“Romanian Contemporary Art 2010-20. Rethinking the Image of the World: Projects and Sketches” (Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2020) by Adrian Bojenoiu and Cristian Nae is the first major survey of the transformations taking place in Romanian art in the last decade, focusing on the art of bright young artists with received international confirmation, as well as on significant changes perceived in the artistic practice of the more established ones.
It can be ordered here: hatjecantz.de
Image: The Buddhist temple where Pratchaya Phinthong “sourced” the piece of wall for his piece, It is better to have done good and died than to have lived and done nothing (2018); the sentence is a Buddhist proverb, which is written on the wall itself; as part of its production, CCA Tel Aviv paid a donation to the temple.
CCA – Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv is pleased to announce “The Promise: Artists to Benefit CCA Tel Aviv”, an exhibition featuring works of art by Diti Almog, Yael Bartana, Keren Cytter, Yael Efrati, Asaf Elkalai, Noa Glazer, The Haas Brothers, Reuven Israel, Liora Kaplan, Esther Kläs, Alex Mirutziu, Jordan Nassar, Karam Natour, Ruth Patir, Pratchaya Phinthong, Yana Rotner, Barak Rubin, Haim Steinbach, Nahum Tevet, Naama Tsabar, Sharif Waked, Alexandra Zuckerman, Noa Zuk & Ohad Fishof.
Displayed throughout the entire building, “The Promise” sheds light on the history and program of this Institution, presenting works by artists who exhibited at CCA Tel Aviv in the past – often showing exactly the same works – as well as works by artists who will exhibit in the future and artists whose work is in tune with the atmosphere of the exhibition. Placed under the same roof, these works of art have been gathered to benefit the program of the Center as well as the artists who helped make this exhibition happen in such challenging and unprecedented times.
Despite the fact that all the artworks presented in the exhibition were created before the spread of Covid-19, many of them suggest that art making is an act that is carried out, ultimately, in solitude, privately, with no direct connection outside the self. This approach – which acquires, in the current scenario, additional layers of meaning – was honored by the co-curators, who decided to select the works in tandem and developed their own interpretation of the title, and its related articulations, without discussing these with each other. Furthermore, the exhibition’s title implies the notion of a “Promised Land” –which has been adopted by such radical thinkers as Martin Luther King – a notion conceived in deeply universal terms, since it defines a state of liberation, a “holy site,” a free territory – where “free” means freedom of thought and freedom of expression. At the same time, it also becomes a metaphor for the role of art institutions, and CCA Tel Aviv specifically, being the site (the land) of the sign (the promise) of engagement and support that is bestowed on the artist by the institution itself and by those who represent it.
The Promise is co-curated by Nicola Trezzi, Director and Curator, and Thomas Rom, Executive Board Member at CCA Tel Aviv. It is accompanied by a digital catalogue in English (printed on demand) which includes essays by the co-curators, reproductions of the artworks included (presented with full details and artist biographies), and enriched by quotes by some of the participants, alongside those written by luminaries in the field such as Nicolas Bourriaud (CEO, MO.CO. Montpellier Contemporain), Simon Castets (Director Swiss Institute / Contemporary Art, New York), Joseph Del Pesco (International Director, KADIST, San Francisco / Paris), Ines Goldbach (Director / Curator, Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz / Basel), Donatien Grau (Advisor to the President of the Musées d’Orsay and l’Orangerie for contemporary programs at Musée d’Orsay, Paris), Gabriele Horn (Director, Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art), Zoe Lukov (Chief Curator, Faena Art Center, Buenos Aires / Miami), David Neuman (Director Emeritus / Chairman, Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art, Stockholm / Jaffa), Hans Ulrich Obrist (Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries, London), Marta Ponsa (Head of artistic projects and cultural action, Jeu de Paume, Paris), Yasmil Raymond (Rector, Städelschule Academy of Fine Art / Director, Portikus, Frankfurt), and James Snyder (Director, Jerusalem Foundation / Director Emeritus, Israel Museum Jerusalem).
THE PROMISE: ARTISTS TO BENEFIT CCA TEL AVIV
November 8 - 28, 2020
Artists: Diti Almog, Yael Bartana, Keren Cytter, Yael Efrati, Asaf Elkalai, Noa Glazer, The Haas Brothers, Reuven Israel, Liora Kaplan, Esther Kläs, Alex Mirutziu, Jordan Nassar, Karam Natour, Ruth Patir, Pratchaya Phinthong, Yana Rotner, Barak Rubin, Haim Steinbach, Nahum Tevet, Naama Tsabar, Sharif Waked, Alexandra Zuckerman, Noa Zuk & Ohad Fishof.
For more information about “The Promise” please email CCA Tel Aviv Office Manager Guy Bernard Reichmann at info@cca.org.il or CCA Tel Aviv Assistant Curator Bar Goren at bar@cca.org.il.
To schedule a visit or to purchase the catalogue please contact CCA Tel Aviv Content Manager Mona Benyamin at office@cca.org.il.
CCA – Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv
WOUNDED IDENTITY / IDENTITATE ULTRAGIATĂ
October 17 - November 22, 2020
Artists:
ADELINA IVAN
ADRIANA JEBELEANU
ALEX MIRUTZIU
OLIVIA MIHĂLȚIANU
PUSHA PETROV
Curator:
ILEANA PINTILIE
Opening: Saturday 17th October 2020, between 2pm and 8pm
Anca Poterasu Gallery
Opening Hours:
Monday – Tuesday: 9am – 7pm // Wednesday - Sunday: 11am - 7pm
Popa Soare 26, Bucharest (RO)
[EN] What is left today, in the age of globalization, of our European identity – here is a disquieting question, which cannot be answered spontaneously. To find an answer, we have to question ourselves and, at the same time, to look at the various data coming from our every-day life and from the contemporary artistic environment. If an identity is defined in relation with the other, with Otherness, then the contemporary society is facing a serious crisis, the result of many fragmented identities. Because of the confrontation with strange and diverse identities, there have been confused, plural, contradictory developments at the global scale, or, sometimes, marginal and subaltern positions have been accepted, as Kevin Hetherington argues.
In the western world after the 1960s, the clash with a hedonistic and narcissistic counter-culture, directed against the modernist middle-class culture of the self, led to a new fragmentation of identity, while, in Eastern Europe, the communist system enforced equality upon the society, without taking into consideration various ethnic, religious, gender identities, the traditional identities of social classes or even the identity derived from belonging to various professional groups or those making up the civil society.
Denying all those identities the right to assert themselves or repressing them openly, the communist system managed to fracture, once more, the contemporary identity and isolate the individual from the society, with the view to transforming it into a „docile body” to use Michel Foucault’s term; a body which is manipulated by the power and tamed, the result, after a long „moulding” process, through the individual’s repression, being the „machine human” responding to commands and following orders.
In the totalitarian communist regimes, the artists, with their projects, systematically opposed the erasure of identities and the enforced leveling, militating for the freedom of expression, for the assertion of the individual as such, with their own identity, undistorted under ideological pressure. For the artists in the 1980s generation (who continued to express themselves freely especially after 1990) the body was considered a means of expression charged with raw and even brutal power. The artists researched this topic thoroughly, without avoiding its controversial aspects.
[RO] Dacă o identitate se defineşte în raport cu celălalt, cu o alteritate, atunci societatea contemporană se află într-o profundă criză, rezultat al unei multitudini de identităţi fragmentate. Datorită confruntării cu identităţile străine şi diverse, la scară globală s-a ajuns la dezvoltări identitare confuze, plurale, contradictorii sau uneori la acceptarea poziţiilor marginale şi subalterne. În Occident, după anii 1960, impactul cu o contra-cultură hedonistă şi narcisistă, îndreptată împotriva culturii burgheze moderniste a sinelui, a condus la o nouă fragmentare a identităţii, în timp ce în spaţiul Europei de Est sistemul comunist a introdus o egalitate forţată în interiorul societăţii care nu a ţinut cont de diferitele identităţi etnice, religioase, de gen sau a celor care alcătuiesc de obicei societatea civilă.
În perioada actuală, artiştii sunt cei care, în discursul lor orientat atât asupra sinelui, cât şi asupra societăţii, chestionează şi revelează multiple posibile identităţi. Pentru artiștii formați începând cu anii 2000, corpul a devenit un mediu mai subtil, din ce în ce mai prelucrat, tinzând spre o imagine cât mai armonioasă dar artificială, iar acțiunile din această perioadă sunt mediate de fotografie sau de film video și reprezintă modul de înțelegere și de raportare la identitatea de gen, de mediu sau exprimă angoasele societății actuale.
(…) Alex Mirutziu caută cu oarecare înfrigurare o identitate care să-l reprezinte, dar care se dovedește o construcție fragilă, nesigură, în primul rând datorită precarității condiției umane. Viața cotidiană, cu gesturile ei firești, poate fi transformată într-un spațiu al rezistenței, iar rezistența poate deveni o politică identitară. Înălțarea și căderea pe / de pe un podium, ambiția și ratarea - asemeni lecției oferite de defilarea de modă în răspăr din “Feeding the horses of all heroes” - repune în discuție tema eșecului corpului, ce poate fi apropiată de exercițiile de ”eșec” ale lui Bruce Naumann (Failing to Levitate in the Studio). Astfel, disfuncționalitatea demonstrează încă odată vulnerabilitatea corpului.
Textul complet, aici.
În continuarea primei ediții a programului de mentorat online CAMPart și ca urmare a numărului mare de participanți înscriși, Fundația Art Encounters organizează o nouă ediție CAMPart, alături de alți 6 artiști-mentori care vor susține fiecare câte un curs online adresat studenților la arte și artiștilor la început de drum.
Cei 6 artiști selectați pentru a fi mentori în cadrul celei de-a doua ediții a programului sunt Flaviu Cacoveanu, Raluca Crioitoru, Cristina David, Călin Man, Alex Mirutziu și Monotremu, care vor împărtăși viitoarelor generații de artiști experiența propriului laborator de creație, oferind îndrumare și sprijin participanților în dezvoltarea practicii lor artistice, dar și în realizarea proiectelor pe care și le propun.
Cursurile se adresează studenților la arte și artiștilor la început de drum și vor avea loc exclusiv online, prin intermediul platformei zoom, în perioada 5 octombrie – 31 octombrie 2020. Fiecare dintre cei 6 mentori va susține cursul într-o zi a săptămânii, de luni până sâmbătă, orarul cursurilor fiind același pe parcursul celor patru săptămâni de mentorat. Cei interesați se pot înscrie la unul sau două dintre cursurile propuse.
Programul de mentorat online CAMPart este inițiat de Fundația Art Encounters cu scopul de a susține creația contemporană și de a încuraja schimbul de idei între artiști printr-un circuit bazat pe împărtășirea de cunoștințe, experiențe și metode de cercetare.
Înscrieri: 28 septembrie – 2 octombrie 2020
Perioadă cursuri: 5 octombrie – 31 octombrie 2020
