Teach Me Pet Me at tranzit.ro/ Iasi
You are invited on Thursday, October 11, 2012, 15:00h at tranzit.ro/ Iaşi, IASITEX building, 7th floor, B-dul Primăverii no. 2, Iaşi for a double event: the opening of the exhibition “Teach Me Pet Me” and the first tranzit.org presentation in Romania since the launch of tranzit.ro. “Teach Me Pet Me” gathers practices and people in an attempt to state that political thought mysteriously lies on the grounds of the small gesture.
The exhibition presents videos, installations, paintings and photography by Andrea Faciu (DE/RO), Rachel Koolen (NL), Nono Pessoa (BE), George Doroş (RO) and Eleni Kamma (CY/GR). All these people share an interest in observing and describing speech and gestures, their syntax or the lack of it. However, the exhibition can also be seen as a subjective configuration of interests and individuals.
The programme of the day is as follows:
- 15:00h – press-conference;
- 15:30h – discussion about the institutional model of tranzit.org, with: Vít Havránek (tranzit.cz), Dora Hegyi (tranzit.hu), Livia Pancu, Attila Tordai, Raluca Voinea (tranzit.ro) and Christine Böhler (Director of Programme Culture, ERSTE Foundation and member of tranzit.org Board of Directors);
- 16:45h – screening of Eleni Kamma’s The Tuner’s Monologue, 2012, video, 13:09 minutes;
- 17:05h – presentation by Andrea Faciu;
- 17:50h – presentation by Nono Pessoa;
- 18:10h – presentation by Rachel Koolen: “3 Hour Flaneur in Iasi”;
- 19:00h – opening of the exhibition.
tranzit.ro was founded in 2012 at the initiative of ERSTE Foundation, becoming thus the fifth member of tranzit.org, a network of independent, non-profit organisations in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the Slovak Republic. tranzit.ro has the particularity of being itself a network, activating in three permanent spaces in the cities of Iasi, Cluj and Bucharest. Through a wide range of activities, experimenting different methodologies of working and collaborating, tranzit.ro aims at establishing itself as an innovative platform dedicated to contemporary art. In a time of crisis, when cultural institutions and programs either disappear or are seriously weakened by lack of funding or political instrumentalization, the existence of such a platform is vital in Romania, that can offer financial support, physical space and curatorial knowledge.
tranzit.org was founded in 2002, and since 2010 ERSTE Foundation has become its main partner. tranzit has been developing artistic and cultural activities with a critical approach, fostering a permanent dialectic between local and global culture.
More details on the exhibition:
Nono Pessoa’s oil paintings Richterruis B (Richternoise B) (2007) and Teach Me Pet Me (2009) display an elaborate and intricate working process. However, by continuously quoting and emptying the gesture of intention and emotion, Nono Pessoa apparently gives up on the syntax of painting and along that on the only chance of speech. Previous actions, directions, associations, moves and / or signs remain there to suggest their own subsequent disappearance.
Based on an intimate family photograph from 1974, Andrea Faciu’s Human Flag (2008-2012) will be presented in Iasi as an outdoor print on the main façade of the IASITEX office-building where tranzit.ro/ Iasi is currently located. “Human Flag for the daydreamers & against the wool over your eyes” is one out of the four statements to be seen, read and reflected on by the daily walkers passing by the building. One can also find on display the installation Subjugation of the Misunderstood Forms (2012) and a series of photographs, Ear to Disappear (2012) and the sound installation We we (2012), both works presented for the first time.
Rachel Koolen’s Speech Acts (2011) – a video piece and a sound piece – will be displayed in Iasi along with other, more sculptural work, such as The Dummy. The audiences in Iasi have also the opportunity to assist and participate to a more complex presentation of her artistic practice with 3 Hours Flaneur in Iasi. Apparently posing as a collector of facts, acts, surfaces and textures she creates subjects that inhabit and struggle into a world seemingly driven by the media and market logic.
In Eleni Kamma’s work P like Politics, P like Parrots the amateur choir of the parish of Bräcke in Jämtland, Sweden was asked to participate in a collaborative reading experiment of a two-page text. The composition of the text shifts between the famous hand game, Paper-Rock-Scissors, and P-words chosen randomly from a 2003 speech by George Bush. The Tuner’s Monologue video presents a monologue in which a tuner of musical instruments describes aspects of his profession, superimposed to B&W film footage of architectural facades of buildings under construction in the “new heart” of Rotterdam.
George Doroş’ video Oţelul Galaţi, Campioana României/ Oţelul Galaţi, the champion of Romania presents an immense joy emerging on the streets of the city of Galaţi. The football national championship is one of the most popular sport events across the country, therefore, the precise moment when a team is winning the championship for the first time becomes unique – a moment of active contemplation. This moment of victory, when the energy of one stadium can emerge only by collective emotion will furthermore be increased by the expectation of a possible failure.
“Teach Me Pet Me” can be seen at tranzit.ro/ Iasi until the 25th of November 2012. To program a visit write to Livia Pancu at livia.pancu@tranzit.org.
Press contact: office.ro@tranzit.org
