Welcome	Thank you for your interest in Bucharest Artists in Residence. Navigating onwards after ten years of exciting and diverse residencies, for 2021 Bucharest Air reframes its open call in collaboration with Quote—Unquote, a Bucharest-based international platform dedicated to (public) speech. Please read the information provided on this page carefully.
Background and Context	Contemporary Romania seems to be defined by a prolonged and seemingly permanent state of anxious and irrational transition between Nicolae Ceausescu's oppressive socialist regime and an imported, aggressive market Capitalism, which often appears to lack any moral guidelines or defined rules. This ongoing state of transition confronts politics, society, and citizenry with challenges at every step, rendering Romania a place of discovery proper, in which nothing is that which it seemed to be at a first glance. Romania's social, demographic, and economic divisions would place the country in between second and third world countries: large gaps between a relatively small, but financially powerful ruling class and the common citizen, huge differences in living standards between industry and commerce orientated cities and the rural, agriculture based countryside, as well as deeply rooted corruption and a lack of a practicable direct democracy, are only a few examples to name. Romania's adherence to the European Union contradicts the above, generating a specific kind of visualized internal conflict, between that which 'is' and that which is 'hoped for', rendering the country in this way a battlefield of contradictory actions, definitions, and directions. Due to its history and geographic location, Romania could be perceived as a melting pot of different European cultures and identities: with over 45 local dialects based on a mixture of Latin and Slavonic languages and minorities ranging from Russian speaking Lipoveni to a strong Hungarian, Turkish, German and Roma community, Romania is a strong example of the historical development of a truly multicultural society in an ongoing struggle for a viable identity. The context which Romania provides is both dynamic and generative. As such, the fields of the visual arts as well as those of performance, theatre, filmmaking and literature, are thriving as never before, being deeply embedded in, and actively engaged with, the social and political contexts. Numerous small project spaces usually managed by artists or curators, as well as a variety of artists' initiatives, curatorial or research based experiments, and collaborative projects, define the strong and generous pulse of the Romanian contemporary art scene.
Artists’ Profile: 2021 season in collaboration with Quote—Unquote	In the current social media landscape, where self-expression becomes a perpetual talent show, self-development mantras grant daily workplace affirmations and information is bent in the shape of post-truth, Quote—Unquote is an interdisciplinary platform that investigates the mechanisms, uses and effects of (public) speaking in contemporary society. By observing the educational and performative turns of the last few decades and the growing importance of the discursive act in the field of visual arts, the main focus of the platform revolves around various public speaking phenomena, the components of speech, such as voice, language, translation and the performativity of the speaking act. Through the lens of artistic practice, Quote—Unquote aims to explore the ramifications of (public) discourse and its capacity to heal, educate, manipulate or deceive, in an open dialogue that transcends disciplines. Speech is a point of intersection or tension between multiple nodes. In our quests, we’ve visited echo chambers, histrionic soap operas and melodrama, translating the untranslatable, the therapeutic capacities of the human voice, life coaches and the uses of corporate slang, political debates, mechanical and corporeal intricacies, free-form radio, arcane rituals and deconstructed TED talks, vlogging and ASMR, glossolalia and prosopopoeia, figures of speech, freedom of speech, hate speech and ghostwriting. All of these could be starting points for your potential residency research, but as the song says, nothing will stand in your way. Viewed in the light of the above mentioned context, the artist best suitable for a residency in Bucharest would be found in that segment of contemporary art mixed with other fields of activity which have contingencies with issues related to public speaking, discourse, layers of language and social analysis. Research and on-site investigation, dialogue and a will to enter social, cultural and artistic exchange on both an international level, as well as on a local one, a feel for context and a desire to work within a local scene or situation are therefore the prerequisites of a successful residency period in Bucharest.
Eligibility	The Residency can host and collaborate with artists and other practitioners working primarily with new media and internet, performance, research based work, video and moving image practice, voice based practice, lecture-performance, installation, site specific (public space) interventions and others, all relating to the layers, mechanisms, effects and politics of language and voice. Bucharest Air is further open to collaborations with curators, critics, writers, anthropologists, alongside experimental filmmakers. We highly encourage transdisciplinarity through collaboration with fields of activity other than the artists’, in a process of understanding the ramifications of public speech in arts, society, cultural and political movements, mass media and many other aspects. There are no age restrictions, and the Residency is open to all nationalities equally. Projects and proposals which take into consideration the specific context of Romania will have priority over more generalist approaches.
Residency Structure	Bucharest Air functions as a non-profit organization, run and managed by artist Tudor Bratu; in 2021, the residency is shaped as a collaboration between Bucharest Air and Quote—Unquote. Bucharest Air aims at generating and maintaining a high level platform for cultural exchange in Bucharest. Quote—Unquote is devised and developed by Infinite Conversation, an independent curatorial unit founded in Bucharest by Dan Angelescu, Irina Radu and Cristina Vasilescu. Quote—Unquote is in charge of all on-site residency related activities. These activities range from aiding and assisting residents in research, development, and production of work, to introducing and connecting residents to the Romanian art scene and to the city of Bucharest, as well as organizational activities related to the daily functioning of the Residency program. They are also engaged with the general further development of Bucharest Air, including the maintenance of the Residency network and content management. Tudor Bratu is in charge of fundraising and content-based exchanges with the residents. All four members of Bucharest Air participate in the selection procedure. Alumni of Bucharest Air are at times involved as advisers. Starting from 2012 and up until 2020, the residency's framework has been formulated together with artist duo Alice Gancevici & Remus Puscariu. Previous collaborations include artist Ioana Gheorghiu, between 2013-2015.
In Residency	Bucharest Air has developed a specific structure, which over time has become the customary way in which the residency collaborates with the resident artist throughout the duration of the residency. This general structure, which is outlined in the paragraph below, is subject to constant change and development, according to the specific needs of the resident. It is therefore by no means a fixed program, but one in constant development, to which the resident can contribute through specific questions and suggestions. Upon arrival in Bucharest, the resident is picked up at the airport or train station, and is brought to the residency location, where all practicalities concerning housing, transportation, telephone, internet, and location are thoroughly discussed. During the first week of the residency the resident is accompanied by the residency manager on a variety of trips through Bucharest, which have the aim of accustoming the resident to the city and its possibilities. After the first introductory week, the residency manager maintains regular contact with the resident, depending on particular and expressed needs: some residents prefer less contact, some prefer a closer working relationship, and these needs are always respected. Throughout the duration of the residency, the resident is invited to openings and events in Bucharest, and if so wished, also outside of Bucharest, during which the residency manager introduces the resident to the local art scene, different venues, colleague artists, curators, and critics. The residency manager also aids the resident in all aspects involved in the realization of specific projects. Generally, a residency period ends with a public event, be that an exhibition, lecture, presentation, screening, and so forth. During the residency, there are also possibilities to organize public events. Exhibitions are however not guaranteed in any way, and depend on the residents' ability to connect to the variety of art venues Bucharest has to offer. Results of previous residencies can be seen on the News page.
What we offer	Bucharest Air offers residents the chance to live and work for a period of up to three months in the city of Bucharest, as well as the chance to research, develop, or produce new works and projects, conceptually and practically aided by the Bucharest Air team. Concretely included in what Bucharest Air offers is housing, utilities and consumables, as well as human capital and cultural capital, a vast international network, and factual working hours in service of the resident, which includes aid in research, aid in realizing projects and in production, limited translations, access to the residencies network, and guidance into the Romanian art world. Bucharest Air choses the residency location considering availability and the resident artists' work or project-based necessities.
Costs	Bucharest Air functions as a non-profit organization. This means that all income generated by the residency is used in maintaining an operational residency organization and in covering the direct costs resulting from hosting and collaborating with residents. Bucharest Air does not offer sponsorship in monetary. Bucharest Air maintains two different residency fees: - For residents who do not benefit from third party sponsorship, such as patronage or institutional aid, the per month residency fee amounts to 900,-- Euro all inclusive. - For residents who do benefit from a third party sponsorship, as well as for institutions, the residency fee amounts to 1400,-- Euro per month all inclusive. Bucharest Air understands the necessity of maintain two different fees, in the following way: Operating and maintaining Bucharest Air as a fully functional residency program implies factual costs, which include on the one hand rent, maintenance, internet, telephone, utilities, etc., and on the other hand costs which are comprised of the working hours made by the team which operates Bucharest Air. Bucharest Air hopes to be able to host both funded, and not funded artists, since it is our belief that quality is not at all times rewarded through monetary income. However, in order to be able to maintain a feasible operation, Bucharest Air needs to cover expenses made, including part of the working hours involved in operating the residency. In the case of non-subsidized residents, Bucharest Air sponsors the resident artist with the working hours necessary for a successful residency. In such a case, the fee of 900,-- Euro per month, all inclusive, covers only the factual costs made. Bucharest Air does not sponsor institutions in similar ways, since institutions have budgets allocated which take into consideration the necessity of covering working hours as a standard of operational practices.
Sponsorship and Fundraising	Bucharest Air keeps an open door to all artists, writers, critics and filmmakers who manifest a genuine interest in being in residency in Bucharest. Understanding financial matters as being at times the barrier between being able or not being able to fulfill one's plans, Bucharest Air offers active aid in raising sponsorship. Sponsorship possibilities are discussed with applicants upon first contact after being accepted for the residency. All questions concerning finances, sponsorship, the residency fee, or related matters, can be directed to us through the form on the Contact page.
To Apply	Applications for a one-to-three months residency at Bucharest Air are announced on this website twice a year. Applications can only be sent in digitally. Bucharest Air accepts a maximum of five residents per year. Timely applications are appreciated. Applications in 2021 will be evaluated by Tudor Bratu (artist, RO/NL) and Quote—Unquote, on the basis of a portfolio, a CV and a project proposal. Alumni of Bucharest Air are invited to endorse applicants. Bucharest Air is open to visual artists, writers, curators, and theoreticians of all ages and backgrounds, who show a specific and genuine interest in a period of working and living in Romania. Applications are reviewed and answered within one month after reception. Under the Apply page future applicants can find exact information on the application procedure. Next application deadline – November 1, 2020, for the residency period between February – June 2021.
Practicalities	During the residency period, all residents must have valid health insurance. Travel insurance covering loss or theft of personal belongings is advised, but not compulsory.
Questions and Contact	All relevant questions concerning a residency period at Bucharest Air, can be addressed through the form on the Contact page and will be answered within a maximum of five working days.

12/04/2021/ Announcing the residency of French-Belgian artist Alicia Jeannin

Alicia Jeannin is a scenographer, visual and sound artist based in Brussels.

After studying at ESA in Grenoble and ENSAV La Cambre in Brussels, she joins the Advanced Master in Artistic Research at Sin-Lucas, Antwerpen.

Parallel to her collaborations in performing arts, she pursues her practice exploring language and orality. Her work usually takes the form of participative projects and sound installations, with a particular attention to the place and role of the audience.

Her current research project, to be developped during her two months in Bucharest, investigates the conditions and performativity of political expression in the public space.

Alicia Jeannin's residency is made possible through the kind support of CEREFREA Villa Noël and Délégation Wallonie-Bruxelles à Bucarest.

07/01/2020/ Documentation of Ilke Gers's "Snakes and Ladders"

Images by Dan Vezentan, courtesy of the artist

6/12/2019/ Announcing the residency of Paraguayan artist Giovanni Palmieri

Giovanni Palmieri is a multidisciplinary artist working with different media such as photography, film-making, installation, a.o. Giovanni was born and raised in Paraguay and is currently based in The Hague (Netherlands). In 2018 he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in photography from the Royal Academy of Art (KABK).

Palmieri is an artist who is not afraid to experiment and fail, as he believes that by “playing” around, his artistic practice remains in constant development. He likes to challenge himself with new adventures that could bring him multiple benefits. The themes of his work are often related to mythology, identity crisis and the capitalist system with its associated power hierarchies.

This residency is made possible through the kind support of the Dutch Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam, NL.

28/11/2019/ Ilke Gers - Snakes and Ladders

Opening Saturday 7 December 19.00 – 22.00
8-12 December, open by appointment
A5 Studio, Strada Piața Amzei 5, Bucharest

Snakes and Ladders references the vertical game of chance – an installation of ups and downs that can be physically entered.

The result of a three-month residency in Bucharest, the project draws together two strands of work; research into physical communication structures in public space, and two dimensional floor works that play with the crossovers between sports field markings and language shapes to resemble playable game surfaces.

The installation is based on the empty billboard structures found in public space, previously in Athens, and in Bucharest. Becoming carriers of information and communication in themselves, without having advertising messages displayed, these dormant structures are a constant reminder of economic turbulence and the conditions of predatory capitalism suffered from while transiting various political systems. Usually hovering over us to broadcast messages from building rooftops, in Bucharest these structures are also found in various forms and constellations on ground level, sometimes even in front gardens as a way to collect rent.

This proximity allows a physical relation to billboard structures, which, as well as their materiality and geometry are reminiscent of jungle-gym-like playgrounds. Playground structures, particularly those built after WWII, before safety regulations came into effect, have visual and technical similarities to billboard structures. They are similar in scale, geometry, and act as a kind of ‘support structure’ made out of steel, and in relation to the human body. Billboards are made to communicate, direct and control passive viewers however, while playgrounds invite interaction and invention. The simple playgrounds of Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck for example, are specifically built to engage children by opening up possibilities for imagining how they can be used, allowing games, situations and meanings to be made up rather than dictating certain types of movement and behaviour.

Mixing references and playing with the potentials of the overlaps in meanings of these structures, the colour palate of the installation is inspired by the pastels used for renovating former communist housing blocks in Bucharest. While applied with restraint, this aesthetic surface intervention nonetheless breaks the repetition of these standardised architectural forms in the city boulevards, opening up unexpected rhythms and playfulness.

For scheduling a visit during 8-12 December, please contact: ilksgers[at]hotmail.com

Partners: Bucharest AiR, A5 Studio, ART on display

Made possible with the support of the Mondriaan Fund – the public fund for visual art and cultural heritage in the Netherlands, and i-Portunus Creative Europe Programme

30/08/2019/ Documentation of Paul Bayoud's "Castings"

Images courtesy of the artist

9/07/2019/ Announcing the residency of New Zealand artist Ilke Gers

Ilke Gers works with installation, performance and publications. Her practice brings together the disciplines of design and physical training/movement, drawing on her background as a professional tennis player and training in graphic design.

Her process-based projects investigate the human body in designed systems. She makes interventions that bring into play the way our movement and behaviour is choreographed by the rules and conditions of our environments. Taking the form of physical games, open-scripted performances, and interventions in the instructional language imprinted in urban space, she experiments with how given structures can be re-imagined by generating a space for encounter and experience.

Recent work plays with the intersection of the structures and codes of the typographic form of language and sports fields markings, resulting in large scale language fields resembling playable game surfaces.

Along with this, she works on publishing projects that actively look at how publics are formed through design, circulation and distribution. Taking the form of interventions, these projects trace social and economic conditions that become visible through communication infrastructures. Publishing projects are often undertaken collaboratively as part of Action Publishing Collective, which also functions as a publishing imprint.

She studied at the Werkplaats Typografie, and was a researcher at the Jan van Eyck Academie from 2014-2015. Her work has been presented at De Appel, Amsterdam; 019, Ghent; Kunsthal Rotterdam; Beursschouwburg, Brussels; Biënnale Van België, Floraliënhal, Ghent; Gallery Joey Ramone, Rotterdam; De Fabriek, Eindhoven; D21 – Kunstraum, Leipzig and Kunstverein, Amsterdam.

Guest teaching, presentations and workshops given at KABK, Den Haag; Whitecliffe, Auckland; 019 Summer School, Ghent; Werkplaats Typografie, Arnhem; Queens College, New York; Artez University of the Arts, Arnhem; Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht and Split Fountain, Auckland.

For more info please visit www.ilkegers.info

This residency is made possible through the kind support of the Dutch Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam, NL.

10/06/2019/ Announcing the residency of French artist Paul Bayoud

Born in 1990, Paul Bayoud is a french artist and videomaker. He completed in 2014 a Master of Visual Art in the Saint Etienne UJM and in 2013 at the Unarte of Bucharest Romania. His work has been exhibited in several art spaces and residency studios including the 13th Contemporary Art Biennial of Lyon in 2015 and the Lugar a Dudas program in Cali, Colombia, in 2018.

For more info please visit paulbayoud.com/

20/01/2019/ Announcing the residency of Italian artist Emanuela Cristina Destefani

Emanuela Cristina Destefani (Milan, IT, 1994) works primarily with photography. Her projects are a reflection on the Japanese technique of Kintsugi (golden joinery) or Kintsukuroi – the repair of broken vases with gold. According to this technique, the world consists not only of integrity but also of rupture, and objects bearing marks of wear should be valued. In the same line of thought, scars of the body and soul should also be explored and exhibited, as they contain narratives of a person’s journey.

Made possible with the support of The Fondazione Fotografia Modena, www.fondazionefotografia.org/en

3/08/2018/ Announcing the residency of Austrian artist Johanna Arco

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of Austrian artist Johanna Arco, to take place between the 4th of September and the 4th of December, 2018.

Johanna Arco (1991, Austria) is an Amsterdam based artist who studied Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and received her master`s degree at the Sandberg Institute in the Netherlands.

Within her practice she researches the metaphysical differences between objects, animals and people. Her practice has developed around the question; how can the boundaries of the embodied Self be located, stretched or even exceeded? This physical and material research often culminates into sculpture/video installations, embedding personal experiments into a cultural context.

11/06/2018/ Announcing the residency of British artist Paul Purgas

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of British artist Paul Purgas, to take place between the 12th of June and the 23th of July, 2018.

Paul Purgas is a London based artist, musician and curator. Originally trained as an architect he works primarily within the fields of sound, performance and installation addressing themes relating to musical anthropology, sonic space, non-western belief systems and industrial production. He has presented projects with Wysing Arts Centre, Spike Island, Serpentine Gallery, Outpost and the De La Warr Pavilion and was formerly based at Arnolfini in Bristol. Alongside this he is one half of the London & Berlin based experimental music project Emptyset who have presented live performances with the David Roberts Art Foundation, Kunsthalle Zurich Unsound and commissioned projects with Transmediale, Tate Britain and the Architecture Foundation.

During his residency he will be researching the histories of interdisciplinary practice and experimental sound and media within the region as well as the archives of the former state-run record label Electrecord.

28/02/2018/ Announcing the residency of French artist Laëtitia Striffling

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of French artist Laëtitia Striffling, to take place between the 5th of March and the 30th of June, 2018.

Laëtitia Striffling was born in 1989 in Moulins, France. She holds a master in Photography and Video from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris. In 2010 she joined the Photography master department at the Helsinki Aalto University. Her artistic practice focuses on the question: what does “social” mean? How can a shared place be a platform of exchange rather than a standardizing framework?

During her months of residency, she plans to work with photography and videos showcasing the architecture of Bucharest. The city’s buildings have indeed been the repository of many different ideologies in a short period of time, and different superimposed strata are still visible. This creates a sensation of walking through some kind of “movie set” in perpetual reconstruction. While the “set” is being rebuilt, a certain organic organisation appears.

30/10/2017/ Update: Documentation of Catherine Ludwig's production "AGING ON STAGE - in Romania"

Images courtesy of the artist

27/08/2017/ "AGING ON STAGE - in Romania", work in progress by Catherine Ludwig

Documentation of Catherine Ludwig's video „Aging on stage - approaching game“.

The performance was filmed on the 26th of August in the Cișmigiu Garden, Bucharest. (Protagonists: Valentina, Lenzi, Titi).

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange the apples, each of us will still have an apple, but if you have an idea, and I have an idea, and we exchange ideas, each one of us will have two ideas." – George Bernard Shaw

Catherine Ludwig:
If we were willing to involve other hypotheses, we could give age a different meaning and develop alternatives in treatment.
I am concerned not only with establishing an understanding between the generations, but also within the modes of behavior of different cultures. Man is not a passive subordinate to nature, but has the responsibility to make it's destiny, active and self-determined within his possibilities.
The stitchings are do-commentaries of different living spaces of old people during their summer break on the water in Romania (Baile Herculane, The Black Sea).

During her residency Catherine Ludwig also started the project “SPRING - domestic nature”:
I am interested in the ambivalence of "violation" and "conditioning" or rather "refinement" of the domestic nature in fauna and flora and nature in general. In Bucharest there are a lot of different shapes of fountains, so i started to make a photo- & video-collection of the man-made water jets.

25/08/2017/ Announcing the residency of Italian artist Chiara De Maria

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of Italian artist Chiara De Maria, to take place between the 1st of September and the 1st of October, 2017.

Made possible with the support of The Fondazione Fotografia Modena, www.fondazionefotografia.org/en

11/08/2017/ Kristin Wenzel - Model for a Pavilion #2 – Documentation

Documentation of Kristin Wenzel's pop-up exhibition at the Green Hours Jazz-Cafe, which took place this midsummer in Bucharest.

Photo credits: Vlad Brăteanu

29/06/2017/ Sasha Herman - Bucharest A Journeyer's Guide

BUCHAREST A JOURNEYER'S GUIDE, a new perspective on the familiar. You are hereby invited to join Sasha Herman, as he travels through the city highlighting sights, spaces and observations he has explored during his time in Bucharest. Join the tourist leading the tour, come see places you have passed a thousand times through the eyes of a new comer and experience a journey you might usually take for granted.

Starting at Piața Mihail Kogălniceanu at 10 AM on Saturday 30th of July, this unique tour will use Bucharest's public transport network to make it's way around the city, stopping in places that have held special significance to the artist and his time spent in Bucharest. During the tour each of the participants is invited to tell a story, share an anecdote, comment or critique as they wish, these will form an essential part of the continuation of this project.

During the course of the day, food and drink will be provided. Each participant will also be issued with a badge and publication as a record of their participation in the project.

BUCHAREST A JOURNEYER'S GUIDE, will be a unique, once in a lifetime opportunity to take a physical, guided tour through the mind of an artist, and a great chance to join the artist in exploring the city from a subjective, original and direct point of view.

Sasha Herman is currently artist in residence at Bucharest AiR.
This residency is made possible through the kind support of the Dutch Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam, NL.

29/06/2017/ Kristin Wenzel - Model for a Pavilion #2

Model for a Pavilion #2
15th - 17th of July, 2017
Opening: 15th of July 2017, 8 PM
Green Hours, Calea Victoriei nr.120, Bucharest

Bucharest AiR warmly invites you to the opening of Kristin Wenzel’s ‘Model for a Pavilion #2’, a pop-up exhibition and site-specific intervention at the Green Hours terrace in Bucharest.

Kristin Wenzel adapts and transforms pre-existing structures and vacant spaces around the city through interventions that also open up new possibilities relating to what an exhibition can be and where this might occur.

Model for a Pavilion #2 is an abstraction of E.E. Cummings’ 'The house that ate mosquito pie', a play in which scales enter in a dialogue with each other.

Model for a Pavilion #2 continues a series of projects related to the public space, raising questions about the role architecture plays in influencing social change, as well as addressing architecture’s various instances and the ways in which these instances can shape our perception about space, scale, atmosphere, color and matter.

Kristin Wenzel is currently artist in residence at Bucharest AiR. During her stay, she has been engaging with the various historical and social layers that manifest themselves as an integral part of Bucharest’s identity.

Kristin Wenzel’s residency is made possible with the kind support of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations in Germany.

The exhibition can be visited during the opening hours of Green Hours, until Wednesday, July 19th.

Thanks to: Alice and Remus, Dan, Tudor, Voicu and Papelier Green Point

29/06/2017/ Helen Anna Flanagan - Box Set

A documentation* of Helen Anna Flanagan’s presentation of ‘Box Set’, a film produced during her stay at Bucharest AiR. Box Set was premiered at ODD** as part of “Charade: Video screening with Helen Anna Flanagan”, alongside previous works made by the artist:

Friday, 17’00 (Southend-on-Sea, UK)
The Split or a Yawning, 8’00 (Wittenberg, Germany)
The Dynamists, 11’00 (Hasselt, Belgium)
Box Set, 11’00 (Bucharest, Romania)

Helen Anna Flanagan’s residency in Bucharest was supported by the Dutch Mondriaan Fonds.

*Images courtesy of the artist.
**A special thanks goes to ODD for hosting this event.

05/05/2017/ Announcing 'Charade: video screening with Helen Anna Flanagan', 9th of May 2017, 20:00 at ODD

Box Set
Tuesday 9th April at ODD
Strada Șelari 13, Bucharest
8PM - 11PM

Helen Anna Flanagan, current artist in residence at Bucharest AiR, will present her new video ‘Box Set’ alongside three other video works.

The video screening will revolve around the phrase (best uttered in an obnoxious and irritating tone) “don’t hate the player, hate the game”. Such a tagline is used as a sort of bubblegum-pop binding agent to stick the four videos together, forming a series that explores, with varying degree, the inbuilt structures and social interactions of players and their games.

The residency of Helen Anna Flanagan at Bucharest AiR was made possible with the support of the Dutch Mondriaan Fonds.

This event is kindly hosted by ODD (for more information please visit www.oddweb.org).

15/04/2017/ Announcing the residency of German artist Kristin Wenzel

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of German artist Kristin Wenzel, to take place between the 1st of May and the 1st of August, 2017.

Kristin Wenzel (1983) is a visual artist, who lives and works in Düsseldorf and Leipzig (GER). Her work is mainly focused on sculpture and installation. She studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and graduated in 2013 as a Meisterschüler of Prof. Katharina Fritsch. From the 5th of May until the 1st of august she will stay with Bucharest Air through the kind support of the IFA Institut.

For more information please visit www.kristinwenzel.com

During her stay in Bucharest she is curating a group exhibition together with the gallery owner Dan Popescu with German and Romanian artists including works of Marius Bercea, Malte Bruns, Nicolae Comanescu, Birte Endrejat, Dumitru Gorzo, Franz Jyrch, Tanja Kodlin, Gili Mocanu, Alexandru Paul, Virginia Toma, Kristin Wenzel and Latefa Wiersch.

This project has been made possible through the kind support of the Goethe Institut Bucharest and the H`art Gallery.

04/04/2017/ Announcing the residency of British artist Sasha Herman

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of British artist Sasha Herman, to take place between the 15th of May and the 15th of August, 2017.

Sasha Herman is an artist living and working in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Having grown up in England, he moved to Amsterdam in 2012 and began his studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy.

Though Sasha was originally a painter, during his time at the Rietveld, he began to branch out. His work became much more conceptually orientated and he began experimenting with video, installation, graphic design and performance art. As his time at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy began to draw to a close, Sasha began to follow his fascination with animation, and the idea of in animate things coming to life through the medium of photography. After exploring this subject and creating a range of animated projects and works, Sasha Herman graduated in the summer of 2016 with his work Élan Vital, an animated film installation.

Élan Vital, was well received and featured in a number well publicized exhibitions, including Best of Graduates at the Ron Mandos Gallery Amsterdam, This Art Fair at the Beurs van Berlage and Vincent op Vrijdag at the Van Gogh Museum. The work was also well received critically, 'Sasha Herman stands out for his craftsmanship and originality' wrote Het Parool one of Amsterdam's leading newspapers.

Since graduating the Gerrit Rietveld Academy Sasha Herman has been continuing his exploration of the art of animation. During his stay at Bucharest Air he plans to create a series of works documenting his time in Romania through the medium which has captured his interest and fascination.

For more information, please visit sashaherman.nl

This residency is made possible through the kind support of the Dutch Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam, NL.

04/04/2017/ Announcing the residency of German artist Catherine Ludwig

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of German artist Catherine Ludwig, to take place between the 1st of August and the 1st of September, 2017.

Born 1976 in South Germany, Catherine Ludwig is an artist who lives and works in Vienna and Munich. She studied graphic design in Nürnberg and afterwards transmedia art at the University of applied Arts in Vienna. For her diploma, she got the price of the Kunsthalle Wien in 2006. Catherine Ludwig is a transmedia artist, transcending traditional barriers between individual media during the process as well as on the result.

She investigates time-related phenomena both with regard to their content - leisure activities of people belonging to different cultures and generations - from the beginning of mass tourism in the 1930s to nowadays, and to their form - accelerated and decelerated working processes. The core issue of her work is the critical analysis of periods of time as well as (free) space. Catherine Ludwig is represented by Gallery Reinthaler in Vienna.

For more information, please visit www.catherineludwig.com, Female Portraits: vimeo.com/20791064 and Luxus: Leuchten vimeo.com/131982667

This residency is made possible through the kind support of the Federal Chancellery of the Republic of Austria of art and culture.

21/02/2017/ Announcing the residency of British artist Helen Flanagan

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of British artist Helen Flanagan, to take place between the 1st of March and the 15th of May, 2017.

Born in the UK, Helen Flanagan (1988) is an artist who lives and works in Rotterdam. She graduated with a MA from AKV St Joost, Netherlands and a BA from Falmouth College of Arts, UK.

Observed human incidents often form the starting point for her work. She combines these real events with fictitious narratives to produce video, sound and installation. By constructing and imagining scenarios, often making use of the category of the absurd, she looks to investigate social structures and the political subtext of the everyday, focusing on affects and emotions, labour and the body.

For more info, please visit helenannaflanagan.com and vimeo.com/helenannaflanagan

This residency is made possible through the kind support of the Dutch Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam, NL and CBK Rotterdam, NL.

16/12/2016/ Stefanie Weberhofer - Leuchtturm

A documentation* of Stefanie Weberhofer’s work “Leuchtturm”, a site-specific installation produced during her stay at Bucharest AiR. “Leuchtturm” was installed inside the former water tower at Make a Point** in Bucharest.

Stefanie Weberhofer’s residency in Bucharest was supported by the Amt der Steiermarkischen Landesregierung, Graz, Austria.

*Trailer courtesy of the artist.
**A special thanks goes to Make a Point for hosting this event.

30/08/2016/ Announcing 'Leuchtturm', a site-specific installation by Stefanie Weberhofer

Austrian artist Stefanie Weberhofer turns the former water tower into a Leuchtturm (literally: light house). By projecting handmade 16mm film on the walls inside, the tower fills up with light and reveals the magic of the analog moving image.

Opening: 24th of November, 2016, 18:00—22:00; Make a Point, Soseaua Morarilor nr. 1, Sector 2, Bucuresti

Made possible through the generous support of Make a Point, Muzeul Cineastului Amator Reșița, Amt der Steiermarkischen Landesregierung, Graz, Austria.

18/11/2016/ Announcing the residency of Austrian film maker Stefanie Weberhofer

Stefanie Weberhofer (1988 in Austria) is a media artist, who works with film, video, photography and all kinds of Expanded Cinema. Her works are presented at international film festivals. In recent years Stefanie devoted attention on working with independent and analog film and its role in contemporary art practice.

Recently, she has participated in international festivals, such as: European Media Art Festival 2016, Osnabrück, GER; New York City Independent Film Festival 2016, NYC, USA; Moscow International Experimental Film Festival 2016, RU; Sydney Underground Film Festival 2016, AUS; Alchemy Film Festival 2016, Hawick, UK; Diagonale 2016, Graz, AT; Montreal Underground Film Festival 2015, CAN; Nomination for the Hubert-Sielecki Preis 2015, Wien, AT.

Made possible through the generous support of Amt der Steiermarkischen Landesregierung, Graz, Austria.

For more information, please visit: www.stayfanny.com

02/08/2016/ Announcing 'Careful, Icarus.', an exhibition by Patrick Topitschnig

08 — 15.08.2016

Opening: 08.08.2016, 19h00

ART on DISPLAY @ Kube Musette

Calea Victoriei 114, Bucharest

The show „Careful, Icarus.“ of Vienna based video and sound artist Patrick Topitschnig proposes a formal inversion that inherently affects the delivery of content as shaped by its original medium. Following processes of extraction / expansion, works become material for other works: videos become material for generating photographs. Reinventing different narratives other than the original, this selection addresses a range of interests elaborated throughout his practice: the perception of space and time within the vastness of ruins or surroundings and nature.

The photographs in „Careful, Icarus.“ are fragments and excerpts of video-stills and photographs presented in various format. The focus within these pieces lies within the colorfullness and abstractness so they evoke a painted like quality.

Patrick Topitschnig was born in 1980 in Styria, Austria, and currently resides in Vienna. Topitschnig is a filmmaker and audio artist whose works also include collaborations for theatre projects.

After finishing his studies in Commercial Information Technology Topitschnig studied Intermedia Art and Narrative Film in Vienna and Berlin under the supervision of Bernhard Leitner, Erwin Wurm, Constanze Ruhm and Thomas Arslan. The artist graduated with the experimental video “Right to Hospitality” in 2012.

Topitschnig received several awards, such as the Fred Adlmüller Grant and the Ursula Blickle Preis for the video work "Concision of the Whole" (2007) (Zerschneidung des Ganzen).

In 2013 he was granted the Starter Stipendia for video and media art from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Culture and Arts. In 2015 Topitschnig was selected for a two-months residency period at Bucharest Air, made possible through the support of Amt der Steiermarkischen Landesregierung, Graz, Austria.

Topitschnig works primarily in video and sound, often deploying both media within installative contexts. His works centre on direct physical experience and immediate reception, as well as on enduring time and the measure of passing time respectively. His projects are frequently constructed on a visual or an acoustic basis within which permanent repetitions or continuous oscillations constitute recurrent themes.

www.topitschnig.com

ART on DISPLAY project, initiated and organised by Ephemair Association in 2014, is reflecting the Romanian contemporary art realities through the window of the shops displays placed in unused or unsafe buildings for the public access, activating Bucharest urban spaces and signaling the never-ending issue of urban comfort in the city through artists interventions and site specific installations.

Organizer: Asociația Ephemair

With the support of: Formul Cultural Austriac, BucharestAir.

Partners: Musette, Corcova Roy & Dâmboviceanu, X Design Services

Law Affairs Partner: Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații

www.artondisplay.ro / ephemair@gmail.com

28/06/2016/ Announcing the residency of Italian artist Alice Mazzarella

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of Italian artist Alice Mazzarella, to take place between the 1st of July and the 15th of August, 2016.

Please visit 1july15august.wordpress.com for updates on her research and work in Bucharest.

Made possible with the support of The Fondazione Fotografia Modena, www.fondazionefotografia.org/en

17/12/2015/ Announcing 'Learning To Dance On A Slippery Floor', an exhibition by Lea Mercier

Bucharest Air warmly invites you to Lea Mercier's exhibition, showing new works developed during her two months in residency, to take place at Amzei 5 art space. The exhibition will take place between the 20th of December 2015 and the 13th of January 2016. Opening starts at 7pm, Sunday, 20th of December. After the opening, the exhibition can be visited on appointment. To make an appointment, please send an email to ioana.diez at gmail.com.

Aloof was bound to walk as a witness: wide field of vision but little possibility to touch the ground. At times, he would gain enough weight to touch the ground and this was usually seen happening around the course of an accident. In the aftermath of an accident, Aloof would be closer and at the same time more far from its nature than ever, his state resembling to the agitation provoked by jumping on a trampoline: propelled between the widest of fields of vision and the precision of the narrowest micro-event. A practice within the agitation of risk is practicing risk. (Ioana Gheorghiu)

For more information on Lea Mercier please read the news item below or visit her website at lea-m.net

Partner: Ephemair Association

Established in 2011, Ephemair Association initiates and organizes projects and cultural activities in the field of contemporary art, designed to develop local and international cultural projects which impact both cultural life and education. They encourage emerging Romanian and international artists active in Romania by enabling the production and presentation of contemporary art works and exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Their projects include initiatives such as The White Night of The Art Galleries, Bucharest Art Weekend, Art on Display. Internationally, the Ephemair Association produced and showed at the 56th edition of the Venice Biennale one of the two projects selected to represent Romania, "Inventing the Truth. On Fiction and Reality" curated by Diana Marincu. For more information on Ephemair Association, please visit www.ephemair.ro

10/10/2015/ Announcing the residency of French artist Lea Mercier

Lea Mercier was born in 1992 in the Parisian suburbs. After being graduated from the National Institute of Fine Arts in Toulouse, she got in 2015 a master's degree from the National School of Fine Arts, in Lyon.

The starting point of her work is a photographic gesture, on the border between material and virtualworlds. Videos, sculptures or silk-screen printings can also be the results of this process. The field of her shootings evolves from natural landscapes to the studio, through screenshots, views inside models or 3D visualizations. These elements take on meaning through the highlighting of their analogies and their dissonances in editing and displays. They reveal the trouble within the constant flow of images and aesthetic mechanisms that influence our understanding of reality. She also interrogates through her work, the increasing delegation of the perception to technology and the melancholy that creates that extended vision of a world we can observe more easily but which is more difficult to grasp. Her productions offer suspended narratives, intermediary spaces where the viewer is invited to investigate.

In this way, the work of Lea Mercier revolves around the power of images to create a continual shifting, constructed, deconstructed and reinvented reality.

19/09/2015/ Announcing the residency of Austrian film maker Patrick Topitschnig

Patrick Topitschnig is a vienna-based filmmaker and audio artist whose works also include collaborations for theatre projects.

He works primarily in video and sound which are often employed in installative contexts. His work centers on direct physical experience and immediate reception, as well as on enduring time and the measure of passing time respectively. They do so on a visual or on an acoustic basis. Permanent repetitions or continuous oscillations constitute a recurrent theme.

He received several awards, such as the Fred Adlmuller Grant or the Ursula Blickle Preis for his video "Concision of the Whole" (2007) (Zerschneidung des Ganzen). In 2013 he was granted the Starter Stipendia for video and media art (Austrian Federal Ministry for Culture and Arts).

Made possible through the generous support of Amt der Steiermarkischen Landesregierung, Graz, Austria.

02/09/2015/ Announcing the residency of Italian artist Giulia Solia

Giulia solia was born Torino in 1990. She got her bachelor degree in photography from the European Institute of Design in the 2013. Since 2012 she started her free lance carrer as commercial photographer in still life and advertising in her city. Her interest in arts grew up soon the firsts years of school , she graduate with a thesis degree on the TAV (high speed train construction between Italy and France) reguarding social issues. Gulia's statement as artist has always concerned about the relations between the single person and the society, dealing with identity problems and interior unbalance.

Made possible with the support of The Fondazione Fotografia Modena, www.fondazionefotografia.org/en

12/08/2015/ Announcing the residency of Danish artist Luise Sejersen

Luise Sejersen is a Danish artist who graduated from The Funen Academy of Fine Arts in 2014. She is interested in issues around social cohesion and collective consciousness. In recent projects, she has been exploring the conditions of spirituality in Scandinavia. In her work with paper collage, sound and video montage and installations with hybrid objects she brings together physical, mental and abstract spaces that are normally separated in order to create new spaces of reflection.

For more info, visit engelsk.luisesejersen.dk

07/06/2015/ Announcing the residency of Dutch artist Paulien Bremmer

With her film and photography projects, Paulien Bremmer explores scenario's for non-spaces; spaces wich are hidden from view, spaces without programme or with just a very specific one. She investigate environments like these by infiltrating, taking part, or dissecting the space into fragments and putting it back together again.

Environments take on a new significance by making a new scenario take place in them. In this way she claims these spaces, amplifies the programme, shows these spaces and makes them hereby public.

For more info, visit paulienbremmer.org/

27/03/2015/ Announcing 'Host', a project by Marijn Ottenhof

'Host' is a performance dinner party conceived by Bucharest Air resident Marijn Ottenhof (NL), set in the abandoned Lido hotel, once a place of luxury and grandeur, now beautiful in its decay.

A small group of guests will be served drinks, dishes and stories during their presence at the hotel.

The title refers to the catholic bread used in church, as well as to the similarity between the words hospitable and hostile.

The project focuses on our relation to food in the contemporary consumer society and the value of narrative in the culinary experience.

The event is open to a very limited number of guests and will take place on Saturday April 4th. If you wish to attend the performance, you can apply by sending an email to Ioana Gheorghiu, ioana.diez at gmail.
Chosen guests will receive a confirmation email with further instructions. Due to limited space, access is by invitation only.

Host
Saturday April 4th 2015
14.00 - 19.00
Bulevardul Magheru 1
Bucharest

'Host' is made possible through the kind support of the Dutch Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam, NL.

26/03/2015/ Marijn Ottenthof - Artist Talk

Tomorrow, Marijn Ottenhof will give an artist talk to the students in the Photography and Video dept. of Bucharest University of Arts.

Thanks to Alexandra Croitoru for the invitation.

26/03/2015/ Announcing the residency of Austrian theatre maker Johannes Schrettle

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of Austrian theatre maker Johannes Schrettle, to take place between the 7th of April and the 1st of June, 2015.

Johannes' artistic research focusses the impossibility of not creating stories, lines and fixed meanings. By using language and body in front of an audience, we automatically build up plots, characters, memories and myths. Speaking is always putting experiences and ephemeral moments into digestible patterns and structures, that we find in ancient greek drama as well in modern guidelines for story-telling, marketing or writing CVs. When even progressive political thinkers tend to seek for "the better story", the stage is the place to reveal the hidden strategies of creating sense and meaning in order to find ways to encounter "the desert of the real" (Baudrillard) between all the so called "reality", that looks like an almost closed story, called capitalism.

'Stay in Touch with your Time - Bukarest' is a collection of audio-recorded telefone-conversations, held in public transport in Bukarest in 2015. The collection will be categorized and published on a webpage in summer 2015, creating a large picture of issues, topics, worries and hopes of people in present Bukarest. Beyond that, the collection will be the base of both a show and a book, that reveals the process of listening, (miss)understanding conversations and people in a strange city and trying to make sense of it, filling the gaps, inventing side-stories, contexts, characters.

For more info, visit www.henschel-schauspiel.de/autor/johannes-schrettle and www.dramaforum.at/johannes-schrettle-biografie

Made possible through the generous support of Amt der Steiermarkischen Landesregierung, Graz, Austria.

24/02/2015/ Announcing the residency of Dutch artist Marijn Ottenhof

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of Dutch artist Marijn Ottenhof, to take place between the 1st of March and the 7th of April, 2015.

Marijn Ottenhof works in video, photography and installation pieces. Themes in her work are the disappearing boundaries between the real and the surreal, the rules of group behaviour and the loss of function of objects and situations. Through seemingly pointless actions and functionless products, surreal settings and social happenings, she creates a parallel world of loneliness, magic and games without rules. The concepts of her works contain influences from dreams, popular culture and the news. In her work the viewer gets the role of a figurant, a person who is invited to participate, but unclear on which terms.

For more info, visit www.marijnottenhof.com

23/01/2015/ Work in progress at Bucharest AiR by Kristine Hymoeller

During my one-month stay I collaborated with Cristian Glovaschi, who practices traceur and lives in Bucharest, where he founded Reborn Education.ro, a school for traceur and parkour.

During my stay I made two projects. My aim with the projects was to visualize a connection between the idea of physical freedom and the captivation of form; to reveal the intimate moment appearing when the body empowers an architecturel obstacle.

'Structures Are There to be Conquered' is the title of a series of black and white photographs of Cristian interacting with commonplace architecture along the streets of Bucharest. These photographs will be a part of a stop motion video that depicts how Cristian, through physical activity, maneuvers and navigates architectural obstacles. His movements generate a rhythmic flow and simultaneously establish a ritual with the obstacles he encounters. This ritual is a dynamic play between territoriality and formal rigidity, between the weight of a material and personal empowerment; the body, a hand, a leg, and the touch of a surface.

23/09/2014/ Announcing the residency of Austrian film maker Krisztina Kerekes

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of Austrian filmmaker Krisztina Kerekes, to take place between the 1st of October and the 1st of December, 2014.

Krisztina Kerekes was born on the 30th of October 1978 in Sepsiszentgyorgy, Romania as part of the Hungarian minority. She now lives in Vienna, Austria.

Since 2003 she was invited to show works in film festivals in Sao Paolo, Calcutta, Amsterdam, Tallin, Nyon, Genf, Denver, Graz.

In 2005 she participated at the 3rd Berlinale Talent Campus and in 2007 received the award of the jury at the Diagonale, Festival of the Austrian Film in Graz, for 'Diary of someone waiting' (camera)

In 2012 Krisztina Kerekes produced and directed the documentary 'Spur' (Trail), available here, and played the leading role in the feature film 'Homeland, Sex and Further Inconveniences' by Reka Kincses

Made possible through the generous support of Amt der Steiermarkischen Landesregierung, Graz, Austria.

23/09/2014/ Announcing the residency of Danish artist Kristine Hymoller

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of Danish artist Kristine Hymoller, to take place between the 1st of October and the 1st of November, 2014.

Kristine Hymoller, born in Denmark, lives and work in Copenhagen and Amsterdam. She studied at Gerrit Rietveld Academy fine arts and the Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam Netherlands.

Kristine Hymoller's work is interrogating the social, emotional and physical aspects of corporeality and how different environments can affect the body. She examines the relationships between the body and the general form language in sculpture and architecture, in a global society where the relationship of the individual with regard to the larger social structures often are overlooked.

The residency is made possible by the Danish Art Council - Statens Kunstfond, Kulturstyrelsen, DK

For more information, visit kristinehymoller.com

19/08/2014/ Announcing the residency of Finnish artist Emilia Ukkonen

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of Finnish artist Emilia Ukkonen, to take place between the 1st of September and the 31st of October, 2014.

Emilia Ukkonen has studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki and in the Royal Institute of Arts in Stockholm. Currently she works in Helsinki, but she can be found in many other European metropolis. Emilia Ukkonen work has been exhibited both in Finland and abroad, for example Kunsthalle Helsinki, Design Museum in Helsinki, Helsinki City Art Museum Kluuvi gallery, Prague Triennale and Galerie Crevecoeur in Paris. She uses moving mages as her main tool, but is equally comfortable working with other mediums. Emilia Ukkonen got the Finnish artist association Palokarki-prize.

For more information, visit emiliaukkonen.com

07/07/2014/ Announcing the residency of Danish artist Rikke Ehlers Nilsson

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of Danish artist Rikke Ehlers Nilsson, to take place between the 15th of July and the 28th of August, 2014.

Rikke Ehlers Nilsson (born 1984) is a recent graduate from the Master's of Fine Art program at the Sandberg Instituut Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, the Netherlands with prior schooling from both the Funen Art Academy in Odense, Denmark and Universitatea de Arte "George Enescu" Department of Photography and Video in Iasi, Romania.

Nilsson works with the image and its application in public and private distribution by re-displaying various readymade web imagery (such as self-made youtube videos to internet meme imagery) as art in an exhibition context. By doing this she attempts to skew the appropriated image's reading as a means to discuss issues related to problems with art and imagery in the 21st century to current social issues relating to one's image and how it is produced. Through these minimal gestures of appropriation she also investigates the camera's program and its ability to define global cultural narratives. By touching upon various overlapping themes and strategies within image production such as its relation to popular culture and media by working through repetition, control, and self-presentation she seeks to find new subjectivities and possibilities in how to read, understand, and produce imagery within a contemporary art context.

This residency is made possible with support from the Danish Art Council.

07/07/2014/ Announcing the residency of Italian artist Jacopo Tomassini

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of Italian artist Jacopo Tomassini, to take place between the 14th of July and the 30th of August, 2014. The residency of Jacopo Tomassini is made possible by kind support of the Fondazione Fotografia, Modena, Italy.

Jacopo Tomassini lives and works in Rome and Modena. Over the years he has carried out both his passion for photography and filmmaking. He graduated in film history and criticism at the "La Sapienza" University of Rome with a thesis on filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki. He began shooting photos as a teenager and followed courses on b/w printing held by photographer Andrea Calabresi. He was personal assistant of artists Corrado Sassi and Angela Marzullo. He showcased his work in several group exhibitions, including: Misticanza Festival 2010, San Casciano dei Bagni; International Photography Festival of Rome, Circuito, "Service"; "E cosi ci ritrovammo all`alba nel porto di le Havre", VertigoArte Cosenza. He has worked as assistant director and filmmaker for such directors as Valeria Golino, Edoardo Winspeare, Vincenzo Marra, Alessandro Angelini and Claudio Noce. He has made several documentaries and short films, the most recent produced in 2013 and titled "Sorella Greta e famiglia."

23/05/2014/ 'Downstream', by Wilhelm Hengstler

In the summer of 2011, I had planned a journey on bicycle along the river Danube all the way to the Black Sea. Shortly before the journey started, I suffered from a vascular obliteration. Thus my summer activities changed from travelling to imprisonment in hospital. Similar to the famous book "A Journey Around My Room" written by Xavier De Maistre in 1792, I experienced a journey around several rooms in the hospital. I spent my time imagining what I had missed on the real trip through Romania. Besides these phantasies I read, for the second time, "In Search Of Lost Time" by Marcel Proust. Two years later, 2013, I started (and finished) the bicycle tour through Croatia, Serbia and Romania and finally swam in the Black Sea. For the trip I uploaded Proust`s famous book on my Kindle, took it with me and finished reading it.

I experienced these different journeys as a metaphor on several levels. There were, of course, my diaries from the journey around the rooms in the hospital and then the real journey on my bicycle downstream the Danube. The river also became a picture for the journey of life itself. Interestingly, the length of the river Danube is counted not from its source in Germany, but from where it reaches its final destination. Kilometer Zero is thus where the Danube dissolves into the Black Sea.

I needed a lot of maps to find my way on this trip. Likewise, in the hospital, they took a lot of pictures and "maps" of the inside of my body. I became a strange and dangerous country to myself.

Proust`s enormous book also became a big river consisting of words and sentences. My whole life I wanted to say something about my love for this book. Now on the threshold of old age, I start writing.

And of course, there are a lot of pictures from landscapes, towns, rivers, rooms, veins and internal organs.

This year I will combine all these different materials in a book. Therefore I am excited to come to Bucharest. Surrounded by the people of Romania, the Romanian language and the sounds of Bucharest, I will finish this journey: constructing / deconstructing the literature of travelling.

Judendorf-Strasengel, 23 of february 2014

Everything for the country, nothing for myself.

01/05/2014/ Metropolis M article on Bucharest Air and contemporary art in Romania, by Lorelinde Verhees

For the article, follow this link: http://metropolism.com/features/bietensoep-bier-geeengageerde-ku/

13/04/2014/ 17th of April: A Presentation for Bucharest at Make-a-Point

Results of a 10 day residency at BucharestAIR, from 10 students of MFA AKV | St. Joost/The Netherlands, two Romanian artists and a Dutch guest artist.

participants:
Danni van Amstel (NL)
Katrein Breukers (NL)
Giulia Cenci (IT)
Katherina Heil (GER)
Alexandros Kaklamanos (GRE)
Tyas Leeuwerink (NL)
Paulina Mellado (CL)
Maud Oonk (NL)
Dimitris Rentoumis (GRE)
Maarten Spons (NL)

participating guest artists:
Ioana Gheorghiu (RO)
Adina Mocanu (RO)
Lorelinde Verhees (NL)

During 10 days an international group of young and upcoming artists from MFA AKV/St. Joost visited Bucharest.They participated in an intensive program initiated and hosted by Tudor Bratu, an Amsterdam based, Romanian Artist.
During their stay the group visited amongst others the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest Air, Tranzit and joined talks and lectures by, amongst others, Alina Bucur of the Museum of Contemporary Art, independent curator Claire van Els, Alma Cazacu of Make A Point and director of Tranzit Bucharest Raluca Voinea.

Two young Romanian artists accompanied us during our stay: Adina Mocanu and Ioana Gheorghiu. We are very happy that they accepted our invitation to participate in this final presentation. Furthermore MFA alumni Lorelinde Verhees was part of the group and we are equally happy that she will also participate.

The show consists of the results of the research the group did during their stay in Bucharest. We felt very welcome here, now it's time to give back; A Presentation For Bucharest.

06/04/2014/ 12 & 13 April: Workshop 'Art and Reciprocity' by Erik Hagoort at Tranzit

Time: April 12 & April 13, 2014

Location: tranzit.ro / Bucuresti, Str. Gazelei, nr. 44, sector 4.

To register, please send an email to: ioana.diez@gmail.com (Ioana Gheorghiu).

Maximum number of participants:
Session 1: no limit, open to public
Session 2: max 16 participants, not open to public
Session 3: max 16 participants, open to public

"If I take care of you, others will take care of me".
Joseph Beuys

"What I demand of myself doesn't correspond with what I have the right to demand of someone else".
Emmanuel Levinas

A hands-on workshop to explore reciprocity in social art practice. The aim is to develop a sensibility for the dynamics of reciprocity, in three sessions: Theory > Practice > Play

To give, to accept and to reciprocate - the combination of these three activities constitutes our social life, according to sociologist Marcel Mauss' famous essay "The Gift" (1925). Reciprocity, he states, helps us to balance extremes of over-generosity or communism on the one side, and individualism and capitalistic egoism on the other. For Mauss reciprocity is society's "eternal morality".

Mauss' concept of reciprocity has been widely discussed among sociologists, anthropologists, and philosophers. Especially Mauss' pupil, anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, has contributed to the conviction that reciprocity pervades our society, as a "total social fact". Levi-Strauss hailed the transformative power of reciprocity to make people communicate and integrate, and in doing so creating social cohesion.

Recently reciprocity increasingly appeals to artists. Especially in social art practices reciprocity has become something of a strategy. To reciprocate creates situations in which "all participants will be, at once, giver and receiver, producer and consumer, artist and audience", in the words of curator Michael Brenson. Reciprocity makes, that all participants in the art work are equals and that their roles are reversable, transferable. Art then turns into the social process itself, as Joseph Beuys advocated already: "If I take care of you, others will take care of me". At least, that is the promise of reciprocity.

Yet, social art practices also generate moral experiences, which are not necessarily reciprocal: generosity, hospitality, responsibility. "What I demand of myself doesn't necessarily correspond with what I have the right to demand of someone else", philosopher Emmanuel Levinas has pointed out. So, in daily life, and also in social art practices, reciprocity is contested by other-than-reciprocal, asymmetrical experiences in our relations to others. How do these asymmetrical experiences relate to the experience of reciprocity?
- What is reciprocity? How does it work? What are its dynamics?
- Why does reciprocity appeal so much to contemporary artists?
- Do social art practices indeed hold the promise of reciprocity?
- Do social art practices also question, criticize, or contest reciprocity? And if so, how?

This workshop will explore art & reciprocity in three sessions:
Theory (evening) > Practice (day) > Play (evening)
Participants are offered a compact reader of crucial texts on reciprocity and social art practices.

SATURDAY 12
Session 1 (19:00 ~ 21:00): Introduction on art & reciprocity

Lecture on art & reciprocity: an overview of main theories on reciprocity, the complexities of reciprocity, examples of reciprocity in social art practices, and criticism of reciprocity.

SUNDAY 13
Session 2 (10:00 ~ 17.00): Reciprocity for real

Morning: Let's think about it.
Participants are asked to bring in their own reflections and experiences of (art &) reciprocity. Let's collect ideas to create situations for real, in which reciprocity shows (or is contested), in practice, for real. Is it possible to stage reciprocity? Can we learn from social art practices, which revolve around reciprocity? Can we re-enact a few of these art practices to find out the workings of reciprocity ourselves?

Afternoon: Let's do it!
Practising situations for real, in which reciprocity shows (or is contested).
Collectively, or in small groups, or individually.
Can be on the spot, or in town.
We end the day with sharing our experiences, with dinner and drinks.

Session 3 (19:00 ~ 21:00): Reciprocity "Symprovisation"

A "symprovisation" on reciprocity. Comparable with a jamsession, in which musicians play and improvise on melodies before an audience, "to symprovise" is about the pleasure of playing with content. The aim is to improvise on our fresh knowledge and fresh experiences of reciprocity, for the pleasure of ourselves and the audience. Naturally, as with any symposium, there will be food and drinks.

Reader includes fragments of:
- "Moral Conclusions", pp. 83-91, in : Marcel Mauss, The Gift. The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. (Routledge, London and New York, 2002).
- "The Bond", pp. 58-75 in: Lewis Hyde, The Gift. How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World. (Canongate Books: Edinburgh, 2007. First published 1985).
- Suzanne Lacy (ed.), Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art, (Bay Press, 1994).
- Mary Jane Jacob, "Reciprocal Generosity", pp. 3-10 in: Ted Purves (ed.), What We Want is Free : Generosity and Exchange in Recent Art. (State University of New York Press, Albany, 2005).
- Grant Kester, Collaboration, Art, and Subcultures, pp. 10-35 in: Caderno Videobrasil 02, 2006
- Emmanuel Levinas, Outside the Subject, (Continuum: London/New York 2008).
- Nato Thompson (ed.), Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011, (Creative Time Books: New York, 2012).

Erik Hagoort (born in 1962, based in the Netherlands) is tutor at the master fine art course of the Academy of Art and Design St. Joost in Den Bosch/ Breda, the Netherlands, and works on a doctoral research in the arts, titled "Resuming Encounters; Reciprocity and Asymmetry in Social Art Practices”, at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium.

The workshop 'Art & Reciprocity' accompanies the residency of participants at the AKV | St. Joost MFA at Bucharest Air.

This event is made possible by the kind support of tranzit.ro/ Bucuresti.

For more information, please visit:
www.erikhagoort.nl
akvstjoostmfa.wordpress.com/
ro.tranzit.org/

18/03/2014/ Announcing the residency of participants at the AKVA ST JOOST MFA

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of the participants at the AKVA ST JOOST MFA, to take place between the 8th of April and the 18th of April 2014.

Participants: Danni van Amstel, Giulia Cenci, Katharina Heil, Katrijn Breukers, Maarten Spons, Maud Oonk, Tyas Leeuwerink, Alexandros Kaklamos, Dimitris Rentoumis, Paulina Mellado Neely, Lorelinde Verhees.

Tutors: Bas van den Hurk, Erik Hagoort

In colaboration with Make a Point.

Update:
9th of April from 18:00 onwards, lectures, presentations and party with free drinks at Make a Point, Soseaua Morarilor 1. Participants: Claire van Els (curator, NL), Data Chigholashvili (fellow at New Europe College, participant to GeoAir, Georgia), Alma Cazacu (Founding member Make a Point)

17th April: final presentation MFA Akva/St Joost residency at Make a Point. More info to follow soon!

18/03/2014/ Announcing the residency of Austrian writer, art critic and movie/theater director Wilhelm Hengstler

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of Wilhelm Hengstler, to take place between the 1st of April and the 31st of May 2014.

Wilhelm Hengstler, born 1944, writer, art critic and movie/theater director, lives near Graz, Austria. He was an early member of the famous "Graz Group", which formed itself around the Austrian literary magazin "Manuskripte" in the 1960s and 1970s.

Published literary works (selection): "Die letzte Premiere/The Last Premiere" (1987) Suhrkamp Verlag, "fare" (2003) Literaturverlag Droschl, "Pisco Sour" (2012) Sonderzahl Verlag.

Films (selection): "Hundeliebe/Dog Love" (1983, 16mm) "Fegefeuer/Purgatory" (1989, 35mm), "Tief Oben/Deep Above" (1995, 35mm) "Hanns durch die Zeit/Hanns Through Time" (2006).

Awards (selection): 1970 "City of Graz Award for Literature", 1972 "Theodor-Korner Award", 1989 "Award of the Viennale", 2004 "Manuskripte Award ".

Made possible through the generous support of Amt der Steiermarkischen Landesregierung, Graz, Austria.

06/12/2013/ Announcing the residency of Canadian artist Emily Hope

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of Canadian artist Emily Hope, to take place between the 6th of December and the 8th of January 2014.

Emily Hope is the founder of the Wild Man Appreciation Society, a civil society and personal museum dedicated to the preservation and promotion of tales of this feral creature. The museum is small and dimly lit, encouraging visitors to lean in close to see the artefacts: giant mittens and giants' rings; sixteenth-century beer jugs; coins, stamps, and playing cards; a tin type; a tapestry; toys, carvings, and costumes. The museum also doubles as a venue for collaborative public art.

While much of the museum's collection is composed of genuine artefacts, others are of the artist's own creation. Creating objects for the museum's collection allows her to follow in the tradition of trade apprenticeship, creating reproductions of works by old masters; as well as to become inspired by tales of third-century explorers to create new interpretations of ancient creatures.

Fundamentally, though, the work is about storytelling, about what stories persist, and how we share them - and about how this one motif, the Wild Man, has endured as a key figure for as long as stories have been told.

For more information on Emily Hope please visit www.emilyjeanhope.com.

26/11/2013/ 'Turbulent Cinematic Journey', an event initiated by Florian Pochlatko

Bucharest Air is happy to invite you to the event 'Turbulent Cinematic Journey'. The event is a screening of short films selected by Austrian film maker Florian Pochlatko, to take place at Control Club, Str. Constantin Mille, nr. 4, Bucharest, on Thursday, 28 November 2013, 2000 hrs.

For more information and program please visit the event page at Turbulent Cinematic Journey.

14/11/2013/ Florian Pochlatko, invited to the 58th edition of Cork Film Festival

Congratulations to Florian Pochlatko, currently in residence at Bucharest AiR, for being invited to the 58th edition of Cork Film Festival, Ireland's oldest film festival. Erdbeerland is the latest short film he directed and will be presented tomorrow, Friday, November 15, at Triskel Christchurch, in Cork, Ireland.

www.corkfilmfest.org/guests

18/10/2013/ Announcing the residency of Austrian film maker Florian Pochlatko

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of Austrian film maker Florian Pochlatko, to take place between the 1st of October and the 1st of December 2013.
Made possible through the generous support of Amt der Steiermarkischen Landesregierung, Graz, Austria.

20/09/2013/ Announcing the residency of Irish artist John Conway

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of Irish artist John Conway, to take place between the 1st of September and the 1st of November 2013.

The practice of John Conway is concerned with the phenomenon of transition: it's influence, and the irresistible effects it imparts to objects, people and environments. He explores active or passive elements of transition, such as factors of degeneration and preservation, through the inventive reapplication of material, objects and spaces. The work John Conway creates, develops from a haptic relationship with substrates and spaces, and is influenced by fluid and interchangeable social, cultural, and personal factors. An open approach to physical and conceptual subject matter, with the common thread of transition, has resulted in a rich and diverse body of work. The artist maintains a high energy and prolific practice, fuelled by curiosity towards the potential of materials encountered, and the environments in which he practises. His work is unrestricted in its possible creative outlets: installation, sculpture, sound, performance, video, text, animation, painting and drawing.

For more information on John Conway please visit www.jonkonway.com

28/08/2013/ Archive: the production of e.d Gfrerer during the residency period at Bucharest AiR

Images #01-09: Intervention at Vacaresti Lake in Bucharest, followed by a site-specific installation at the Laboratory of Immunology and a publication.
Images #10-15: Monument for Pause, public space intervention in Voluntari. Intervention in public space, rehabilitation of a bridge in Bran.
Images #16-24: Collaborative work by e.d. Gfrerer, Alice Gancevici and Remus Puscariu, Ioana Gheorghiu.

02/08/2013/ Announcing the residency of British artist Giles Eldridge

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the residency of British artist Giles Eldridge, to take place between the 2nd of August and the 1st of October 2013.

The practice of Giles Eldridge is concerned with the notion of doing something with the idea of pictures. Paintings and drawings are made in the studio that continually contribute to a body of works. Exhibitions take the form of various configurations of some of these pictures from the presentation of single paintings to displays of multiple groupings. At any event, the result is an installation of differences, undulations and inconsistencies where the relationship between images and techniques becomes the subject. The space that this produces is the subjective space for the activity of the viewer. The studio practice involves the making of pictures that refer to a number of pictorial conventions such as painting, portraiture, landscape, sculpture, abstraction, whilst also employing differing technical tropes; oil painting, pen and ink, graphite drawing, watercolour, photography, collage and so on. The result is necessarily fragmented and inconsistent in form and content. In the studio there is an ever increasing body of paintings and works on paper (approximately 1,000 works on paper and 100 canvases ) that form a resource from which Giles Eldridge makes temporary and contingent groupings in exhibition. The artist works with a system of differences both between the individual works and between the studio experience and the possibilities of the exhibition space. The exhibition space is therefore the site of the work proper.

For more information on Giles Eldridge please visit www.re-title.com/artists/Giles-Eldridge.asp

12/07/2013/ Announcing the residency of Columbian artist Carol Sabbadini

Bucharest Air is pleased to announce the upcoming residency of Columbian artist Carol Sabbadini, to take place between the 16th of July and the 25th of August 2013. The residency of Carol Sabbadini is made possible by kind support of the Fondazione Fotografia, Modena, Italy.

Carol Sabbadini (Colombia, 1985) is a young artist working on the many intersections of communication, cultural translation, language, and chronotopical issues. Her work involves a constant process of experimentation and investigation of social and political mechanisms, in which the main focus is to consider situations of strong ambivalence and estrangement. In these situations the social, the cultural and the linguistic are the main topics of discussion. Working mostly with video, performance, drawing, and text, Carol portraits situations, in which new levels and spaces of communication, comprehension and individuation are generated: living processes, in which the main actions are no longer important, but in which language becomes the focus point in the mechanisms of activating a performative action of commitment and involvement.

The Fondazione Fotografia Modena is a cultural project in the field of imaging arts which was started in 2007 by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio of Modena, under the presidency of professor Andrea Landi and under the direction of Filippo Maggia, with the aim to create new collections of Italian and international contemporary photography. From an initial phase mainly centred on the promotion of exhibition events aiming to document and favour the public approach to the acquisitions of the collection, Fondazione Fotografia Modena has been playing a major role and has included in its range of interest historical photographs and, above all, educational and training activities intending to value the languages of video and photography. At the same time, the initiatives range of action has been extended as well, from the local level to the national and international stage, thanks to a network of exchanges and collaborations with similar institutions all over the world.

For more information on Fondazione Fotografia Modena please visit www.fondazionefotografia.org/en

24/04/2013/ 'Reflections from the Wasteland', an exhibition by Lisanne Hoogerwerf

Bucharest Air is happy to invite you to the opening of the exhibition Reflections from the Wasteland, by Dutch artist Lisanne Hoogerwerf, to take place at Make A Point, Sos. Morarilor nr. 1, Sector 2, Bucharest, on Friday, 26th of April 2013, 1900 hrs.

Lisanne Hoogerwerf is a young artist from The Netherlands. For two months she has been working as an artist in residence within Bucharest AiR. During this two-month period, Lisanne Hoogerwerf has been researching the neighbourhood she is currently living in. Through walking, conversations and by visiting different families, she gradually learned about the lifestyle of the people that live in the area of Voluntari on the outskirts of Bucharest. During her encounters, Lisanne Hoogerwerf made short documentary videos. These documentaries show the spontaneous meetings between the camera and the subjects, as well as highlighting complications that arose for a foreign artist trying to gain access to a world that is not her own. At the end of her stay, the artist made a different series of videos in which she responds to the environment and the people from her own experience. Through short fictional scenarios, she shows the same families in a more metaphorical and constructed manner. At Make A Point, Lisanne Hoogerwerf will display both filming styles and approaches. By doing so, she wants to create different angles from which the viewer can see the subject. The exhibition can be seen on April 26th and April 27th, between 12:00 - 18:00.

The residency of Lisanne Hoogerwerf is made possible by the kind support of Stroom, Den Haag, The Netherlands. We kindly thank Make A Point for hosting the exhibition.

For more information on the works of Lisanne Hoogerwerf please visit www.lisannehoogerwerf.nl.

For more information on Make A Point please visit www.makeapoint.ro/point/info_about_en.

22/04/2013/ Announcing the residency of Austrian artist e.d Gfrerer

Bucharest Air announces the upcoming residency of Austrian artist e.d Gfrerer, from the 1st of May 2013 until the 1st of July 2013.

e.d Gfrerer (b. 1958) works with architecture, carpentry, and installation. Mr. Gfrerer's oeuvre is architectonic both in form and content. Model building is not just an influence, it is crucial to his works. He calls them constructions instead of installations, and sometimes walk-in space sketches: raw, sculptural models that temporarily become part of an architectonic ensemble. They are fashioned out of cardboard, wood, everyday objects, and most importantly, space. The residency of e.d Gfrerer is made possible by the kind support of Der Amt der Steiermarkischen Landesregierung, Graz, Austria.

For more information on the works of e.d Gfrerer please visit www.gat.st.

12/01/2013/ Announcing the residency of Dutch artist Lisanne Hoogerwerf

Bucharest Air announces the upcoming residency of Lisanne Hoogerwerf, from the 1st of March 2013 until the 1st of May 2013.

The poetic is not a quality that lies within the object we look at. It is a quality that can be activated by our way of perceiving. Through subtle artificial imputs in public spaces, Lisanne Hoogerwerf explores the way of perceiving. Questions like: What are our expectations in a certain environment?, Which ideas shape our reality?, and How can we break through fixed patterns of thinking and perceiving?, are crucial in her research. In her work, Lisanne Hoogerwerf uses different media like video, actions, performance, sculpture and painting.

The residency of Lisanne Hoogerwerf is made possible by the kind support of Stroom Den Haag. Stroom Den Haag, an independent foundation founded in 1989, is a centre for art and architecture with a wide range of activities. Starting from the visual arts, architecture, urban planning and design, the program focuses on the urban environment. Stroom's policy is not committed to any particular movement. The centre is open to everyone with stimulating ideas or a need for information regarding art and the urban environment. It aims at being a hospitable and stimulating platform. Starting from this mentality Stroom, in collaboration with other institutions, wants to contribute to the permanent development of the reflection on the city and the part that can be played by the visual arts in this context. Stroom organizes exhibitions, projects, lectures, workshops and excursions. It intiates research and debates to stimulate the transfer of knowledge and the development of ideas concerning art, architecture and related disciplines.

For more information on the works of Lisanne Hoogerwerf please visit www.lisannehoogerwerf.nl.

For more information on Stroom Den Haag please visit www.stroom.nl.

23/12/2012/ Announcing the residency of British artist Keira Greene

Bucharest Air announces the upcoming residency of Keira Greene, from the 1st of March 2013 until the 1st of June 2013.

Keira Greene works with moving image and performance, specifically honing in on the mechanisms of cinematic convention, which shape and construct meaning. Working predominantly with amateur performers, Keira's video works document choreographed performances in carefully controlled locations. Place and subject share in an artificial conjunction whereby they inform one another. The stylised aesthetic in both set and the choice of performer uses color and form to specifically guide the tone of the work. The choice to work with non-actors is due to their innate vulnerability and their ‘realness', which identifies a formal quality of the performer as a plant within the constructed environment. The scenarios which Keira's works explore are often in attempt to materialize certain psychological characteristics and the subject of control has been a recurrent theme.

In 2011 Keira and five other artists began Inland Studios, an artist-run studio, event and exhibition space, in Camberwell, South East London. The space is used to stage exhibitions, performances and workshops, the recurring central tenet of which is a focus upon experimental installation and an emphasis on new and original forms of display. The ideas that inform the Inland program extend beyond the physical space of the gallery; Inland is interested in thinking about the fundamentals of how art exists in display and how this might be redefined. The Inland collective takes a curatorial approach that is not bounded by conceptual parameters and instead Inland is keen to work with artists who share a research based approach to production.

For more information on the works of Keira Greene please visit www.keiragreene.com.

For more information on Inland Studios please visit www.inlandstudios.co.uk.

22/12/2012/ 'Light! More Light!', an exhibition by Anu Ramdas

Atelier 35 and Bucharest Air announce the Exhibition Light! More Light! by Anu Ramdas, at Atelier 35, from the 21st of December 2012 until the 11th of January 2013.

In 1810, Goethe published his Theory of Colors, which he considered his most important work. In it, he characterized color as arising from the dynamic interplay of light and darkness, through the mediation of a cloudy medium. Although disputed, Goethes last words are claimed to have been Light! More light! In Faust, the devil makes a bet with God: he says that he can lure God's favourite human being, Faust, away from righteous pursuits. The devil makes an agreement with Faust: he will do everything that Faust wants, while he is here on Earth, and in exchange Faust will serve the devil in hell. Faust agrees and signs the contract with a drop of his own blood.

For more information please visit www.atelier35.eu.

For more information on the works of Anu Ramdas please visit www.anuramdas.com.

17/10/2012/ 'Along the Street', an exhibition by Stefan Glettler and Petra Schweifer

Atelier 35 and Bucharest Air are pleased to announce the exhibition 'Along the Street', by Austrian artists Stefan Glettler and Petra Schweifer, at Atelier 35, from the 18th until the 23rd of October 2012.

Along the Street sums up observations gathered by Stefan Glettler and Petra Schweifer during their two month residency in the Bucharest Artists in Residence programme. Their work is based on separate methods and yields separate results, as they develop reactions towards a shared pilgrimage across Romania, as well as to the surroundings of their residence here in Bucharest. In his work, Stefan Glettler often uses found material which he alters and challenges, thus generating a rich paraphernalia of new meanings. While in Bucharest, Stefan Glettler proceeded in collecting dregs found along the railway in Colentina quarter and in other parts of Bucharest, raw material from which he devised a set of installations - a telltale of sharp and ironic associations that arise from the layering and transformation he sets out for his materials. Attached to his installations, Stefan Gletter also exhibits a series of paintings inspired by various iconic signs extracted from the matrix of the city. Petra Schweifer tackles her encounters with the city by focusing on a specific street at the periphery of Bucharest. The events she witnesses on her daily walks along the same street seem to form an inconsequential construction, constantly susceptible to slight changes that occur either within the architecture of the street or in the range of various activities played out by the inhabitants as the days go by. From immured windows to mountains of gravel that disappear over night, Petra Schweifer contemplates the street's anachronisms and makes use of the unevenness of logic present within this micro community to present us with a series of testimonial paintings.

For more information please visit www.atelier35.eu.

10/10/2012/ Announcing the residency of Danish artist Anupama Ramdas

Bucharest Air presents the upcoming residency of Anupama Ramdas to start November 1st 2012.

Anu Ramdas (b.1980) is an interdisciplinary artist from Denmark dealing with issues concerning the aftermath of the collapse of societies; the post-revolutionary challenge, and the way language, performance and architecture is informed and shaped by different ideologies. Ramdas is preoccupied with the very physicality of film itself, and in the means with which, one can make a representation of a place, without making use of a traditional narrative, composition, exposure etc. Alternating between the subtle and the confrontational, her work aims to embody a presence, a gaze, or a state of mind - a place where alternative politics of vision unfolds.

Anu Ramdas recently read an article describing Bucharest as the Pyongyang of the West. The comparison refered a.o to the common, frequent blackouts of the two cities: As an echo from the past in the case of Romania, and in North Korea as an ever present evidence of decades of catastrophic mismanagement of the country and the people. With this as the point of departure, Ramdas will make a photographic investigation on how the blackouts reflects the body, the mentality and the behaviour, during her two months residency.

For more information on the work of Anu Ramdas please visit www.anuramdas.com.

20/09/2012/ Presentation of Informal Strategies at Platforma Space, Bucharest

In august 2012 informal strategies gave a performative presentation on their research at Platforma in Bucharest. They used a small set-up, consisting of two IKEA LACK tables, which are part of the residency furniture, and two traditional Romanian stools. They unfold their thoughts on IKEA and it's local and global workings, while folding a three-dimensional shape of red paper. This shape functions as the materialization of ideas on organizing space, IKEA and corporate city planning.

For more information please visit www.informalstrategies.org.

05/08/2012/ Announcing the residency of Austrian artist Petra Schweifer

Bucharest Air presents the upcoming residency of Petra Schweifer to start September 1st 2012.

Petra Schweifer (b. 1981) is an Austrian artist working with painting and drawing. During her residency Petra will research new work. Stefan and Petra will also collaborate on a drawing project based on an already developed principle of 'communication through drawing'.

For more information please visit www.petraschweifer.com.

03/08/2012/ Announcing the residency of Austrian artist Stefan Glettler

Bucharest Air presents the upcoming residency of Stefan Glettler to start September 1st 2012.

Stefan Glettler (b. 1980) is an Austrian artist working with painting, drawing and installation. During his residency Stefan will research new work in drawing, connected in subject to the Romanian social and geographical context.

His two month residency is made possible by Der Amt der Steiermarkischen Landesregierung, Graz, Austria.

For more information please visit www.stefanglettler.at.

23/06/2012/ Announcing the residency of Dutch collective Informal Strategies

Bucharest Air presents the upcoming residency of Informal Strategies (Doris Dennenkamp and Geert van Mil) to start the 1st of July 2012.

In the summer of 2011 the collective Informal Strategies was born. Under this name we, Doris Denekamp and Geert van Mil - both visual artists - team up in order to actively learn about and react upon our contemporary environment with its progressive neoliberal ideas and devouring capitalism. Through studying how we have become what we are, we can begin to imagine something else. With our work we want to create a door towards a polyphonic reality in which a wide variety of voices and narratives can be heard. Informal Strategies provides us with a flexible structure to which we can invite thinkers, scientists, designers and other artists to work collaboratively on projects in alternating geographical, economical and sociological locations. By looking at similar developments in different localities we hope to gain understanding about our globalized reality.

Although the shops of IKEA resemble each other a great deal worldwide, their tactics differ significantly according to local regulations and socio-historical contexts. By closely observing the tactics used by IKEA, we can learn about their identity and driving forces, that lay hidden behind the reassuring masquerade of advertisements and corporate identity. And not only can we get to know IKEA -which in a sense gives a mere example of the multinational approach-, by defining it's local tactics, we can also unveil an opportunistic approach to the area's culture and it's political and financial possibilities. It can be seen as an invasive scan of cultural health. In Bucharest we will continue our research, that originally started in Utrecht, the Netherlands. One of our initial trails will be to inform ourselves on how IKEA entered Romania and on how it is planning to reach new markets in the area. Romania is an interesting case, because IKEA products are not only being sold, but also produced here. Production and consumption - mostly carefully separated in neoliberal economy - meet in one nation. This gives us a chance to look closer to the production side of IKEA's company structure. On a consumer level we will apply ourselves as professional installers of IKEA furniture around Bucharest. During the installment of the furniture in a customer's home, we will perform a script, that is based on our local and international findings. Through this script we turn the labour of installing the flat-pack-furniture into a performative act, in which we address issues of production and consumption in our globalized economy. A reality in which IKEA, producer of the annual publication with the largest number of copies world wide, seems to be a leading imperium.

For more information please visit www.informalstrategies.org.

24/04/2012/ 'Prelude at Dr. Gancevici', an event at The Laboratory of Immunology

The Laboratory of Immunology and Bucharest Air present the event entitled Prelude at Dr. Gancevici, by Alice Gancevici & Remus Puscariu, Marie-Andree Pellerin, Andreea Peterfi, Ileana Faur.

22/04/2012/ The U-Turn: Interview with Tudor Bratu in the publication On-Air

To download full text please access http://www.on-air-mobility.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Interview-U-Turn.pdf.

17/03/2012/ Open Studio: Marie-Andree Pellerin

07/02/2012/ Announcing the residency of Serbian artist Bojan Fajfric

In collaboration with The Netherlands Foundation for Fine Art, Design and Architecture, Bucharest AiR happily announces the upcomming three-month residency of artist Bojan Fajfric which will take place between the 1st of April and the 1st of July 2012.

Bojan Fajfric's films and installations present stories which are based on particular historical events. They speak about painful and traumatic moments in recent history. However the center stage is given to the minor protagonists whose existence is normally overshadowed. To create his work, Fajfric regards history from a certain standpoint which is at the intersection of personal memories, collective historical consciousness and the inevitable course of events. The investment is one of reviving histories that are left behind in personal memories, photographs, scrapbooks or archives. Fajfric's strategies of breaking through the narrative of general history in order of achieving diverse and different individual points of view are surprising, challenging and thought provoking.

Fajfric's new project deals with two defining moments in the histories of two autocratic regimes, one of Slobodan Milosevic and the other of Nicolae Ceausescu. In the summer of 1989 a massive political rally was organized in Kosovo to mark the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, but essentially the rally was Milosevic's unofficial inauguration. The following winter the regime of Ceausescu was overthrown, with himself being executed and the transition towards democracy begun. While the people of Romania fought to bring down the dictator, Serbia was installing a man who would soon lead them to tragedy. In his coming project, Bojan Fajfric will research the parallels and links between the two major histories here briefly presented.

For more information please visit www.bojanfajfric.net.

04/02/2012/ ENGAGE 2012: Artist-led residential project in Bucharest

Bucharest AiR is happy to announce ENGAGE 2012, an artists-led residencial project to take place in Bucharest between the 16th of March and the 30th of March.

This project is born from the collective concerns and curiosities of three artists; Josefin Rasmuson (Sweden) Emma Haugh (Ireland) and Tess Walkowski (US/ Resident in the Netherlands). Josefin Rasmuson and Tess Walkowski met during their studies in Amsterdam. During this period they organized several projects together. Josefin Rasmuson met Emma Haugh during Aerial Blue (organized by the Good Hatchery, Ireland) summer 2011 where they both participated in a "survival camp for contemporary artists". These relations are the basis for engage2012. The three artists meet regularly online for collaborative writing sessions and group discussion about the project and it's ongoing development.

Project information: engageinternational.blogspot.com

Josefin Rasmuson (SWE) is a Stockholm-based artist whose work is centered around the idea and imagery of the urban landscape. In her drawings she explores city locations, from empty corridors and office spaces to deserted bus stops and crossings, showing a cold and sometimes hostile environment.(www.josefinrasmuson.org)

Tess Walkowski (US) is originally from Detroit but has lived in the Netherlands since 2006. In her work, which often has a strong performative aspect, she explores the boundaries between herself and her audience. (www.tesswalkowski.com)

Emma Haugh (IRE) is an artist and cultural producer based in Dublin Ireland. Emma works with the manipulation and construction of photographic images, audio and text. After years of developing interactive theatre projects with many diverse groups she continues to play with theatrical devices in the making and presentation of her work. (www.emmahaugh.com)

03/02/2012/ Announcing the residency of Canadian artist Marie-Andree Pellerin

We are happy to announce the residency of Marie-Andree Pellerin. Miss Pellerin will be hosted by Bucharest AiR from February the 29th until March the 30th 2012.

Marie-Andree Pellerin holds an Architecture degree from the University of Montreal. In 2009, during her stay in Berlin, she begins a practice oriented towards urban art lived as an artistic outlet for daily experience. In 2010-2011, she researches in this line of thought at Concordia University, at the Department of Design and Computation Art. Her artistic practice takes place at the cross-roads of architecture, urbanism and art. In 2011, she exhibited her work at the FOFA Gallery and took part in the Montreal High Lights Festival during the Nuit Blanche 2011.

" In my attempt to establish an exchange with a landscape - urban or rural - I do not address myself directly to the community that is concerned. I use the built and natural framework as a mediator that engages the spectator. I intervene in his/her daily landscape in order to divert the feeling of familiarity, and to offer a new experience in this 'place'. My interventions in the landscape act as markers that allow to 'see' a familiar landscape in another way. "

20102020

Before using this form, please read the information provided in the About and Apply pages.

You can also contact us directly at contact@bucharestair.com

Name

Email

Message

Please select the type of form you would like to submit:

Enquiry
Application

File Uploader - Please send your application via a single file of max 10MB in size.
Files accepted by this form are: zip, rar and pdf.

For larger files please use a file sharing website and provide a download link.

Download link

Slide to unlock