Inventing the Truth. On Fiction and Reality
Artists: Michele Bressan, Carmen-Dobre Hametner, Alex Mirutziu, Lea Rasovszky,
Stefan Sava, Larisa Sitar
Curator: Diana Marincu
The New Gallery of the Romanian Institute for Culture and Research in Humanities
Campo Santa Fosca
Palazzo Correr
Cannaregio 2214
30121 Venice
Italy
Press and professional preview: 6–8 May
Friday, 8 May, 5 pm: Opening; 5:30 pm: The Finnish Method, performance by Alex Mirutziu
www.inventingthetruth.com
The exhibition took shape along two simultaneous directions of research, one of which interprets fiction as the “repressed” part of the discourse of history (as defined by Michel de Certeau), while the other focuses on the seemingly banal everyday life, where quotidian elements are poetically re-contextualised and temporally recomposed by means of fiction. The transformation of the past into the solid matter of history is always an act of excess, a political gesture, a subjective intrusion on the part of those who are researching an archive. Therefore, the works presented here enrich the analysis of history through the insertion of fiction and personal micro-histories. However, the present provides even greater interpretative versatility and a better dynamics of narrative construction thanks to real-time revisions and corrections.
The works on show bring to the fore both the interpretative process and the production of such narratives. The visual construction of each project engages with the conventions of fiction, making visible the traces of the author and the subtle joints linking authenticity and invention. The impossibility of identifying the limits of reality leads the viewer to waver between how convincing and how jarring the mise-en-scène is.
Carmen Dobre-Hametner’s (b. 1978) photographic project Consuming Historydocuments the commercial re-enactment of everyday life in communism, organized in a former Soviet bunker near Vilnius, and made available for tourists and locals; the photographs reflect on contemporary perceptions of history and otherness. Stefan Sava (b. 1982) proposes a video essay on the potential and the limits of interpreting a photographic archive, questioning the representation of a traumatic past. The workAnd then one thing led to another... by Larisa Sitar (b. 1984) speaks of exchanges between ideology and history by appropriating differently dated engravings that depict violence, ruin and nameless figures that influenced the course of human history. Michele Bressan (b. 1980) speculates on the temporal displacement of an event, rendering it more abstract and suspending it outside of chronological conventions. Lea Rasovszky (b. 1986) puts together a story from fragments of real events, personal memories and excerpts from books, integrating fiction into the narrator’s own life. Alex Mirutziu (b. 1981) uses the concepts of the “bureaucratic object” and “ontological design” in the relations he establishes between word and space, body and object.
Organizers: Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Romanian Cultural Institute, Instituto Romeno di Cultura e Ricerca Umanistica di Venezia, Romanian Ministry of Culture
Partners: The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest; Center of Excellence In Image Study, Bucharest (CESI); Faculty of Letters, The University of Bucharest; The Embassy of Romania in the Republic of Lithuania; Ivan Gallery, Bucharest; Sabot Gallery, Cluj; Jecza Gallery, Timisoara
Sponsors: Corcova, Roy & Damboviceanu; Flash Lighting Services
With the support of: Ovidiu Sandor; Fabrik; Square Media; IDEA Design & Print; X Design
Artists:
Michele Bressan (b.1980) lives and works in Bucharest, Romania. He graduated from the Photo-video Department of The National University of Arts Bucharest (2009) and he obtained a master’s degree in photography at the same university (2011). Michele Bressan was among the winners of the Essl Award for photography and was nominated for the Henkel Art Award in 2009. Selected solo exhibitions: ViennaFair The New Contemporary with Jecza Gallery (2013), and Waiting for the Drama, H’art Gallery, Bucharest (2012). Selected group exhibitions: WHAT ABOUT Y[OUR] MEMORY, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest (2014), PASAJ, The National Museum of Contemporary Art – Anexa, Bucharest (2014), Les Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid (video screening), La Gaîté Lyrique and Palais de Tokyo (2014), Europe/South-East. Recorded Memories, Museum für Photographie Braunschweig (2013), Badly Happy: Pain, Pleasure and Panic in Recent Romanian Art, Performance Art Institute San Francisco (2010).
Carmen Dobre-Hametner (b. 1978) lives and works in Munich, Germany. Her academic training took place at the National University of Arts in Bucharest (BFA in Photography and Video Art) and Leiden University, NL (Master of Photographic Studies). She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Arts in Bucharest with a research project on the "Furry community". In 2010 she won the national selection for the Henkel Art Award for Central and Eastern Europe. She was nominated for the Essl Art Award and the Celeste Prize in 2013. She participated in artistic residencies at the Romanian Cultural Institute in Paris, the Romanian Cultural Institute in London and the Fotonow Foundation in Plymouth, UK. Her most important exhibitions include: Alien and Familiar, Galerie Taxispalais, Innsbruck, Austria (2013), Celeste Prize, ex-Bibli, Rome (2013), Furries, Galerie Rue de l’Exposition, Paris (2011),Body-Art-Society, Galerie Oudin, Paris (2011), Furbook, La Cantine, Paris (2010). In 2012, Carmen Dobre-Hametner published the photo book ”Furries. Enacting Animal Anthropomorphism” at the University of Plymouth Press.
Alex Mirutziu (b. 1981) lives and works in Sibiu. In 2004 he graduated from the University of Art and Design, Cluj, (RO) and in 2008 from Huddersfield University (UK) with a master degree in physical theatre and performance. In recent years Mirutziu has lectured on performance and theatre at prestigious institutions such as Royal College of Arts, London, Von Kraal Theatre, Estonia, or IASPIS, Stockholm, and has collaborated with artists and writers such as, Grit Hachmeister (DE), Paul Devens (NL), Elias Merino (ES), Graham Foust (US), Asa Jungnelius (SE), Graham Harman (US). Recent selected solo exhibitions: Each thought’s an instant ruin with a new disease, Sabot Gallery (2013), Pending works and bureaucratic objects, Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich, Spending time in relation to usage, Barbara Seiler Gallery, Zürich (2011), Time’s Own Insult, The Glass Factory, Emmaboda, Suedia (2011). Recent group shows: A few grams of Red, Yellow, Blue, Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (2014), European Travellers – Art from Cluj Today, Műcsarnok/Kunsthalle Budapest (2012), Play dice would be nice, Gaudel de Stampa, Paris (2012); Rearview Mirror, The Power Plant, Toronto / Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton (2011 / 2012).
Lea Rasovszky (b.1986) lives and works in Bucharest. In 2008 she obtained a BFA from the Photo-video Department of The National University of Arts Bucharest and in 2010 she earned a MFA degree from the same department. Selected solo shows: From Stars to Steroids: Two Short Stories About an Almost Metaphoric Bestiary, Anca Poterașu Gallery, Bucharest (2014), Mentors, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest (2012), The Savages, Atelier 35, Bucharest (2012), MEN, Atelier 35, Bucharest (2011), Sorrow, Heartache, Recovery & Shit, ALERTStudio, Bucharest (2011). Selected group exhibitions: PALE BLUE DOT, Lateral Art Space, The Paintbrush Factory, Cluj (2014), PASAJ, The National Museum of Contemporary Art – Anexa, Bucharest (2014), Spazi Aperti, 10th Edition, Romanian Academy in Rome, Rome, IT (2013), The Biennial of Young Artists, 5th edition, Overlapping Biennial, Bucharest (2012), Fresh Drawings, LC Foundation – Contemporary Art Center, Bucharest (2011). International residences: Artist Residence Herzliya via ICR Tel Aviv, Herzliya (2011), Schafhof - Europäisches Künstlerhaus Oberbayern, Freising (2008).
Stefan Sava (b. 1982) lives and works in Bucharest, Romania. He earned a master’s degree from the Photo-video Department of The National University of Arts, Bucharest (2010) and he is currently enrolled as a PhD student at the same university. In 2013 he was the winner of the Henkel Art Award Romania. Selected solo shows: Ruins of a Day, Ivan Gallery, Bucharest (2015), Facts about Which There Can Be Questions, Ivan Gallery, Bucharest (2013), The Inside‐Out of the Wall, Ivan Gallery, Bucharest (2012), Atoms and Void, Galeria Posibilă, Bucharest (2010). Selected group shows: Few Were Happy with their Condition, Kunsthalle Winterthur, Winterthur (2015), Europe/South-East. Recorded Memories, Museum für Photographie Braunschweig (2013), From the Backstage, Salonul de proiecte, The National Museum of Contemporary Art – Anexa, Bucharest (2012).
Larisa Sitar (b. 1984) lives and works in Bucharest. In 2008 she graduated from the Photo-video Department of The National University of Arts, Bucharest and in 2010 she earned a master’s degree from the same university. Selected group exhibitions:WHAT ABOUT Y[OUR] MEMORY, The National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest (2014), Transformation. Romanian Sculpture 25 Years After the Revolution, Museum Beelden aan Zee, Haga; PASAJ, The National Museum of Contemporary Art – Anexa, Bucharest (2014), The Visible City project (with a public space intervention, Monument), organized by AltArt Foundation, Cluj-Napoca (2013),breakup, Motorenhalle, Dresden (The Trailblazers, with Mircea Nicolae and Ștefan Tiron, 2013), Care Crisis, Futura Gallery, Prague (2012), Essl Art Award CEE, Winners Exhibition, Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg/Vienna (2011), Zoomania.Ro, The National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest (2010), End of Academia, The National Museum of Contemporary Art – Anexa, Bucharest (2010),EMERGEANDSEE, media arts festival, Berlin (2010), Start Point Prize, Galerie NTK, Prague (2010).
Curator and project managers:
Diana Marincu (b. 1986) is a curator and art critic living in Cluj and Bucharest. She graduated from the Faculty of Arts and Design in Timisoara, and obtained an MA degree in Art History and Theory from the National University of Arts in Bucharest. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Arts in Bucharest, Art History Department. Her most recent curatorial work includes: Other Rooms, Galeria Plan B, Fabrica de Pensule, Cluj, 2015; Mihai Iepure-Górski, Words in a Room, : BARIL, Fabrica de Pensule, Cluj, 2015; PASAJ (Michele Bressan, Lea Rasovszky, Larisa Sitar), The National Museum of Contemporary Art – Anexa, Bucharest, 2014.
Co-founded by cultural managers Suzana Dan and Silvia Rogozea, the Ephemair Association has an extensive experience with contemporary art projects and urban cultural activities in Bucharest. Designed to promote the contemporary Romanian art scene locally and internationally, with a clear impact on cultural life and education,The White Night of the Galleries had produced throughout its 9 editions (2007-present) more than 25 exhibitions focusing on emerging Romanian contemporary artists. Partnering with local and national institutions, other projects such asBucharest Art Weekend, Art on Display and NAG Pop Up Gallery also tackle urban activation and contemporary art production and promotion, while the Trance / Cultural program is dedicated to interdisciplinary art research and production (music, new media, movement, visual arts).
