BIOGRAPHY

PROJECTS

Absent without leave
 
If absent without leave refers to someone who has deserted his/her post without permission, the person being somewhere else, with thoughts and needs beyond and in opposition to the central point, the institution, then we ask ourselves if this Bucharest Biannual of the Young Artists can function as something institutional, taking into account that this year has its second edition. But beyond this appreciation, an institution means a space as well and this biannual has a dedicated space, a former palace that we, the audience enter. Moreover, the building itself compiles the space that is divided in smaller spaces, the rooms which host the works. How are we supposed to behave in terms of absent without leave towards this space/institution?!
Are we turning into absents without leave towards the institutionalized biannual the moment we see the art works which try to investigate and create alternative spaces? Or do we belong to the space/institution when we are drawn in by the artistic projects which confront us with critiques of social and political?
Most of the projects deal with spaces commenting their effect on us, on our reactions or non reactions with regards to them. And looking at the works one discovers that the artists function as a barometer of the world around us and for them there is no legal border or limitation. Do actually the people of Bucharest saw the air conditioned machine masked and placed on the Kretzulescu church? Do we really think of or pay attention to the unevenness of the leveling, if there is one every time we step on the sidewalk or on the streets? No, we do not, our thoughts are somewhere else.
For example, the projects of Mona Vatamanu/Florin Tudor, of Per Hunter and of Ioana Marinescu and Robert Fearns play with the idea of the city space which for them has no limitation and no borders, not only from the geographical point of view but from the transforming sense as well. “I erase everything and the history begins with me” is the line in Ioana Marinescu and Robert Fearns video on a lost world replaced now with the House of the People. And indeed, those who lived there before, or who had houses in the actual perimeter of that institution, are AWOL whenever they face it or pass by it. 
With reference to institutions… do we really respect them are we identifying with them? As a simple example: how many times didn’t we spot ourselves thinking of something else while watching a theater play? Were we AWOL in those moments and not part of the institution since theater is an institution? Some of the artists in the biannual juxtapose artists and audience in constructed spaces rising thus emotions or feelings, turning the visitor/public in non-AWOL, making him/her react. This is the case of Marcus Coates who arranged, transformed a simple room/space in a theater like institution with a stage and curtains. There, the artist, weirdly outfitted engages emotionally, on different levels, his audience. Seeing this experiment I asked myself, do we need stunning or abnormal situations in order to engage emotionally with a situation?
With reference to institutions and norms, this time on a political and social side… Are we individuals in groups and do we look alike from a norm point of view? Ciprian Muresan present us a series of drawings with kids dressed up alike, part of the communist Pioneers group, inhaling narcotics from plastic bags. The grouping was a norm imposed, children having no choice of accepting or refusing the adherence. The artist registers and presents in his drawing the evolution of an alignment concept that almost labels Bucharest.  Another labeling concept is the separation of East and West, especially thorough a simple visa which marks borders, labels a group of people: those from the East. However every time we get the visa on the passport that simple paper underlines our individuality, since it is stacked on somebody’s passport. The “Visas” project remembered me of individuality and grouping in the same time.
And finally about art and creation in the spirit of AWOL with regards to my feelings, my beliefs and my sensations. As I walked in the space of the biannual, I saw the “Reminiscences” project and it all those portraits popped up in my mind the art of the Renaissance portrait. It linked me to the space, to the art it brought me back into the artistic concept and creation. I was not AWOL anymore in the space of the Bucharest Biannual of the Young Artists.

BIBLIOGRAPHY