Observator
Group exhibition: November 9, 2024 - January 31, 2025
Public presentation and public reading:
Saturday, November 9, 5 p.m. / Sf. Atanasie Street no. 25, Iași (tranzit.ro/ Iași)
Exhibition opening:
Saturday, November 9, 7 p.m. / Sf. Atanasie Street no. 25, Iași (tranzit.ro/ Iași)
On November 9, the Observator group exhibition opens in Iași, organized in the frame of the cultural project with the same name. The exibition presents contributions by Astronomical Observatory in Bârlad & Ciprian Vîntdevară (RO), Mona Vătămanu & Florin Tudor (RO), Andreea Cioară (RO), Edi Constantin (RO), Nebojsa Milikic (SRB), Ana Maria Micu (RO), Mălina Moncea (RO), Andrei Nacu (RO/UK), Tudor Pătrașcu (RO), Maxim Polyakov & DRUJBA (MD), s.a.b.a. Silvia Amancei & Bogdan Armanu (RO), Kristin Wenzel (DE/RO), Ovidiu Țichindeleanu (RO/DK). The group exhibition is curated by Florin Bobu & Delia Bulgaru and can be visited until the end of January 2025.
"Inspired by the astronomical discoveries at the Bârlad Astronomical Observatory starting with 2015, the project OBSERVATOR maps representations of the universe in contemporary art that seem to respond to old and persistent social needs for strongly integrative visions, capable of describing the complexity and the contingency of world phenomena without excluding any views or positions. In the natural sciences, in art or philosophy, the image of the universe continues to function as a catalyst for subjectivization processes that have contributed to the emergence of unifying concepts and narratives that define the political project of modernity. Asking questions such as "who is observing?", "how and why is one observing?", "how do images function from a social and political point of view?" or "what is the relationship between image production and production in general?", the project questions the responsibility of intellectuals as well as the social perceptions of their role in articulating these narratives. Taking place in Iasi and Barlad, the transdisciplinary project includes conducting interviews, workshops, film screenings and exhibitions." (Florin Bobu)
On the same day, at 5 p.m. there we invite you for a public presentation and a public reading by Nebojsa Milikic (SRB), On Universalism - Consideration Of The Draft „Candlemas Law*“ On Culture For Peripheral Capitalist Countries / Despre Universalism - Examinarea proiectului „Candlemas Law*“ privind cultura în țările capitaliste periferice
“Given that ex-socialist peripheral capitalist states and societies willy-nilly went through periods of socialist development and capitalist transition, consideration of the law will primarily take into account key objective changes in economic, cultural and political opportunities, views and needs of both society as a whole and different professional, socially sensitive or vulnerable population groups. Furthermore, it will take into account the objective and subjective formats and capacities of conventions, institutions, organizations and all individual actors, producers, mediators and recipients of culture, and in relation to the past, achieved and desired levels of cultural policy and production.” (Nebojsa Milikić)
*CANDLEMAS CONSTITUTION - Relates to the Constitution of the Principality of Serbia known as the Sretenje Constitution (Candlemas Constitution), which was the first constitution of the Principality of Serbia, adopted in Kragujevac in 1835. Although enacted by the Grand National Assembly, the constitution was suspended after only 55 days under pressure from the Great Feudal Powers (Turkey, Russia and Austria).
Previously, two workshops were organized within the same project:
- how to think images politically?, workshop by Florin Bobu & Andrei Trager
October 26 - November 15 2024, online
In order to answer the question “how to think images politically?” we’ll avoid the expert’ views and address the task ourselves, in a collective and amateur attempt to see, think and act together. We will depart from Jean-Luc Godard’s famous articulation “The problem is not to make political films, but to make films politically” and we will watch a series of militant moving image productions that attempt to reflect critically on the experience of intellectuals that want to produce social and political change through their work. Over the course of several meetings we will talk and argue about how Marxism became a radical form of seeing reality, and the role that collective cinema played in it.
- 3rd Space Ship, workshop by Maxim Polyakov & DRUJBA
October 6-8 2024, 3rd space, Zemstvei Museum, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
"Cosmos is like a presentiment. If we look at History not as linearity, but as the Cosmos, then to which constellations will we direct our 3rd Space Ship? How will we make a decision if this is a collective action? We can move from point to point, from star to star, following the fascinations of each participant of the experiment. Or we can act by intuition, creating trajectories that are unexpected even for ourselves. In any case, the documentation of these wanderings can become a mapping of such space journey, which through postproduction and replication break into a wonderful black hole of immortality." (Maxim Polyakov)
More about the project here.
This group exhibition is part of the cultural project OBSERVATOR organized by Satelit Association (Iași) between August and November 2024. Main partner: tranzit.ro/ Iași, 1+1 (Iași). Partners: Oberliht Association, "Vasile Pârvan" Museum, GAP (Gazeta de Artă Politică). Project co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration. OBSERVATOR is a project co-financed by AFCN and does not necessarily represent the position of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the project results can be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.
ERSTE Foundation is main partner of tranzit.ro
Image: Tudor Pătrașcu, Untitled, (Home-made Cosmos), from the Walls, Breath, Words series, produced within the Virus Diary exhibition project initiated by Dan Perjovschi at White Cuib, 2020