Alex Mirutziu included in Romania's first participation at the Havana Biennial

OUT OF PLACE - CROSSING BORDERS

The 15th Havana Biennial

Centre of Contemporary Art Wifredo Lam

Havana, Cuba

November 15, 2024 - February 28, 2025

Curator

Belu Simion Făinaru

Artists

Ciprian Mureşan, Ion Grigorescu, Alex Mirutziu, Irina Botea Bocan, Sebastian Moldovan, Simion Cernica, Pavel Braila, Răzvan Anton, Şerban Savu, Cristian Opriş, Bogdan Rata, Ştefan Liviu-Florian and Daniel Knnor

The exhibition Out of Place - Crossing Borders, curated by Belu Simion Făinaru, graces the 15th edition of the Havana Biennial, unfolding in the heart of Cuba's vibrant capital from November 15, 2024, to February 28, 2025. Featuring the works of 13 Romanian artists, this marks a historic moment—Romania’s inaugural participation in the renowned Havana Biennial, which has been shaping the global art landscape for over four decades.

Out of Place - Crossing Borders explores the fluid and complex interplay of identity, place, time, and individuality within the ever-evolving currents of global culture. The exhibition offers a thoughtful critique of local identity and cultural belonging, set against the backdrop of today’s rapidly transforming world.

At its core, the exhibition aspires to forge a dialogue—an open space where voices meet without the need for victors or vanquished. It is a reminder of our entanglement in the global crisis unfolding around us: we are both shaped by it and bear the power to shape its resolution. In this sense, the exhibition becomes a mirror of the times, reflecting our collective responsibility in the face of change.

Offering an alternative platform, Out of Place - Crossing Borders highlights the cultural impact of local processes, focusing on community-oriented art - art that transcends borders and unites diverse peoples and cultures. Through its innovative approach, it underscores the vital role of art in creating connections across geographical, political, and cultural divides.

This exhibition is a landmark collaboration between the Havana Biennale and the Mediterranean Biennale, celebrating a first: for the first time in 40 years, Romanian artists are participating in the Havana Biennale, marking a historic chapter in the cultural exchange between nations.

Belu Simion Făinaru, an artist and curator born in Romania, is the visionary behind this project. Făinaru is also the founder and director of the Mediterranean Contemporary Art Biennale in Israel, where he has nurtured cross-cultural dialogue through art. A professor at the University of Haifa, Israel, Făinaru represented Romania at the Venice Biennale in 2019, in a groundbreaking collaboration that fused his Romanian-Israeli identity.

Alex Mirutziu is showing at the 5th Mediterranean Biennale in Haifa

ANYBODY HOME?

The 5th Mediterranean Biennale

Haifa, Israel

January 18 - March 7, 2024

Curators: Avital Bar-Shay & Belu-Simion Fainaru

Participating artists: 
AES+F, Elmgreen & Dragset, Carlos Amorales, Guy Ben-Ner, Moshe Gershuni, Ori Gersht, Jenny Holzer, Meirav Heiman, Pavel Wolberg, Yigal Tumarkin, Ziva Yalin, Ciprian Murresan, Alex Mirutziu, Shahar Marcus & Nezaket Ekici, Belu-Simon Fainaru, Adel Abdessemed, Jannis Kounellis, Meinrad Schade, Angelika Sher, Hannah Abu-Hussein, Lela Ahmadzai, Avital Bar-shay, Burak Delier, Almagul Menlibayeva, Or Fainaru, Hacer Kiroglu, Boaz Kaizman, Marina Zaikina

mediterraneanbiennale.com/en/

It is tempting to view time in seconds, minutes, and hours, before and after October 7, 2023. Moments connect to places, pinning memories, like flags on a map; moments which no one dares to forget in the face of violence, suffering, and profound pain. How can one rise from the abyss of darkness? What kind of people will we be? What kind of society will we create? What does the future hold? On what values will we raise our children? Where does one find the strength to re-build a home in such a world?

The question "Anybody home?" challenges the assumption that "home" is a stable site of belonging representing shelter, refuge and safety, peace and identity; a place that protects its occupants. The boundaries delineating this everyday space have been abandoned, and are now more blurred than ever. Peace has been violated by elements of chaos and insecurity, by an experience of disrupted normality. "Home" has become more traumatic than comforting.

The exhibition "Anybody Home?", presented as part of the 5th Mediterranean Biennale, responds to the current reality, exploring issues pertaining to home, loss, pain, longing, and hope, in search of meaning in a violent, cruel world. The works invite the viewer to contemplate experiences of emotional detachment, helplessness and distress, striving to remind us of the importance of help, empathy, and understanding in the chaos of life. Works of art are a manifestation of the human spirit and of art's power to inspire hope even in difficult moments, in the shadow of war; of its ability to strengthen and heal, to offer support and a remedy for the soul and give hope, to introduce humanism, solidarity, and social resilience in open, secure spaces where people can gather, share their grief, engage in sincere conversation, and strive for a better, peaceful future.

The Mediterranean Biennale was inaugurated in 2010 as a model for multicultural cooperation and dialogue among diverse outlooks and opinions held by different communities and groups in the Middle East and the Mediterranean countries. The biennale's underlying vision is to promote peace through artistic activity intended to build mutual trust in the region, by promoting cooperation based on equality and reciprocity; to bring a new approach to the region via artistic activity in the hope of creating a basis for human dialogue and coexistence between communities that are still in conflict and seek to promote education for peace, tolerance, and non-violence.

The biennale aims to bridge gaps in the perception of the other and encourage cultural diversity, so as to create an environment where individuals and groups share common values and exist in peace. By turning the spotlight on artistic work and universal human feelings based on a vision for a shared future and human dignity, we hope to avoid politics and regional disputes, in the pursuit of creating a better future for coexistence. The Mediterranean Biennale offers an alternative platform, highlighting the local processes being created in the region, and enhancing their cultural impact by means of art directed towards the community, that bridges between cultures; art that leaves the museum, integrates with the city, and transforms the city into a museum.

The biennale will serve as a place in which to raise various issues, such as: How to return art to society? What is the relevance of art in today's world? How is the role of art as a bridge between cultures manifested?

The exhibition "Anybody Home?", presented in the city of Haifa, is the second part of the 5th Mediterranean Biennale (2023-24). For the first time this year, the biennale's first part is held outside of Israel, in Istanbul, under the title "I am another you, you are another me," thus realizing the biennale's vision for an intercultural discourse in the Mediterranean basin.