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| Art Gallery of Alberta |
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| Still from video POP by Alex Mirutziu |
Guest-curated by Christopher Eamon
In a rearview mirror
I suddenly saw
the mass of the cathedral in Beauvais;
large things inhabit small, briefly.
(Rearview Mirror from Going to Lwow, 1985)
Rearview Mirror is a large thematic exhibition that brings together the work of a new generation of contemporary artists from Central and Eastern Europe.
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, one might expect great changes in the cultural practices in the region known as the Eastern Bloc, even though the political cultures and histories of the various nations that comprise it greatly diverge. Rearview Mirror brings together artists from these diverse backgrounds and histories, who engage with post-conceptual strategies and forms, and artistic practices that range in media from video, installation and performance to sculpture and painting. Looking both to the past and to the future, the work of these 22 artists represent 11 different countries and collectively challenge accepted notions of Eastern Europe as a social, political and art historical monolith.
The exhibition does not attempt to be all-inclusive or encyclopaedic; instead it is a preliminary investigation in which one can find moments of dialogue, convergence as well as difference. It is a unique opportunity to view art works by a new generation of artists, such as Ciprian Muresan, Gintaras Dzidziapetris and Anna Molska in the context of some of their contemporaries who are already well-established in the international art world: Pawel Althamer, Roman Ondák and Wilhelm Sasnal. Artists in the exhibition include:
Paweł Althamer (Poland), Anetta Mona Chişa (Romania/Czech Republic) with Lucia Tkáčová (Slovakia), Gintaras Didžiapetris (Lithuania), Dušica Dražić, (Serbia), Igor Eškinja (Croatia), Johnson & Johnson (Estonia), Anna Kołodziejska (Poland), David Maljković (Croatia), Ján Mančuška (Czech Republic), Dénes Miklósi (Romania), Alex Mirutziu (Romania), Anna Molska (Poland), Ivan Moudov (Bulgaria), Ciprian Mureşan (Romania), Deimantas Narkevičius (Lithuania), Roman Ondák (Slovakia), Anna Ostoya (Poland), Taras Polataiko (Ukraine), Wilhelm Sasnal (Poland), Sislej Xhafa (Kosova), Katarina Zdjelar (Serbia)
On January 31, 2010, the newly constructed Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) opened its doors to an eager public. Located in downtown Edmonton’s arts district on the north-east corner of Sir Winston Churchill Square, the long road from conception to construction had finally reached its end.
Los Angeles-based architect Randall Stout’s dynamic design is the first boundary pushing infrastructure to be erected in Alberta in decades. More importantly, it symbolizes that a strong appreciation for visual art exists in this province, as the Government of Alberta committed a total of $27 million toward funding the gallery’s new facility.