Installation shots of Below the Radar Pt 1,2, & 3
DISPOSITIONS IN TIME AND SPACE27.11.2014 – 29.03.2015National Museum of Contemporary Art – Palace of Parliament, 2nd floor, 13 Septembrie bd, BucharestCurator: Adrian BojenoiuParticipants in the exhibition: Mihai Barabancea (RO), Andreea Buțincu (RO), Anetta Mona Chisa (CZ), Jonathan Lahey Dronsfield (UK), Vlad Drăgulescu (RO), Bogdan Ghiu (RO), David Goldenberg(UK), Nicu Ilfoveanu (RO), Daniel Knorr (DE), Petru Lucaci (RO), Jonas Lozoraitis (LT), Alexandru Niculescu (RO), Adrian Notz (CH), Daniela Pălimariu (RO), Mihai Pop (RO), Delia Popa (RO), Raluca Popa (RO), Cristian Răduță (RO), Adina Mocanu (RO), Alexandra Sand (RO), Thomas Tsang (HK), Dan Vezentan (RO)Speakers in conferences: Matei Bejenaru (RO), Adrian Bojenoiu (RO), Giovanni Carmine (CH), Bogdan Ghiu (RO), David Goldenberg (UK), Justė Jonutytė (LT), Kate Sutton (US), Thomas Tsang (HK)Exhibition design: Timo Grimberg (DE)Programme:Thursday, November 27
20:00 Opening (in the frame of 3+10 MNAC.13 years of existence 10 years in the Palace of Parliament)
21:15 Anetta Mona Chisa (performance, 2nd floor)
21:25 Andreea Buțincu (performance, 2nd floor)
21:45 Jonathan Lahey Dronsfield (performance, 2nd floor)
22:15 PC Harem (performance in the frame of Cannibal Disco, 2nd floor)
23:00 Cannibal Disco (party with Scoromide, 4th floor)Conferences schedule (Auditorium Hall, 4th floor):Friday, November 28
16:00 David Goldenberg
17:00 Thoms Tsang
18:00 Kate Sutton
19:00 Matei Bejenaru
Saturday, November 29
16:00 Bogdan Ghiu
17:00 Justė Jonutytė
18:00 Adrian Bojenoiu
19:00 Giovanni Carmine
The Mobile Biennale 1 – Oltenia Tour in 7 days – that took place between 28 July – 3 August created a context that short-circuited the presumed logic of art representation by the cancellation of the exhibition space. The representation space was over-extended to geographical dimensions (Oltenia Region) so as to deconcentrate the look upon some objects, images or situations generally presented as art. The exhibition project Dispositions in Time and Space reverts to the white cube representation.
The biennale aims at positioning the art discourse in relation to the two universal coordinates Time and Space but also to its own present, creating a speculative context, that was the starting point for the MB participants in the creation of works of art.
Curatorial theme, it brings up the mobility (understood as complex relational factor) and requests the participants to deliver their own discourse both in relation to the present, as a position undertaken, as well as in relation to the movement and evolution of what we call art. Also, another key aspect is how they define their current commitment to art through an unconditional relation to these two universal coordinates, Time and Space whose absence renders any discourse impossible.
Therefore, the works on display, although dealing with topics related to social, political, architectural or language themes, they can be interpreted as devices for ontological orientation or forms of dialogue and negotiation of the two existential coordinates.
The purpose of this thematic approach, seen as a whole, is to turn the art discourse onto itself, in a sort of attempt to emphasise the current range.
The exhibition is accompanied by a series of international conferences and debates gathered under the title Being Art. Materiality of Art Discourse and Its Extensions.
The exhibition is organized by the National Museum of Contemporary Art in collaboration with Club Electroputere Craiova and with the support of Czech Center Bucharest.
New interview on Post Autonomy and installations for last years Venice Biennial and Caspian sea Biennial convention
Anyway Greg wrote this about your piece on post-autonomy and about pavilion if you wish to read it.
Pavilion looks very interesting, I must say. There were easily four other essays I immediately wanted to read after finishing the Post-Autonomy piece, which is a very high ratio, I think. I noticed, too, that many are from presentations, so their events/discussions look to be pretty solid as well.
http://greg.org/
Forthcoming exhibition at The Nation Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest
I will also give a lecture during the conference
27 noiembrie, ora 19.00
3 + 10. Program aniversar la 13 ani de la înfiinţarea MNAC şi 10 ani de la
inaugurarea sediului din Palatul Parlamentului
MNAC – Palatul Parlamentului19.00. DEIMANTAS NARKEVICIUS, Dulapul şi Muzica
Curator: Călin Dan
parter19.30. Vernisaj Învăţământul artistic bucureştean. Expoziţie generată de
aniversarea a 150 de ani ai Universităţii Naţionale de Arte (UNA), cu lucrări din
colecţia MNAC şi UNA
Curator: Adrian Guță
etaj 120.00. Dispoziţii în timp şi spaţiu. Expoziţie generată de Bienala Mobilă 1
Curatori: Adrian Bojenoiu, Raluca Velisar
Participanţi: Mihai Barabancea (RO), Andreea Buţincu (RO), Giovanni Carmine
(CH), Anetta Mona Chisa (CZ), Vlad Drăgulescu (RO), Jonathan Lahey Dronsfield
(UK), Bogdan Ghiu (RO), David Goldenberg (UK), Timo Grimberg (DE), Nicu
Ilfoveanu (RO), IMPEX (RO), Juste Jonutyte (LT), Daniel Knorr (DE), Jonas
Lozoraitis (LT), Petru Lucaci (RO), Adina Mocanu (RO), Alexandru Neagu (RO),
Alexandru Niculescu (RO), Adrian Notz & Hayat Erdogan (CH), Daniela Pălimariu
(RO), Mihai Pop (RO), Delia Popa (RO), Raluca Popa (RO), Cristian Răduţă (RO),
Alexandra Sand (RO), Kate Souton (US), Thomas Tsang (HK), Dan Vezentan (RO)
etaj 220.30. Noi începuturi. Achiziţii recente ale Muzeului de Artă Contemporană din
Belgrad
Curatori: Sandra Demetrescu, Misela Blanusa
etaj 321.30. Concert IMPEX22.30. Cannibal Party
cafenea, etaj 4
Mapping Participating Cultures in real time through October as part of the Utopia School, Flux factory, New York, USA and The Center of Contemporary Art, Baku, Azerbaijan
During a discussion with Maureen yesterday I made the following statement about the show in NY which I want to share with you all.
I still think the central question that we have asked ourselves in the group is whether the subject of Utopia is useful to start to discuss the issues that we have outlined in the booklet and not questions about Utopia itself, and we ask this in order to ask the next question about change, and to be even more specific are we able to develop a new space and language and thinking now, so is change able to take place now or do we defer it to sometime in the future? If there is no space for change now then the ideas we sketched out in the booklet are unable to take place. To me that is the only question worth asking.
Utopia School Blurb
Organised by the Either/or..or..or group as part of the Utopia School program.
Pt 1 Sunday 7th September, 2 – 4 pm GMT
Informal response to the text Post Fordist Aesthetics
You can access it here
http://caseykaplangallery.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/BurnoutLiamGillickarthistorymagazine.pdf
Pt 2 Sunday 28th September 2 – 4 pm GMT
Informal response to Art and work by Maurizio Lazzarato.
You can access it here
http://thenewobjectivity.com/pdf/artandwork.pdf
Moderator: David Goldenberg
Platform: google+ hangouts.
Please email your name to dged03@hotmail.com and we will add your name to the discussion.
We will be online between 15 – 30 minutes before the debate starts to test out the connection, and start connecting to other contributors.
Further information can be found on the either/or..or..or
facebook page
Utopiaschool.org
http://eitherororor.wix.com/home
We highly recommend that you read notes on the first debate and introduction to the online discussions program and activities in New York in October before the next debate.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/david-goldenberg/notes-for-the-1st-online-debate/10154561500100066
Introduction
The next few online debates take their starting point from Pamela M Lee’s recent book “Forgetting the art World”, which reveals how the concept of Globalization has undermined the 1960’s concept of the Art World; we find ourselves in a historical moment where traditional concepts, theories, descriptions and definitions of art are unable to assist us in making understandable the Ontology of art in this new context.
It seems to us that the route to locating a more precise understanding of art is through finding new concepts and pinning down what we understand by art in relationship to Neo Liberalism, in order at the same time to locate a more precise idea of what art is capable of doing and to break with its current inflated function.
The two texts together move us closer to understanding the space art and thinking have in describing the context in which we live today, shaped as it is by Neo Liberalism, in other words, setting out a more precise idea of the available critique and language to expose the existing conditions and a possible route through Neo Liberalism, and ideas for establishing a new art, based on Post Autonomy.
Presentation of my work 22nd August
2015 National Gallery Skopje, Macedonia
Opens 27th November 2014 Mobile Biennial, National Museum of Contemporary art, Bucharest, Romania
October 2014 Utopia School, Flux factory and Basekamp, New York, NY, USA
16th August, Art residence Galichnik, Macedonia
My text Between Heresy and Revolution has just been printed in the new edition of the Pavilion Journal
http://pavilionmagazine.org/download/PAVILION_17.pdf
NOW&HERE = EVERYWHERE is an international Quantum Filmmaking project, participatory mobile phone cinema, celebrating cultural diversity, in which you can collaborate with your mobile phone.
unce that MOMENT 9 will be taking place on:
Saturday 7 June 2014 at 13:00 Bst (London Time)
Mobile Biennale 1: The Tour of Oltenia in 7 days
28.07 – 03.08 2014
A project Mobile Biennale 1– The Tour of Oltenia in 7 Days, that will take place between the 28th of July and the 3rd of August 2014, the following participants have been selected:
Mihai Barabancea (b. 1983) graduated the Photo-Video department of the National Art University of
Bucharest. His projects in the field of photography focus on subjects such as: the socially excluded
communities and the values of today’s society in relation to its ”margins” – for instance old and lonely
people, homeless children or people with disabilities. The exhibitions he participated in include: 2013 –
While the glory of the world fades away, Spațiul Platforma, MNAC Anexa, Bucharest; Barabancea & Borduz,
Calina Gallery.Space for Contemporary Art, Timișoara;
Anetta Mona Chisa (b. 1975) works together with Lucia Tkáčová starting with the year 2000 and lives in
Prague and Berlin. The artistic duo Anetta Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkáčová represented Romania at the Venice
Biennale, the 54th edition, in 2011, and participated in numerous exhibitions, among which we cite: 2013 –
a Lack, A touch, an aTavisM, a notiCe, Hit gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia (solo); The Second Lore, CUAC –
contemporary art, Salt Lake City, United States; Minimal Compact, Christine Koenig gallery, Vienna, Austria; 2012 – Either Way, We Lose, Sorry we’re closed, Brussels, Belgium (solo); 2011 – Material Culture / Things in our Hands, Christine Koenig Gallery, Vienna, Austria (solo), The Global Contemporary, ZKM / Museum fue Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Jonathan Lahey Dronsfield is artist-philosopher and Professor of Theory and Philosophy of Art. Author of
books ‘Cryptochromism’ (2009) and ‘Materiality of Theory’ (2011); and of numerous book chapters, journal articles and catalogue essays. International Editorial Board of ‘Art & Research: A Journal of Ideas, Contexts, and Methods’. Have given numerous performative readings in gallery and museum spaces. Collaborator with artists Ian Kiaer, Gregory Maass, Benoit Maire, Haroon Mirza, and Trine Marie Riel. Curator with Amanda Wilkinson, Wilkinson Gallery London, of a number of exhibitions and projects. Founding Executive Board member of Jan van Eyck Alumni Association.
David Goldenberg (b. 1956) is a London based artist. In 2014 he will publish a book of recent texts and
projects examining “Post Autonomy”. He was exhibited in The Caspian Biennial Convention; collateral
exhibition at Venice Biennial, 2013; 1st Land Art Biennial of Mongolia; 10th Istanbul Biennial; ICA
Philadelphia; Shedhalle, Zurich; 6th Sharjah Biennial; Tate Modern; ICA London, UK and many more.
Between 2010 and 2011 he produced 10 programs for Resonance FM radio examining Post Autonomy. He
lives and works in London.
Delia Popa (b.1980, Bucharest) studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Goldsmiths
College, University of London. Her most recent exhibitions include: 2013 – Anca Munteanu Rîmnic and Delia Popa, Salonul de proiecte, Anexa MNAC, Bucharest; Good Girls: Memory/Desire/Power, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, 2012 – Chelen Amenca (with Ellen Rothenberg), Contemporary Art Gallery, Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, 2011 – The Blind Men and the Elephant, Video-Screening (with Diana Sandor), Raum für Projektion, General Public, Berlin, Germany
Raluca Popa (b. 1979) earned her MA in Fine Art from Byam Shaw, Central Saint Martins College of art &
Design, UAL and graduated The Art and Design University of Cluj-Napoca. Her most recent exhibitions are:
2014 – And Yet There Was Art!, Leopold Museum, Vienna, Austria, 2012 – What We Destroy and Celebrate at the Same Time, Salonul de Proiecte, MNAC Anexa, Bucharest; O Que Acontece Depois, Centro Cultural do Cartaxo, Portugal, 2011 – Crossover, Central Saint Martins, London, UK; Glory Hole, Elthorne Road, Archway, London, UK; 013, Concourse Gallery, Archway, London, UK.
Kate Sutton (born 1982) is an art critic and curator. Studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and
Standford University. Since 2008, has worked as the Associate Curator of BAIBAKOV art projects in Moscow, colllaborates with various cultural institutions like Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, Moscow, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, Museum of Nonconformist Art, St. Petersburg. Contributs regularly to Art Forum, among other publications. In 2013, was awarded a Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant from the Warhol Foundation.
Mobile Biennale 1Vitamins Complex 9Participants: Mihai Barabancea (RO), Adrian Bojenoiu (RO), Andreea Buțincu (RO), Giovanni Carmine (CH), Anetta Mona Chisa (CZ), Vlad Drăgulescu (RO), Jonathan Lahey Dronsfield (UK), Andrei Dinescu (RO), Bogdan Ghiu (RO), David Goldenberg (UK), Timo Grimberg (DE), Nicu Ilfoveanu (RO), Juste Jonutyte (LT), Daniel Knorr (DE), Petru Lucaci (RO), Diana Marincu (RO), Adina Mocanu (RO), Alexandru Neagu (RO), Alexandru Niculescu (RO), Adrian Notz (CH), Daniela Pălimariu (RO), Dan Perjovschi (RO), Lia Perjovschi (RO), Mihai Pop (RO), Delia Popa (RO), Raluca Popa (RO), Cristian Răduță (RO), Alexandra Sand (RO), Kate Sutton (SUA), Thomas Tsang (HK), Raluca Velisar (RO), Dan Vezentan (RO)Artists’ Portfolios PresentationMonday, 28 July, 9.30 pm
Fluvial Station, Cetate PortDear Friends,
The presentation of international and Romanian participants at the first edition of the Mobile Biennale „The Tour of Oltenia in 7 Days” will take place on Monday, 28 July, at 9 pm, in Cetate Port (port on the Danube river, Cetate commune, Dolj county.With many representatives of different contemporary art institutional areas and of different artistic behaviours, the event is based on information and details. Its aim is to present the coordinates of an artistic microclimate which is to develop and grow during the follwing seven days and where the participants’ reactions (both individual and group attitudes) towards the environment reveal the actions they perform within the space of an artistic work.The Mobile Biennale is an opera in which mobility and interaction develop in a previously determined space or territory. The coagulant element of the mobile biennale concept consists in its mobility. Perceived as materiality, the mobility gains its shape according to the space-time coordinates that appoints it, while the content is generated by the participants’ interaction and disparity which establish a relationship to the world.The project is supported by ERSTE FoundationThe main partner is „Craiova – Cultural Capital of Europe in 2021” AssociationArt Forum
08.17.14
Upwardly Mobile
CRAIOVA, ROMANIA
08.17.14
“ALL OF THESE BIENNALES boast of being a forum for the exchange of ideas,” curator Adrian Bojenoiu, cofounder of the Mobile Biennale, reasoned over a Bellini and a tomato-mozzarella skewer on the steps of the Museum of Fine Arts in Craiova, Romania. “We thought to ourselves, if that’s the case, why not just put the emphasis on the ideas? Why even bother with the exhibition part?”
We had gathered to toast the launch of the Mobile Biennale, whose “emphasis on ideas” translated to packing a bus with around thirty potential idea-havers, -sharers, and -negaters for a seven-day tour across what some may see as the armpit—albeit, a well-formed, beautifully-groomed, entirely desirable armpit—of Romania. The biennial’s founders, Bojenoiu and artist Alexandru Niculescu, had earned street-cred as the minds behind Club Electroputere, an artist-run space based in the old cultural center of a factory that once produced locomotive engines. While many artists may have decamped to Bucharest or Cluj, Bojenoiu and Niculescu chose to double down in Craiova, a town whose substantial artistic legacy (it is home to some of the only early Constantin Brâncuşi works to remain in the country) is being mined for a revival of sorts, thanks to the race for the 2021 European Cultural Capital. According to Vlad Drăgulescu, director of Craiova’s campaign, “Everyone writes off Craiova as the underdog in the competition”—which includes frontrunner Cluj, Home of Painters—“but if you look at the criteria, category by category, Craiova comes out on top. Especially when you add the surrounding area of Oltenia!”
Left: Vlad Drăgulescu, president of the Association for Craiova Cultural Capital of Europe 2021. Right: Alexandru Niculescuand Cabaret Voltaire’s Adrian Notz pause along the Transalpina, outside Rânca.
The Mobile Biennale would take a closer look (and a gazillion Instagrams) of what Drăgulescu was talking about during its weeklong exploration of Oltenia. Club Electroputere had tried a beta version of the trip two years ago that attempted to cover all of Romania. “That was way too intense,” Niculescu confessed. “Romania is a big country.” Oltenia was a much more accommodating size, with a stunning mix of topographies—from the lush, boat-lined bays of the Danube, to the watermelon-bearing flatlands, to the pristine Transalpina, running along the ridges of the Carpathian mountains—all within a two- or three-hour drive.
The biennial’s championing of “Mobility” may have de-emphasized place conceptually, but that didn’t mean the participants—all either invited or selected through an open call—didn’t have every opportunity to play the tourist. The itinerary included a photo op at the Iron Gate II (which sounds straight out of Westeros, but is in fact a hydroelectric dam); a pilgrimage to Brâncuşi’s Endless Column at Târgu Jiu; and a brief respite at a chalet in Turcinești, where Niculescu and Dan Vezentan’s Cannibal Disco party featured a human-shaped mirror-ball roasting on a spit over red neon “flames.” Along the way, there were monasteries, mammoth caves, and hot springs galore, not to mention—crucially—outposts to replenish supplies of alcohol and cigarettes. And yes, there were the nightly presentations, more or less formal, though the real conversations raged over bottles of red wine and roadside tuică. Topics skittered from what it might mean for an artist to take responsibility for his or her work to whether an artist could ever effectively comment on another culture to who was left behind on a mountaintop (a conversation I missed, being one of the ones left behind on a mountaintop).
The first major stop was Port Cultural Cetate, a former agricultural port on the Danube, recently transformed into a lovely holiday haven and artist residency by its new owner, celebrity dissident, poet, writer, and sometime-vintner Mircea Dinescu. “The whole country has seen this house,” curator Raluca Velisar explained. “Dinescu hosts a talk show where he invites guests here and cooks a meal for them.” “Like Martha Stewart?” ventured Vilnius-based curator Juste Jonutyte. Velisar responded with a wry smile: “Not exactly.”
Left: MNAC (National Museum of Contemporary Art) curator Raluca Velisar at Cetate Arts Danube. Right: Artist Anca Bodea and Joana Grevers at the Cetate Arts Danube Atelier.
That evening would culminate in a midnight buffet served dockside to the sounds of Impex, a trio fronted by Dinescu’s violin-wielding son, Andrei Dinescu, who himself is best known as a member of Steaua de Mare (“Starfish”), popular for their electronica spin on Romanian folk music. First, however, we paid call to Cetate Arts Danube, the neighboring artist residency program launched by Joana Grevers, collector, patron, and founder of Bucharest’s 418 Gallery. The sprawling estate had belonged to her family before Communism. By the time Grevers was able to buy it back, many of the buildings had fallen into disrepair, including the magnificent stables, whose collapsed roof had allowed plants to colonize the building. Still, Grevers had managed to retool a hulking barn as the “Cetate Atelier la Dunăre,” a studio space for residents, and the property’s small chapel had been completely redesigned by architect Alexandra Afrăsinei. “I think it’s always best to start with a chapel,” Grevers mused, as we sipped a local rosé wine beside the lavender fields. (She could have said anything at that moment, and I would have agreed.)
The following evening we settled into a cabana outside Eșelnița, where, with a little ingenuity and a lot of extension cords, we were able to set up a riverside screening of The Ister, a 2004 film by David Barisonand Daniel Ross that travels up the Danube while revisiting Martin Heidegger’s interpretation of Hölderlin’s hymn to the river. As Bernard Stiegler voiced his thoughts on Prometheus on screen, across the river, Zeus himself decided to weigh in, unleashing one of the most stunning thunderstorms any of us had ever witnessed. The lightning began over the Serbian highlands, but it soon swept to the Romanian side of the river, eventually drenching the hotel with a downpour as mighty as the light show.
In the morning we would learn that the storm had flooded a large part of the region, leaving some of our route blocked. No matter. While participants were dutifully awed by official stops like the Tismana Monastery or the Rovinari open pit mines, we were just as content with spontaneous stops for cigarettes and alcohol. Smoke breaks were held in the strangest of places—on a speedboat in the Danube, in a cave outside the spa town of Herculane. “You know what they say,” chided architect Thomas Tsang. “When in Romania…”
Left: Steaua de Mare (“Starfish”) practices at Port Cultural Cetate. Right: Cannibal Disco party in Turcineşti.
Rumored to have been founded in 102 AD by Emperor Traian—responsible for the “Roman” in Romania—over the centuries, Herculane has hosted the elites of myriad empires, from Marcus Aurelius to Franz Joseph I and his wife Elizabeth (immortalized on film as Princess Sisi). During the land grabs of privatization, many of the town’s more jaw-dropping Austrian Baroque mansions were snapped up on the cheap, and now belong to people who can’t afford to maintain them, but refuse to let them go. “I mean, you could sink a million dollars into fixing up one of these buildings, but then you would never see that money again, so long as the rest of the infrastructure isn’t here,” illustrator Alex Neagu lamented. Perhaps the most impressive building of all, the Imperial Austrian Baths, sits boarded up, its badly-patched windows offering glimpses of the grandeur (marble tiles, gilded chandeliers, indoor fountains, etc) within, Upon discovering a door with its bottom panel kicked in, we couldn’t resist a little bathhouse B&E. Inside, the long corridors were lined with stall after stall of private baths where emperors could come to soak their troubles away. “Talk about a spot for a biennial,” Bojenoiu cooed, with an appreciative whistle.
On the last day, we fudged the rules slightly, slipping out of Oltenia and into the neighboring region of Transylvania to visit the home of artists Lia and Dan Perjovschi in Sibiu. Lia greeted us with platters of local delicacies and her home-brewed wonder tea, before indulging us with a tour of her archives, which she has organized by shelves: “The Earth, The Body, Science, Culture, The Universe…” The stacks of books were propped up by jars full of such museum store finds as a magnetic Obama finger puppet and a breath spray promising to help users “Understand Modern Art.” (“I don’t really care for that kind of irony,” she admitted, “but I thought it was important to acknowledge that it’s out there.”) The artist maintained that she is more strategic in her acquisitions than her “collector” husband. “Dan just wants to buy any and everything. I have to be more selective. I never buy anything above the budget of fifty euros,” Lia glanced affectionately at her spouse. “Dan’s more successful; he doesn’t have to think about budgets.”
Left: Artist Mihai Barabancea at a stop along the Transalpina. Right: Artist Jonas Lozoraitis at a stop along the Transalpina.
Lia envisions her archive functioning as a Knowledge Museum. “Knowledge is expensive, but knowledge is also survival,”she continued. “Someone asked me if I thought we had landed on the moon. Did we actually land? I believe we did. But if we didn’t…? What does it matter, whether or not we actually went there?”
One place the Perjovschis won’t be going is the MNAC, Bucharest’s Museum of Contemporary Art, which in 2004 relocated to the gargantuan Palace of the Parliament, the world’s second-largest administrative building (after the Pentagon), as well as its heaviest. “It’s like we’re in a village, where there’s one big house, and you make your parties, your funerals, and your politics all under the same roof,” Lia snapped. “Why the provincialism? We can afford to build these things their own buildings!”
Half the group had to catch the train to Bucharest, but Dan led the stragglers on a walking tour of shamelessly charming Sibiu, which already had its turn as Cultural Capital in 2007. Over a stop for—what else?—cigarettes and alcohol, talk turned to the next Mobile Biennale, which is considering a tour of Hong Kong. Even more pressingly, the MNAC had offered the Biennale an exhibition of its own this coming November. What would a biennial dedicated to ideas have to show for itself? “We’ll have to think about it,” Niculescu shrugged. And just like that, we were planning the afterparty.
Left: Artists Dan and Lia Perjovschi pose in front of Lia’s Contemporary Art Archive in their home in Sibiu. Right: Artist and architect Thomas Tsang at the open pit mine in Rovinari.
Left: Artist Lucian Indrei with dealer Mihai Pop. Right: Dealer Gabriel Ghizdavu.
Am participat, vreme de o săptămînă şi pînă în urmă cu o săptămînă (între 28 iulie şi 3 august 2014), alături de o mînă de artişti, curatori, critici, teoreticieni – oameni de artă – români şi străini din mai multe generaţii, la ceea ce s-a numit “Turul Olteniei”, prima ediţie (dar şi primul act) a ceea ce, de asemenea, s-a numit, se numeşte, îşi propune să se numească Bienala Mobilă, invenţie para-cvasi-instituţională a perechii de animatori reuniţi sub titulatura Club Electroputere (Alexandru Niculescu şi Adrian Bojenoiu).
Ultimul act al acestei excursii (care a cuprins şi a atins obiective turistice de toate categoriile, adică nu doar artistico-culturale, precum ansamblul lui Constantin Brâncuşi de la Tîrgu-Jiu, ci şi naturale, unele celebre, precum Cazanele Mari şi cele Mici ale Dunării, altele mai discrete, dar foarte spectaculoase, precum Cheile Sohodolului) s-a consumat în afara Olteniei, la Sibiu, în locuinţa-arhivă-muzeu-studio – operă de arhitectură şi operă de trăire: locuirea conştient-creatoare, deschisă, poroasă, activă, i. d. cum să locuieşti direct în lume, cum să locuieşti lumea, în transparenţă – a soţilor Lia şi Dan Perjovschi.
Or, cu buna dispoziţie ironică binecunoscută, din care i se hrăneşte, parţial, poziţionarea civic-artistică, Dan Perjovschi – gazdă desăvîrşită, care a avut grija şi generozitatea de a se gîndi să prepare o mulţime de mici sandvişuri pentru artiştii călători – nu s-a abţinut să nu ţintească exact în inima schiţei de concept a acestei “manifestări”, adică a Bienalei Mobile, mărturisindu-ne că ne urmărise “progresia” pe Facebook şi că se distrase copios de alăturarea, deloc de la sine înţeleasă, dintre ideea de bienală şi activităţile noastre de vacanţă pură.
Căci, da, ce este şi, mai ales, ce ar putea fi “Bienala Mobilă”? Doar o glumă-protocol de tip Dada (dacă e să urmăm intuiţia pratică a lui Adrian Notz, directorul stabilimentului artistic Cabaret Voltaire din Zürich, care a punctat întregul periplu cu fotografii de grup – nu vom uita prea curînd chemările-comenzile lui acolo unde te aşteptai mai puţin: “group photo!” -, practică binecunoscută, şi nu doar documentară, a avangardelor istorice)? Doar împingerea pînă la o limită post-critică, dez-încrîncenată, ne-resentimentară, veselă precum ştiinţa lui Nietzsche, a ideii de bienală de artă, atît de abuzată, pînă la deriziune, în clipa de faţă, dovadă însă, “în pozitiv”, a unui extraordinar apetit de apropriere şi de localizare extremă a unui concept global?
Ideea de bienală mobilă are, fireşte, un puternic conţinut ironic-deconstructiv-dialectic, evacuînd, parcă, tocmai arta din ideea de bienală, dar nefăcînd, în felul acesta, decît să-i critice hipertrofierea şi să-i sancţioneze abuzul inflaţionist, adică disocierea, strict actuală, a ideii de bienală de însăşi ideea de artă, bienala tinzînd să devină tot mai mult un act artistic auto-performativ, în sine, cu preţul, însă, al unei manipulări extreme a conceptului de artă şi al unei goliri de arta ca atare. După “numele artei” ca artă, numele de bienală, ca semnificant global, tinde să ia locul, ca act performativ-instituţional de sine, artei înseşi.
Asta sancţionează şi împinge la limită, pentru a o depăşi în sfîrşit, ideea de “bienală mobilă”: o instituţie nomadă, care atinge strict efemer diverse localităţi mai mult sau mai puţin umile sau cu potenţial cultural-turistic mai mult sau mai puţin însemnat, o reunire de artişti şi de “oameni de artă” în pre- şi/sau post-artă. Dacă epocala, totuşi, pînă la urmă (măcar ca simptom), “estetică relaţională” a lui Nicolas Bourriaud strîngea publicul în jurul operelor, “bienala mobilă” strînge laolaltă doar artiştii, îi pune pe drumuri, în mişcare, şi lasă total deoparte arta, lucrările, produsele: artiştii doar între ei, vacanţă de la arta care tinde să se confunde tot mai mult, sub semnul imaterialului şi al cognitivului, cu munca. Luăm vacanţă, plecăm în excursie, în “turneu” (altă idee avangardistă, aşa cum a ţinut să ne reamintească Adrian Notz), ieşim, temporar, din arta însăşi, care, mai mult sau mai puţin, le-a fost confiscată, azi, artiştilor, generalizîndu-se şi dizolvîndu-se politico-economic.
Tot mai mult, începînd să-şi regăsească ceva din moştenirea avangardistă renegată şi refuzată, arta conteporană să adînceşte, ca domeniu de reflecţie-creaţie, în proceduri şi, mai ales, protocoale şi auto-cvasi-instituţionalizări, devine creaţie procedural-instituţională de sine, încercînd să se re-pună în formă, să-şi regăsească forma părăsindu-şi formele amorului cu forţa la care este supusă, asemenea biblicului Iosif de către femeia lui Putifar, în capitalismul contemporan, capitalismul plăcerii obligatorii, al satisfacerii prin viol soft, “feminin”.
Între instituţia-artă (instituţia în locul artei) şi arta-instituţie (arta ca invenţia self-instituţională), confuzia este încă masivă (cine perfomează pe cine), şi tocmai de aceea evoluţiile trebuie împinse, discret, în direcţia cea bună, chiar dacă mai lungă şi mai anevoioasă.
