Filtering by Tag: Stay[s] against confusion

”Gaining in a State of Debt”: Alex Mirutziu`s first solo exhibition in Israel opens at CCA Tel Aviv

Added on March 5, 2019 by Alex Mirutziu.

GAINING IN A STATE OF DEBT

Curated by Nicola Trezzi

Dates: March 14 – April 18, 2019

Opening: March 14 at 8 pm

Performance schedule:

March 14, 8 pm (opening)
March 19, 6 pm
March 22, 12 am
April 1, 8 pm
April 10, 8 pm
April 13, 1 pm (closing)

Performed by Oran Barak, Harel Grazutis and Nunzia Picciallo

The Center for Contemporary Art

Tsadok HaCohen 2, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel

www.cca.org.il

The Center for Contemporary Art (CCA) presents “Gaining in a State of Debt”, the first solo exhibition by Romanian artist Alex Mirutziu (1981, Sibiu, Romania. Lives and works in Cluj-Napoca, Romania).

Mirutziu’s practice extends over a wide range of media and activities, including sculpture, drawing, poetry, and performance, as well as critical and curatorial projects. In his work, which is both highly intellectual and deeply physical, he expands the notions of approximation and proximity in connection to time, presenting “dislocated modes of arrival at meaning.” In his modus operandi, he seeks to facilitate the understanding of the body as a “turbulent performative occasion” – drawing on the poetics of homelessness and invisibility. Through his artworks, he looks at ways of suspending the set-ups of doing and un-doing, thinking and un-thinking. Alongside TAH29 (The Artist Himself at 29), he acts within a collective body whose modus operandi is “retroactive irony.”

His exhibition at CCA Tel Aviv features a new performative work, entitled Bottoms Know It, and a compilation of videos that contextualize the new work and at the same time open up new avenues of understanding. Conceived for CCA Tel Aviv and featuring three performers and three props, Bottoms Know It exposes what may come across as being implicit but unnoticed, which is not necessarily a feature of truth-making.

Through the combination of different streams of thoughts and informed by philosophical concepts that are always personalized and freely interpreted, the artist is capable of creating time-based and durational experiences between himself and the viewer, using the artwork – whether in the form of an object or a body (his own or somebody else’s) – as a channel, a catalyst, a sort of remote controller that is linking two individuals, himself and the viewer, possibly located in two different geographical and time zones. However, all the aforementioned notions never come as we usually expect them: “time-based” should be considered according to an unusual notion of time; “durational” should be perceived according to a larger scope of perception. The work of Alex Mirutziu not only makes us think, it also makes us think about the conditions allowing us to think, and un-think, to do, and un-do.

Video program (not on view during the performances):

Doing Sub Thinking, 2018. HD video, video documentation of performance, 10:51 min. Performers: Ekin Bernay, Rowdy_SS, and Jenn Vogtle. Commissioned by Block Universe Festival in collaboration with Delfina Foundation and European Art East Foundation, London. Courtesy of the artist, Galeria Sabot, Cluj-Napoca, and Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich. [video]

But as a document, 2015. HD video, performance to camera, 12:01 min. Performer: Pär Andersson; director of photography: Michael Tomescu. Courtesy of the artist, Galeria Sabot, Cluj-Napoca, and Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich. [video]

Dignity to the unsaid, 2017. HD video, 17:42 min. Word workers: Alex Popa, Irina Sibef, and Cosmin Stănilă; director of photography: Alexandru Don; camera assistant: Victor Merca. Commissioned by Marie-Laure Fleisch Gallery, Brussels. Courtesy of the artist, Galeria Sabot, Cluj-Napoca, and Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich.

Stay[s] against confusion, 2016. HD video, 14:53 min. Performer: Joshua Hubbard; director of photography: Kassandra Powell, Loukas Elark. Commissioned by Delfina Foundation, London. Courtesy of the artist, Galeria Sabot, Cluj-Napoca, and Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich. [video]

The gaze is a prolapse dressed in big business, 2018. HD video, 14:37 min. Commissioned by Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou (France). Courtesy of the artist, Galeria Sabot, Cluj-Napoca, and Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich. [video]

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“Alex Mirutziu: Gaining in a State of Debt” is curated by Nicola Trezzi in close collaboration with the artist. The exhibition is supported by Invitro, the OUTSET Residency in Tel Aviv, and the Romanian Cultural Institute – Tel Aviv. Additional support provided by Galeria Sabot, Cluj-Napoca and TAROM.

Alex Mirutziu's performative oeuvre on show at National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest

Added on September 18, 2017 by Alex Mirutziu.

No Blood Bank Included

SOLO EXHIBITION

as part of BIDFF (Bucharest International Dance Film Festival) in partnership with the Performing Arts Programme of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by Ioana Paun

@THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, BUCHAREST (MNAC)

Exhibition visiting dates/hours | SEPT 9 - OCT 1| 12 PM - 8 PM (regular museum ticket)

- all photos by Alex Mirutziu with the exception of the last 6 in line, bearing the copyright of Doria Photography.

Alex Mirutziu

As long as against an artwork we position ourselves frontality, we tend to do so brutally charged and equally emotional. The works in the exhibition are impossible to be perceived frontally, be it visually or multi-sensorially, but only by detour, alas slowly digesting it to the point of loosing oneself. My most recent works move away from the logic of ‘me’ - ‘here — ‘the rest’ - outside, and deal with uncertain dimensions which exhibits one/other meaning as well as with links of co-existence between multiple presences, approaches or appearances of the individual and of the world in which he/she belongs that cannot ever run out of steam.

Even when ‘here’ and ‘now’ structure our understanding, these are contaminated by an act of re-installment, or re-demarcation of the creative act. Demand joining efforts, multiple foldings.I insist in creating a climate that brings forth the likes of something to be later metabolised. This selection of works are part of such a mechanism of making meaning from proximity. I’m not interested in approaching this mechanism in a critical way, rather the contrary, due to the fact that critique entails a sort of way of looking at the object from the outside, short-circuited by spilling consciousness. It has not been proved that such a way of accessing reality has ever had enough stamina to be able to arrive at the end of a demonstration.

For complete list of films follow the link: http://www.bidff.ro/alex-mirutziu-en

Many thanks for the thought and energy that went into production and instalment to: Simona Deaconescu (Artistic Director of BIDFF), Anamaria Antoci (Festival Manager), Irena Isbasescu (International Relations), Emilia Paunescu (Production Manager) an all the BIDFF team which made this show possible and for Ioana Paun, chief curator of performative arts at MNAC for her quick-thinking and functionalist approach.

”Stay[s] against confusion” mirrored in Sinteza Magazine

Added on August 31, 2016 by Alex Mirutziu.

Artistul radiografiaza momentul Delfina Foundation din Londra, unde s-a aflat in rezidenta vreme de 3 luni anul acesta, si taie colturile celui mai recent performance ‘Stay[s] against confusion’.

Delfina Foundation is an independent, non-profit foundation dedicated to facilitating artistic exchange and developing creative practice through residencies, partnerships and public programming.

Fragments from interview:

interviu realizat de Ruxandra Hurezean

- Pentru cel mai recent performance ‘Stay[s] against confusion’ ai folosit un caracter tipografic creat de designerul britanic Margaret Calvert, dar si fragmente din poeziile lui Graham Foust. Pentru inceput te-as ruga sa vorbesti de motivele care te-au facut sa lucrezi cu caracterul tipografic ‘Transport’ si ‘New Transport’, omniprezent pe autostrazile din Marea Britanie si de ce crezi ca un caracter tipografic poate genera o coregrafie?

E vorba de o adaptare digitala a vechiului font ‘Transport’ creat de designerii britanici Jock Kinneir si Margaret Calvert in 1957. La acea vreme cei doi au standardizat indicatoarele rutiere de pe autostrazile Marii Britanii la invitatia guvernului, ca rezolvare a unui faune aglomerate, pestrite si confuze de semne si informatii de pe drumurile nationale. Fiecare panou lua forma unei harti orientate spre sofer. Apoi datorita testelor de vizibilitate la diferite distante, Kinneir si Calvert au ajuns la concluzia foarte indrazneata la acea vreme de a folosi litere mici in locul majusculelor care reprezentau norma la acea vreme. Sistemul acesta a fost un succes total in a oferi soferilor un climat de eficienta si a fost adoptat printre altele de Danemarca, Hong Kong sau Islanda.

In interviul pe care cu multa ingaduinta Margaret mi l-a acordat, imi spunea ca acest sistem a fost creat din punctul de vedere al soferului si nu al designerului. E foarte importanta aceasta distinctie pentru ca atunci cand te afli pe autostrada in viteza timpul de reactie la informatia de pe indicatoare nu poate fi prea lung. E nevoie deci ca acea informatie sa fie livrata cat mai eficient pentru a putea lua decizii imediate. Partea creierului care e responsabila de citire trebuie sa rezolve aceste caractere la o viteza de 10-20ms. Erorile in a descifra aceste indicatoare pot face diferenta intre viata si moarte.

- Inteleg ca operezi in cele doua registre, lingvistic / metaforic si cel pragmatic, al caracterului tipografic ‘New Transport’.

Ma intereseaza in ce masura notiunea ‘Etc.’ e rezolvata de public atata timp cat partitura acestui performance insista doar pana la un punct pe o cursiviate narativa. Notiunea ‘Etc.’ vine din scriere si limbaj, iar atunci cand e introdusa in dans, nu poate fi instrumentata decat fenomenologic. Semantica lui ‘Etc.’ nu poate fi despartita de binomurile vizibilitate/invizibilitate, de citire/privire, familiare sistemului pus in practica de cei doi designeri.

Sintetizand: vizibilitatea reprezinta o problema majora pentru designeri, dar si pentru artisti. Pana la urma lupta se da in primul rand pe hartie. Descifram semnificatia textului pe care il citim cu pretul ignorarii felului in care textul e tiparit, iar atunci cand privim fontul pierdem semnificatia textului. Nu putem face ambele operatii deodata. Insa niciuna nu poate exista fara cealalta.

Interviul complet in Sinteza nr. 31 / August 2016 (p.108-111) sau pe site-ul revistasinteza.ro

'Performance as process' and its aftermath at Delfina Foundation

Added on July 4, 2016 by Alex Mirutziu.

As part of Transpositions, the crowning event of Performance as Process residence programme by Delfina Foundation, London, Alex Mirutziu conducted research into the work of designer / typographer Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinnear, alongside his interest and commitment to the poetry of Graham Foust for a new performance which has been premiered on June the 7th within the premisses of the foundation.

Alex Mirutziu was joined by Joshua Hubbard for his performance, Stay[s] against confusion. Alex also showed a video piece Where is the poem (2013) in the Delfina library alongside a video work by Stephen entitled Into It (2013). Mirutziu’s engagement with Delfina Foundation was driven by a key question within his practice; ‘what performs?’

Stay[s] against confusion project was developed with the co-operation of Delfina Foundation's operative team lead by director, Aaron Cezar: Dani Burrows, Jane Scarth, Poppy Litchfield, Gillean Dickie, Eleanor Scott, Jacob Wilson. Most importantly this project gently inscribes itself into the generous, dearing and unique approach to art that Delfina Entrecanales nurtured and supported over many decades.

For a more in depth insight into his practice and research please visit Delfina Foundation website:

● Q&A with Alex Mirutziu

● Transposition - Photo Gallery

Alex Mirutziu's residency was kindly supported by:

Romanian Cultural Institute, Maria Bojan, Plan B Foundation, Ovidiu Sandor, Mircea Pinte, Jenny Hall and Delfina Foundation's family of individual supporters.

Alex Mirutziu - Where is the poem?, video, 2013, photo by Pari Naderi

Alex Mirutziu - Stay[s] against confusion, performance, 2016, photo by Luciana Magno