proposes a journey in a power-laden space of immersive communication, imagined in a series of three dioramas, or stages: Iconic Space (of Domesticity), Media Space, and Bio-politics Space, each engaging the visitors in the powerlessness of always already set-up conditions.

Memories from the Depths of the Thetys Sea.
Mihuț Boșcu Kafchin
Curator: Diana Marincu
Curatorial input: Anca Verona Mihuleț
Chapter V of “The White Dot and The Black Cube”, an exhibition project in six parts
MNAC coordinator: Mălina Ionescu
Winner of the MNAC 2014 Call for Projects
September 8–December 31, 2016
4th floor

The exhibition Memories from the depths of the Thetys Sea takes a clipping from the period in which the artist was working in his studio in Cluj (2009–15). The cutout is a visual section layered in different time frames – from the prehistorically suggestions of the geographical identity of the place, to the visions of a future world ruled by robots. The agglomeration of images and different media – paintings, objects, installations and drawings – constitute a technological and organic workshop in which two distinct worlds collide.

The Most Beautiful Books from Romania
The National Book Design Contest, 5th edition
Curator: Anca Verona Mihuleț
Organizer: Association for Excellence and Culture
November 10–December 15, 2016
Awards ceremony: November 10, 8pm
Ground floor

Each autumn for the last five years, there has been an event bringing the Romanian design books enthusiasts together. This year, the most beautiful books from Romania will be presented within an installation conceived by Raluca Popa, together with a selection of artist books and paper related objects from the collection of The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest.

Sponsors: Crama Oprișor, Policolor, Saint - Gobain Rigips,Grup Transilvae, AQUA Carpatica

Media partners: Igloo, zeppelin, Șapte Seri, Radio France Internationale - Rfi, feeder,energiea, we ART, Vision Media Plus, Kepi Consult, Veioza Arte, Radio România Cultural, Radio Guerrilla, Bookaholic, beBlueAir