Saturday, May 6th, starting 08:00 PM, the public is welcomed at Gaep Gallery in Bucharest.
- Hulda Rós Gudnadóttir had solo exhibitions at Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Reykjavik Art Museum and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, among other institutions. She was awarded residency at International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York, in 2023 and Künstlerhaus Bethanien in 2018. Gudnadóttir received multiple awards, such as the 2019 Gudmundu Award and the 2016 Skjaldborg Award, and has been nominated to dozens of other international awards.
- Ocean Glory (2019, 25 minutes) tackles an environmental-related topic and was commissioned by Antonia Alampi, then artistic director of Savvy Contemporary in Berlin, for the program Invocations that was part of the exhibition The Long Term You Cannot Afford. On the Distribution of the Toxic.
- The screening is part of Mentoring and Production for Emerging Artists Program, implemented by Asociația Culturală Eastwards Prospectus, in partnership with Gaep Gallery in Bucharest and its international partner, i8 Gallery in Reykjavik, Iceland.
During its second year of implementation, Accelerator Program is undergoing its second stage – the exhibition Back to Where It All Began on view until May 13, which presents the artworks of the 10 emerging artists selected in the program last year. In addition to providing the artists with relevant knowhow from international mentors, resources for the production of new artworks and presentation opportunities in various spaces, Accelerator includes a series of cultural mediation activities, meant to connect audiences with contemporary art.
The screening of Ocean Glory, by Icelandic artist Hulda Rós Gudnadóttir, answers this objective of the project. The event will take place on May 6th, at Gaep Gallery in Bucharest, starting 20.00 hrs.
Ocean Glory is a video piece that was commissioned by Antonia Alampi, then artistic director of Savvy Contemporary in Berlin, for a program titled Invocations, that was part of the exhibition The Long Term You Cannot Afford. On the Distribution of the Toxic. The exhibition addressed environmental injustice through the lens of the toxic and the discrimination surrounding its production and circulation that are deeply rooted in historical structures. The Invocations program was held at Silent Green, a converted chapel.
Hulda Rós Gudnadóttir acts as a visual artist and a film director. Although her works are global in reference, they are always rooted in personal experience and benefit both from the artist being from Iceland and from her interlocal way of living.
Gudnadóttir’s art projects are based on immersive research, interdisciplinary collaborations and social engagement, as the artist follows the interconnectedness of current philosophical ideas, social systems and our perception of the environment. The projects manifest themselves to the public as poetic yet humorous, experimental and critical creative documentaries and large mixed-media installations or more spontaneous single-channel videos, performances, interventions, sculptures and digital photography.
Ocean Glory is one such single-channel video and an iteration in a series of works born out of the artist’s current long-term research project, titled S-I-L-I-C-A. Through various artistic mediums, Gudnadóttir traces the global manufacturing process of semiconductors for solar cells that takes place on three different continents through mining, extraction, monoculture plantation, burning of coal, drilling for energy, creation and release of carbon dioxide, and fossil-fuelled shipping.
Ocean Glory is an iteration created from research clips and experimental trials. Although she has not yet started to show much from this new research project, the artist did participate in a group exhibition at the Nordic Embassies in Berlin, with large-scale billboards printed from images from the project research archive in 2020, and held a solo exhibition with large-framed digital C-prints from the research archive at Scharaun Berlin in 2021.
Currently, Gudnadóttir has been awarded residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York City with the project and is developing a feature-length film and a multi-channel installation with the support of the Icelandic Film Fund and Icelandic Art Fund. The release is intended for 2024/25. The next solo exhibition with new work from the S-I-L-I-C-A project is planned to take place at Gallery Gudmundsdottir in Berlin in 2023.
Bio
Hulda Rós Gudnadóttir (b. 1973) lives and works in Berlin but keeps one foot on the ground in Reykjavik. Major solo shows include exhibitions at Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Reykjavik Art Museum and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, among many others. Gudnadóttir was awarded residency at International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York, in 2023 and Künstlerhaus Bethanien in 2018. The artist received the 2019 Gudmundu Award, the 2016 Skjaldborg Award, the 2009 DV Culture Award, and in 2008 the Penninn Award, the Edda, Icelandic Academy Award, the Reykjavik Short and Docs Award and the Skjaldborg Award. She has been nominated to dozens of other international awards.
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Amidst May 2023, Acceleration will present another screening at Gaep Gallery, this time by the Icelandic artist Bjarni Þór Pétursson.
The following stage of Accelerator. Mentoring and Production for Emerging Artists programme is public art, estimated to start in summer.
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Accelerator began on October 1, 2021, and will be rolled-out for 24 months, until September 30, 2023. The programme budget is 1,069,301.00 LEI (216,707.74 EUR) for its entire duration. The non-refundable value of the financing (85% EEA Grants and 15% national budget) is 962,370.90 de lei (195,036.97 euro).
Accelerator is financed with the support of EEA Grants 2014-2021 within the RO CULTURA Programme and is implemented by Asociația Culturală Eastwards Prospectus.
e production process. They will have the opportunity to show their work in the group exhibition that will be organised by Gaep Gallery. The exhibition will take place at the beginning of 2023.
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The EEA Grants represent the contribution of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway towards the reduction of economic and social disparities in Europe and towards strengthening the bilateral relations between the donor countries and the 15 EU countries in Central and Southern Europe and the Baltics. The three donor countries cooperate closely with the EU through the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA). The donors have provided €3.3 billion through consecutive grant schemes between 1994 and 2014. For the period 2014-2021, the EEA Grants amount to €1.55 billion. More information is available on www.eeagrants.org and www.eeagrants.ro.
RO-CULTURE Programme is implemented in Romania by the Ministry of Culture through the Project Management Unit. The Programme aims at strengthening social and economic development through cultural cooperation, cultural entrepreneurship and cultural heritage management. The total budget amounts to almost 34 million EUR. For more details access: www.ro-cultura.ro.
About ACEP
Asociația Culturală Eastwards Prospectus promotes contemporary art at national and international level through exhibitions, cultural and educational projects conducted in partnership with key cultural institutions. Since it was launched, 7 years ago, ACEP received financing for the production of artworks; organised over 30 online and offline shows; supported an artistic intervention in public space of artist Tania Mouraud, held simultaneously in 9 cities; supported the participation of artists in national and international art fairs and developed projects for children and for the employees in corporations, interested in contemporary art.