Displacement and Togetherness — @CULTUURCENTRUM STROMBEEK

Historical and cultural perspectives on migration

Fr Oct 18, 2019 — Th Dec 12, 2019

Organisation: ICR, EUROPALIA, Salonul de proiecte

Address: Gemeenteplein 1- B-1853 Grimbergen

    This exhibition aims to bring together several historical and present-day perspectives on migration. Since entering the European Union, the flow of population fleeing from Romania „to the West” in search for a better life has risen to an unprecedented scale – millions of people left Romania within the past ten years. In revealing intersections between East-West viewpoints, this display brings together multiple positions that articulate a critical, lucid perception of the West, and touches upon the issue of the failure to adapt—sometimes compounded by a conscious refusal to do so—to the artistic mechanisms of the “free” world.

Curators: Salonul de proiecte, Bucharest, in collaboration with Luk Lambrecht and Lieze Eneman

Artists: Silvia Amancei & Bogdan Armanu, Filip Berte, Tudor Bratu, Mekhitar Garabedian, Emilio López-Menchero, Vincent Meessen, Christine Meisner, Jimmy Robert, Iulia Toma

The historical section of the exhibition features contributions by: Horia Bernea, Andrei Cădere, Jacques Charlier, Florina Coulin, Jindřich Chalupecký, Andrei Gheorghiu, Ion Simona Runcan, Decebal Scriba, Emil Simiu.

Matei Bejenaru at EUROPALIA

Historical and cultural perspectives on migration

We Oct 2, 2019  — Su Jan 12, 2020

Rue Ravenstein 23 – 1000 Brussels

EUROPALIA international arts Festival is now joining forces with Romania. In terms of music and performing arts, EUROPALIA will explore the country’s rich culture and traditions, as well as actively stimulate new partnerships between Belgian, Romanian, and international artists and shine a light on emerging talent.The interdisciplinary and diverse programme will consist of around 200 events in over 50 locations.

A film about EUROPALIA, selected works by Rein Dufait (TBC) and a film by Matei Bejenaru about the ballerina Irinel Liciu will be displayed at BOZAR — center for fine arts, Bussels. A timeline mapping the history of Romania will also be shown in a separate room.

Decebal Scriba in Paris group show

Présence @Anne- Sarah Bénichou

Artists: MARION BARUCH, JULIEN DISCRIT, LAURENT MONTARON, DECEBAL SCRIBA, SETON SMITH

Paris, France

17th October – 7th December 2019

Two of Decebal Scriba’s artworks are presented in the group show exhibition Présence at Anne- Sarah Bénichou gallery, in Paris.

 

Matei Bejenaru in New York Group Show

The Principle of Migration

Organizer: Experimental Project Association, Romania
Project presented in partnership with New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA)
Curator: Olivia Nițiș

Artists: Matei Bejenaru (Romania), Cătălin Burcea (Romania), Lana Čmajčanin (Bosnia and Herzegovina/Austria), Simona Deaconescu
(Romania), Alicja Gaskon (Poland/USA), Elana Katz (Germany/USA), Anca Munteanu Rimnic (Germany/Romania), Marilena Preda Sânc (Romania),  Sandra Sterle (Croatia), Valeriu Șchiau (Romania/Republic of Moldavia),  Patricia Teodorescu (Romania), Ivana Todorovic (Serbia).
Partners: Working Art Space and Production (WASP), Center for Public  Innovation Association
Media Partners: Radio Romania Cultural, Revista Arta
Supported by Erste Asset Management
Project co-financed by The Administration of the National Cultural Fund

Events:
October 23rd , h. 19.00
Discussion: Migration and Representation
Screening: video works from the exhibition presented at New York
Foundation for the Arts. WASP, Bucharest

November 7th – December 20th 2019
Exhibition: The Principle of Migration, New York Foundation for the Arts,  New York

Opening November 7th / h 18.30 – 20.30

November 8th h. 12.00 / h. 19.00
On-line live video dialogue New York – Bucharest (New York Foundation for the Arts – Working Art Space and Production)

In 1880s Ernst Georg Ravenstein, the German-British geographer and cartographer, established a theory of human migration that is still at the basis of  modern migration concepts. His laws or principles of migration were published  in the Geographical Magazine of 1876 and the Journal of the Statistical Society in 1885 and 1889. Taking into account that these laws were based on data available in the premodern traditional society with limited migration and circulation as  opposed to the situation in post-industrial society, migration patterns and  behaviors may still reflect these laws, but they could also be extended. The push  and pull factor for migration are being constantly reshaped by the political,  social, cultural factors and humanitarian needs of individuals. The question is not only how these factors shape migration, but also how migration shapes them. In
the light of the recent refugee and migration waves in Europe, the war in Syria  and the effects of contemporary wars on nation-state ideals, the need to understand the current processes of migration and its short and long-term impact is imperative. Eastern Europe is not necessarily a target for migrants and it plays the role of a bridge between the place of origin and the final destination in Western Europe. On the other hand it is also a large-scale producer of migration. A significant percentage of the working force migrates towards countries in Western Europe for a better life. In current statistics Romania is the second country after Syria with the highest flow of migrants towards the West.
The former Eastern Block with its issues of poverty, segregation, inequality, and ideological vulnerability is also a challenging geopolitical and cultural territory and may reveal particular perspectives on migration, discussing the nuances around immigrant, emigrant and refugee identities. Some of the artists presented in this project are also emigrants/immigrants. Considering principles of migration are based on a human rights international law and recommended policies, the gaps between facts and normative guidelines, between human rights and national sovereignty of the neoliberal  state, set critical and nuanced perspectives on a phenomenon that is transforming the world. 

Olivia Mihălțianu & Stoyan Dechev @Tranzit group show

Artistic Enquiries into Plants @ Tranzit.ro/bucharest
Opening 10.10.2019, 19:00
10-29 October 2019

Participating artists: Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan, Athena Dumitriu, Claudiu Cobilanschi, Iulia Toma, Dana Andrei & Sorin Popescu, Daniela Pălimariu, Kiki Mihuță, Olivia Mihălțianu, Stoyan Dechev, Raluca Popa, Simona Dumitriu & Ramona Dima, V. Leac, Vilmos Koter, Vlad Basalici

Tranzit Garden, an urban permaculture garden initiated as a project in 2014 and maintained since through the efforts of an organic and fluid group of participants positioned itself in the middle of the debates around topics such as climate changes, modalities of generating stable communities in the big urban agglomerations, the almost inexistent possibilities to counter gentrification processes or difficulties of tracing food source in societies submitted to global market. At the same time, with the particularity of being situated in the proximity of a contemporary art space, the Garden added to this agenda the art’s potential to function as social aggregator and to bring less conventional perspectives upon such urgent topics.

“Artistic Enquiries Into Plants” is at the same time a curatorial experiment and reflects upon questions such as: how can a thematic exhibition respond equally to the artists’ practice and to a long-term institutional interest; how can it include materialisations of individual research projects and still preserve the coherence of a group project; or how much of the organic character of the way in which this group was constituted and the long-term investment into it by the artists can be channeled into an self-sufficient product, a temporary exhibition addressing as well a new public.

 

Olivia Mihălțianu / Direct Exposure project in WeTransfer: Art and Politics in Appropriate Hands

WeTransfer: Art and Politics in Appropriate Hands
Opening 11 October at 19.00h / Casa Artelor – Directia Judeteana pentru Cultura Timis, Timișoara
Event by  Asociația Contrasens

DIRECT EXPOSURE by Olivia Mihăltianu is a series of events in which the artist is taking direct photos for the public using an old technique – direct photography on paper with the help of a mobile photo lab installed on various sites. The project aims to bring the public and the artist closer, to initiate a dialogue and to encourage the use of social space in a creative way, in order to bring awareness of and expose the artist’s work, and integrate it into the public and social sphere.

EF#14 // ABIS documentary by Matei Bejenaru

Explore Festival #14 – Bucharest International Contemporary Dance and Performance Festival

31.10.2019 // WASP Working Art Space and Production //19:30 – 21:00
Matei Bejenaru: ABIS
Premiere / Documentary Film, video-art
Aftertalk: Matei Bejenaru & special guests
Free entrance

The visual poem Abyss has as a starting point the enigmatic personality of the artist Irinel Luciu, prima ballerina at the Romanian Opera in Bucharest in the 50’s-60’s. The film approaches general humanist themes, such as love and devotion, as well as aspects of the condition of the artist who makes fundamental decisions in his life. Traditional techniques of film (overprinting, the use of films with different sensitivities, contrasts and granulations) are also explored, which complete the visual style of the film based on the alternation of carefully constructed frames with spontaneous, subjective ones in the idea of constructing specific visual poetics.

EF#14 // Lectures with Marilena Preda Sânc and Matei Bejenaru

Lectures with Marilena Preda Sânc and Matei Bejenaru
11 October 2019 / Saturday from 11:00-14:00
eXplore festival #14

Brancovenesti Palaces Cultural Center, Mogosoaia

SITUATIONS / Personal performance projects in the public space
Matei Bejenaru

The author will present a series of performative artistic projects realized in the 2000s, focused on the theme of the Romanian migration and the complex consequences on socio-political and cultural levels. Among the projects described, we mention Together, realized in 2007 at Tate Modern, London, Cezme, the Tirana Biennale in 2003, or Strawberry Fields Forever, CCCB Barcelona in 2002.

Larisa Crunțeanu opens BLUEPRINT at Halle 9, Leipzig

Halle 9 Techne Sphere
Opening October 17th, h.16.00
Solo show Larisa Crunțeanu

Exhibition: October 17th – November 28th 2019
Live concerts: TBA

BLUEPRINT is a research and artistic production project inspired by the conceptual and aesthetic similarities between the architectural plan and the clothing cutting pattern. As bidimensional adaptations of three-dimensional spaces(volumes), these two types of written language point towards different aspects that influence and limit the movement of bodies in space. The chapters of the research are connected to different aspects of collective consciousness in relation to architecture, clothing design, choreography and sound.

The starting point of the research and the first host of the project is the National Dance Center from Romania, who is now the administrator and future user of a historical building: Omnia. Designed and built in the beginning of the 50s, Omnia has been the host of many of the meetings of the Romanian Communist Party. National assemblies, spectacles and international diplomatic meetings would take place there. The design of the place will change dramatically in the next two years, but its human usage will not. Starting 2021, the building will be the home of dance and contemporary performance productions, interdisciplinary projects and meetings between art workers and audiences.