PAVILION UNICREDIT
presents 100 ROMANIAN MINUTES
Joi, 29 Octombrie 2009, 19.00
PROIECTII urmate de o sesiune de Q&A cu Andrei Craciun.
Curator: Andrei Craciun
Artists: Stefan Constantinescu, Teodor Graur, Ion Grigorescu, Ciprian Homorodean, Sebastian Moldovan, Corneliu Porumboiu
Romania, the complex of European Romanians and the pride of Romanian Europeans, continues to place itself in the East, incapable of escaping the East-West hierarchy, curse of the Balkans- a linguistic invention adopted much too easily. The way of relating to the local, national, European, global reference points suggests the way we relate to our own nationality, excited by an unconscious nationalism, flat and auto-destructive or tired of our own history and willing to deny it, paralyzed by the incapability of action.
Romanians assume the status of ideological victim of circumstances, reliving the traumas of communism, under the shelter of capitalism. It seems that democracy was too expensive for us to afford the luxury of delving into it; instead we afford the liberty of not getting involved, the liberty of not contributing, and the liberty of not choosing. We establish parties and we suppress the civil society. We dispose of responsibility and we invoke the right to suffer.
Self-criticism and auto-irony are the instruments of the Romanian artist, the result being the self-criticism and auto-irony of society. The artist underlines, draws attention and makes room for inquiries. We become immigrants. Their immigrants, of those that we wanted to be. Romanians seem to want to be themselves, a sort of artificial transposition into something that we don’t understand. The immigrant is the one that suffers. We go everywhere and it seems that everything slips away. We live suspended in an absurd temporality, but on a safe ground.
The contemporary Romanian artist seems touched by the melancholy and fatalism of trying to justify the past through the analysis of rethinking it, trying to question its authenticity, authority and validity. No matter if these artists are actors in famous movies, immigrants in the battle with the “other”, hidden participants in the destruction of a status quo, no matter if they mock reality or get involved in the emotion of the present, they all want to contribute to the new history. (Extras from 100 Romanian Minutes publication).
Andrei Craciun (b. 1988) is a curator and theoretician, studying architecture at University of Architecture and Urbanism « Ion Mincu », Bucharest. His research and curatorial practice is focused on the relations between architecture, politics and the social sphere. Consequently, he is interested in areas linked to activism, gender, as well as participative architecture. Currently he is working on his new curatorial projects « Utopia of Exotic » and « Destroying Public Harmony ». Since 2008 he is the coordinator of PAVILION UNICREDIT – center for contemporary art & culture and he was appointed as assistant curator for BUCHAREST BIENNALE 2010. Living and working in Bucharest.
100 Romanian Minutes will be screened on December 08, in Cluj, University of Art, Casa Matei Corvin.
100 MINUTES is a long term project initiated by Razvan Ion & Eugen Radescu.
Image: Ciprian Homorodean, videostill from “I am Luke Skywalker” (short version), video, color, 9’00’’, 2006. Courtesy of the artist.
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PAVILION UNICREDIT
center for contemporary art & culture
Sos. Nicolae Titulescu 1 (Piata Victoriei)
Bucharest 011131 Romania
T: + 4 031 103 4131
E: pavilion@pavilionmagazine.org
http://www.pavilionunicredit.ro
Dans le cadre du projet 
Musées : exclusions et solidarités 
BANLIEUES D'EUROP'EST 