MOTION PARADE
The exhibition curated by Alina Serban with 8 artists from Rumania, deals with an inner and outer investigation of the art scene in Rumania and reflects local, social and political circumstances as well as historical baggage and the tendencies of renewal within the country.
Rumania, to the western part of the world is still regarded as an exotic country of the former eastern block. Instead of looking with interest behind the curtains and therefore developing an improved understanding for localized specifics, there is categorical, schematically exclusive occupation.
MOTION PARADE offers the opportunity, to lift the curtain and to foresee a bit of the atmosphere of this country in transition and change.
MOTION PARADE reflects the new method of working and the transition from the ‘aesthetic of resistance’ to an ‘aesthetic of alternatives’.
Artists / Works
MATEI BEJENARU / Electric Wonders, 2005
Night exposures of small train stations in Eastern Rumania show the wave of modernizations of the Rumanian rail system. It is not visible in the substance of the train station but in the little details like the Info light boxes. The pictures of these old fashioned dilapidated buildings have a strangely esoteric atmosphere created by the decoration with these new light boxes.
CRISTINA DAVID / Size doesn’t matter, 2003
These works are based on the theme of the paradigm of identity through self-image. Since her birth she assumes people notice her simply based on her small stature. Taken from the eye level of the artist she analyses the relationship between her and the world. Her message is that even when you have a special attribute that is atypical within a certain society man can twist this detail into an advantage and go so far as to create a standard of measurement… it is always a question of status and power.
CIPRIAN MURESAN / Untitled, 2005
The photographs show a door littered with traces of nails and a hand with a scar across the veins of the wrist. Whether it is a suicide attempt or an accident is the question that not even the artist can answer. The shown hand is the hand of his father. ‘Untitled’ – a memory.
IOANA NEMES / Monthly Evaluations, 2005
The story seems simple. If you concentrate on each single day and try to understand what this day means by analyzing the most different perspectives (physical, intellectual, emotional, financial,…), then at the end of the month there will be some ‘probabilities’. Resulting from this, with a bit of luck and research, something solid and tangible will emerge.
The story reports of my insatiable need of wanting to control in some way the instable constants of life and time.
CATALIN RULEA / 30s / 8 Tracks, 2005
30 seconds…that is the shutter speed of my unprofessional camera, the Canon A70, with a highest possible resolution of (840 x 480 dpi). That is the exact amount of time one needs to say goodbye, about the amount of time it takes to watch an unknown person sigh, and the amount of time it takes to burn an image into your retina so that you will never forget. 30 seconds can take as long as we wish. That is my personal Theory of Relativity.
PETER SZABO / The copybook-project, 2002-2005 (work in progress)
The book is the definitive possibility to tell. It helps us to get special and indescribable experiences. I discovered objects and phenomena’s, lived through situations that should be documented. The notebook of a student is full with swindle-codes for computer-games, the illegal copy of a fitness video, snow on the glass ceiling of a shopping mall or copied books over film-theory.
All my ‘copybooks’ have a strong social meaning and demonstrate the distance und the difference between the West and the East, between high-tech and low-tech.
MONA VATAMANU & FLORIN TUDOR / Persepolis, 2002-2005 (work in progress)
Persepolis examines post-socialist life and living in Bucharest. This city underlies particular patterns and utopian ideas without any real city planning.
One of the most aggressive building strategies and simultaneous destruction of the city happened during the period of socialism. The ideology that created has disappeared. Nevertheless there are many people living in these socialistic "machines a habiter".
Vatamanu and Tudor identify the actual nuances of these living blocks showing the different living conditions, their circumstances, and reactions from the inhabitants.