Start – Friday, July 14, 2023, at 18.00 PM, at 16 Iulian Grozescu Street in Timișoara, the studio where the artwork has been recently produced.
- This artwork is part of the public art stage of Mentoring and Production for Emerging Artists programme which includes 6 artworks produced individually or in groups by the emerging artists selected last year.
- Previous stages: mentoring and the exhibition Back to Where It All Began which was on view at Gaep Gallery between February and May, 2023. The exhibition is now available online. Art in Public Space is the final stage of Accelerator programme, which will end at the end of September.
- The project is financed with the support of EEA Grants 2014-2021 within the RO CULTURA
The people of Timisoara are invited, on Friday, July 14, 2023, at 18.00 PM, to join the artist Ana Maria Szöllösi in the performance of the artwork “Full of Merit, Yet Poetical / Self-Destructive Traces”. The performance consists of a chalk ball that will be rolled around the city by the artist until it disintegrates. The trace of the performance remains as an ephemeral artwork that was influenced by the context and conditions of the path and serves as a silent witness of the ways in which we inhabit public spaces.
The route will start at the address of the studio where the work was produced, 16 Iulian Grozescu Street, then the artist will run the ball on 3-5 Peneș Curcanul Street, following the Bega River towards the city centre.
Ana Maria Szöllösi: „The intervention will be performed in the public space by using a chalk ball in an ordinary everyday route can bring a playful and unexpected element to the monotonous urban landscape. By creating temporary markings on sidewalks or other public surfaces, I will express observations or thoughts I have when reproducing routes to or from the studio, routes that often feed me with inspiration or reflection on my artistic practice. I am excited by the idea of intervening in public space in a new and ephemeral way. It will bring a new and exciting perspective to the urban environment, transforming it into a setting for expression and interaction with others.”
“Full of Merit, Yet Poetical / Self-Destructive Traces” is probably the most telling proof that Accelerator succeeded in creating a group of artists with shared interests, as it represents a direct collaboration between artists Roberta Curcă, Lucia Ghegu, Stanca Soare and Ana Maria Szöllösi, with the significant contribution of Maria Mandea. Timișoara is the first city where the performance will take place. It will be followed by Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, and Pitești.
Ana Maria Szöllösi lives and works in Timișoara, where she graduated from the Faculty of Arts and Design in 2018 and studied with a scholarship at Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. In her artistic practice, she identifies mainly with painting, but also analogue photography, being interested in the criss cross of these two mediums. In her compositions, she uses symbols which are offering clues about the ideas explored. This particular way of conceptualizing spaces and symbols through painting, works as a means of access between a personal plan and a way of observing her surroundings.
The 6 art projects in public space are coagulated in the concept “The Artist, the Work and Everyone Who Comes to It” created by Tevž Logar, curator of the exhibition Back to Where It All Began at Gaep gallery.
The title of the project comes directly from a quote by the American artist Allan Kaprow, an instrumental figure in establishing performance and action concepts in the 1950s and 1960s. His idea of blurring the boundaries between art and life led to conceptually precise, site-specific and timed works, obviously random but very carefully choreographed activities that required the participation of both the audience and the performers in order to complete the work of art.
Schedule of other artworks in public space
Cluj-Napoca, September 11-17, Stanca Soare & Larisa Petcuț, Joint Lines
Bucharest, September 5 (on-site), Maria Mandea, The Library for Public Games
Pitești, September 7, Stanca Soare, Full of Merit, yet Poetical / Self-destructive Traces
Oltenița, September 3, Alina Ion, Treads of Solitude
Cluj-Napoca, August 25, Lucia Ghegu, Full of Merit, yet Poetical / Self-destructive Traces
Bucharest, August 17, Andrei Arion and Delia A. Prodan, Lose a Step
Bucharest, August 5, Roberta Curcă, Full of Merit, yet Poetical / Self-destructive Traces
Constanta, July 28-30, Lucia Ghegu, On the Same Line
Timișoara, July 15, Ana Maria Szöllösi, Full of Merit, yet Poetical / Self-destructive Traces
Bucharest, 25 June (online), Maria Mandea, The Library for Public Games