Ionuţ Toma - En passant
Concept space and single-series furniture set for the COROD CHESS CLUB
Inauguration: Tuesday, 11 August 2015, 10:00 am
Corod Culture Club
Str. Ștefan cel Mare, Nr. 248
Corod Village, Galați County
tranzit.ro/ Iasi hereby announces the launch of young artist Ionuţ Toma, part of the first chess club opened in the rural environment in the region of Moldavia. Ionuţ Toma's new was commissioned and produced by tranzit.ro/ Iasi in partnership wit the Corod Chess Club, the 1+1 Association and the Town Hall of Corod, and has been running in the past eight months. From sketch to 3-D rendering, the project has materialised into a concept space, as well as into a single-series set of furniture designed by the artist with chess activities in mind – practice and competition – for the children from the local community.
The collaboration with Ionuț Toma was determined by his artistic practice that blends elements of design with an ideological choice of materials alongside with his passion for the game of chess, and the fact that last year he taught visual arts at a school near Iași, thus closely knowing the cultural situation in rural areas.
The Corod Chess Club is the first chess club opened in the rural area of the Galaţi county that is affiliated to the Romanian Chess Federation; it was founded in 2014 as a result of a project initiated by the artist Gheorghe Doroş: Simultan de Șah şi discuţie publică / Chess simultaneous display and public debate, organised on 1 September 2013 in the village of Corod by the 1+1 Association and tranzit.ro/ Iasi, in collaboration with the Town Hall of Corod.
tranzit.ro/ Iasi believes that the activity of the chess club and of George Doroş in the first year since its establishment has been exceptional; one outstanding achievement has been the development of a sustainable cooperation with the local authorities, materialised through a partnership with the Local Council and the Town Hall and with the free lease of a space for its medium- and long-term activities. The project has a remarkable cultural and important component, which goes beyond mere sports and playing chess. This component can be explored and developed from the point of view of contemporary art practices; this is the reason why tranzit.ro/ Iasi has decided to continue supporting the social and cultural efforts of the Corod Chess Club at local and regional level.
Ionut Toma's project has the potential of supporting the local efforts for the development of an infrastructure aimed at cultural initiatives meant for young people, and of actively contributing to the creation of a social and political environment that would encourage their development.
En passant (from French: in passing) is a move in chess.
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Ionuţ Toma has a master degree from the Mural Art Department at "George Enescu" University of Arts in Iaşi, Romania. He studied Interior Design within the Erasmus Programme at ESAD (Escola Superior de Artes e Design) Porto, Portugal.
He is interested in interior design, cheap alternatives for building, simple things and rational living.
Team: Florin Bobu, Delia Bulgaru, Livia Pancu, George Doros
Thanks: Marcel Oancă, Anca Stroiu, Iancu Huzum, Costel Tofoleanu, Marcel Cristea, Ioan Costin, Dumitru Lefter, Cornel Radu, Andrei Pripasu, Andrei Timofte, Lucian Ciocârlan
Curators: Florin Bobu & Livia Pancu
Main partner of the project: Corod Chess Club
Partners: Corod City Hall, Corod Local Council, 1+1 Association
The main partner of tranzit.ro is the ERSTE Foundation
