Sunday, June 25, 2023, noon time (12.00 PM), on the website www.institutuljocului.ro
During June – September 2023, communities in Bucharest, Timișoara, Constanța, Cluj-Napoca, Pitești and Oltenița are invited to engage in interactive installations presented in their own cities.
- Public art is the last stage of Mentoring and Production for Emerging Artists programme that has been rolled-out from the beginning of 2022, for almost 2 years.
- 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.
- The project is financed with the support of EEA Grants 2014-2021 within the RO CULTURA
Asociația Culturală Eastwards Prospectus (ACEP) announces the start of the public art projects which are part of Accelerator, that will be rolled-out country-wide during the months of June-September 2023 in Bucharest, Timișoara, Constanța, Cluj-Napoca, Pitești and Oltenița.
The artists who will produce public art projects are Andrei Arion, Roberta Curcă, Lucia Ghegu, Alina Ion, Maria Mandea, Delia A. Prodan, Stanca Soare and Ana Maria Szöllösi.
The Romanian public is invited to take part in the first activation, which will be held online, on Sunday, June 25, noon time (12.00 PM). Proposed by artist Maria Mandea, the virtual public space intervention marks the launch of the Public Games Library and will take place on the website www.institutuljocului.ro.
The Public Games Library is a collection of games that can be drawn and played in public space by anyone. The games are accessible online on Institutul Jocului website, along with rules and installation instructions. Players can choose a game to play or propose a new one, developing the library. Through play, public space becomes play space, living space, poetic space, active space.
Once the library is launched, on 25 June, all the games become public.
The following step is to develop a network of playgrounds (public spaces in the city) where library games can be played.
Within Accelerator framework, the on-site game is planned for the end of August and will be played on a public space in front of Gloria cinema theatre in Titan neighbourhood of Bucharest.
„Art in the public space is a challenge for us, a leap into the unknown, because it is a virgin field in Romania. That is why we are privileged to have the opportunity to present Accelerator projects at a national level, in several cities and communities in Romania. The artists produced context-specific artworks, relying on the investigative study of communities, while having the opportunity to expand their practices and approaches. We are ready to meet, with an open heart, the communities and we look forward to how people will respond to a something new, which I can even call a pioneering approach on contemporary art.” – states Andrei Breahnă, cultural manager and Accelerator project manager
Maria Mandea is an artist whose messages are strongly rooted in community issues. In the exhibition Back to Where It All Began, the artist proposed a manifesto-type artwork, Restitutio in integrum, a playful installation based on the real case of the IOR park in Bucharest, part of which became private property following the post-1989 retrocession process. In the exhibition, players claim the park by planting lollipop trees, which they received at the entrance to the exhibition.
Anchoring artists in the community and activating areas of cities are important to increase visibility and draw attention to issues or ways to improve features that artists have observed over time. At the same time, through these projects, we can observe ways of working and an extension of the practices of the artists involved in Accelerator project. The public art projects submitted by the artists are both individual, as well as group projects.
About the public art projects to come
Andrei Arion, Delia A. Prodan will create a series of metal and terrazzo grills, located in Bucharest areas, where various road repairs are taking place. Thoughtful, seemingly mundane objects would activate such places – where craters and mud persist, simultaneously being a practical, palpable shoe-cleaning tool and a commentary on failing city infrastructures and their impact on citizens.
Alina Ion, Treads of Solitude. Sound piece that will contain some “instructions” or clues to directions (left, right) and some general landmarks, such as “when you see the first tree, turn right”, “when you reach the second block, turn around”, etc. The parameters for the soundtrack follow a short journey in the artist’s hometown, Oltenița.
Roberta Curcă, Lucia Ghegu, Stanca Soare, Ana Maria Szöllösi, with the contribution of Maria Mandea, Full of Merit, yet Poetical / Self-destructive Traces. The proposal is a performance in the following Romanian cities: Timișoara, Cluj-Napoca, Pitești și București. The work consists in a ball made from chalk that will be rolled around the city by an artist until it disintegrates.
Lucia Ghegu, On the Same Line. The work consists in an installation of paper kites, tied to a wooden frame, placed in squares or pedestrian streets. Passers-by are invited to take a kite and fly it. The work will be installed in Constanța.
Stanca Soare, Joint Lines. Inspired by a French initiative called “Pianos in Stations”, which made pianos available to the general public in unsafe trains, the project is a weaving station. Placed in Cluj-Napoca train station, “Joint Lines” envisions art as a healing tool for indeterminate populations of travelers and homeless people and the spaces they pass through.
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Financed with the support of EEA Grants 2014-2021 within the RO CULTURA Programme and implemented by Asociația Culturală Eastwards Prospectus, in partnership with Gaep Gallery in Bucharest and i8 Gallery in Reykjavik, Iceland, Accelerator is the first and the most complex program for emerging artists who proposes a strategic approach on their artistic careers.
Accelerator covers 3 dimensions: know-how and expertise by national and international contemporary art professionals, that was provided in last year’s mentorship stage, resources for producing new artworks and presentation opportunities. The Exhibition at Gaep, doubled by the online viewing room was the first said space. The other ones are the public art projects we are starting now in București, Timișoara, Constanța, Cluj-Napoca, Pitești and Oltenița.
Founded over 7 ago, Asociația Culturală Eastwards Prospectus (ACEP), aims, through Accelerator, to support emerging artists in the development of their career path by offering them learning opportunities inspired from international education approaches and practices. In addition, ACEP aims to deepen its efforts of training and developing new audiences by the means of activities organised in Bucharest and country-wide, both online and offline. If the public takes part in them, it will get to understand and connect to contemporary art. Thus, art contributes to individual and collective progress – fulfilling its well-known role from older ages – to foster the evolution of the society.
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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.