Artistic Research in
Lecture
Guest: Ștefan Rusu
Ştefan Rusu (born in 1964, Câietu, Moldova), currently based in Islamabad, Pakistan. His artistic/curatorial agenda is geared towards the social and political changes in post-socialist societies after 1989. Beginning with 2000 he was involved in the development of KSAK – Center for Contemporary Art, Chisinau where he produced curatorial projects and art initiatives and following the years 2005-06 completed Curatorial Training Program at Stichting De Appel in Amsterdam, where he co-curated “Mercury in Retrograde”. He is the curator of projects and editor of publications: Spaces on the Run (2015), Chisinau-Art, Research in the Public Sphere (2011). Stefan is a member of IN SITU – European platform for Artistic Creation on Public Space.
Workshop
Reimagining Public Space
Ștefan Rusu in collaboration with Dan Acostioaei and Andrei Timofte
The workshop will be focused on techniques of re-appropriation of public space through contemporary art and social practice. In this format we will explore curatorial strategies and art practices from nearer and more distant contexts, such as Republic of Moldova and Tajikistan (Central Asia). The participants will learn about the practices of researching, mapping, re-imagining public spaces in given context, challenging the hegemonic narratives, consumerist and private interests in constantly evolving urban landscape. Resulting project or an artwork can not only be limited to its aesthetic dimension, but can also serve as a trigger of social engagement.
Dan Acostioaei is teaching at “George Enescu” University of Arts, Iaşi. His artworks often focus on ideological models of Romanian society in transition and on ideological borders between economy and the conditions of artistic production in Eastern Europe. His artistic projects were shown in exhibitions such as ”In times of Hopes and Unrest”, MNAC Bucharest (2015), “Laughter and Forgetting”, Bucharest Art Week, Bucharest (2015); ”Few Were Happy with their Condition: Video and Photography in Romania”, Motorenhalle, Dresda, Germania (2015); “Between Democracies 1989-2014 – Remembering, narrating and reimagining the past in Eastern & Central Europe and South Africa”, Johannesburg, Constitution Hill, South Africa (2015); ”MPRA The School of Kyiv”, Kiev Biennial (2015), ”One Sixth of the Earth – Ecologies of Image”, MUSAC, Leon (2012), ”Transitland: Videoart in Central and Eastern Europe 1989-2009”, Reina Sofia, Madrid (2010), ”Illuminations”, Level 2 Gallery, Tate Modern, Londra (2007).
Andrei Timofte lives and works as an artist, designer and teaching asistant in Iasi, Romania. Recently he participated at The Exotic Plants exhibition (July-September 2020). In 2019 he exhibited „ARTIST, CUMPĂR APARTAMENT ÎN ACEST BLOC!” (ARTIST, I BUY AN APARTMENT IN THIS BLOCK!), part of „Culture Class” project, and „PERETELE DE CALCIU AL UNUI MIC-BURGHEZ”/ THE CEMENT PLASTER FINISH WALL OF A PETIT BOURGEOIS, part of „Narațiuni Concurente” project, which were both curated by Florin Bobu and Livia Pancu, and organized by 1+1 association and tranzit.ro/ Iași. In 2020 he participated in the Electroputere Air 2020 residency program, organized by Electroputere Craiova Gallery. In 2017 he participated together with the writer Ovid Pop in the Artist-in-Residence residency program Q21 organized by MuseumsQuartier (Vienna, Austria), with a scholarship supported by tranzit.org.