Romania

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Cities

Bucharest, Cluj, Timisoara, Arad, Oradea.

Predecessors

Exhibitions
  • 1924, Contimporanul’s international exhibition at Bucharest’s hall of the Artists’ Union in which almost the entire Romanian avant-garde exhibit together for the first time (M. H. Maxy, Marcel Janco, Mattis Teutsch, Victor Brauner, Constantin Brancusi, Miliţa Petraşcu, Dida Solomon).
Writings
  • Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto published in Romanian in Craiova in a local newspaper, on the same date (20 February 1909) as in the Parisian Le Figaro.
  • Ion Vinea, Activist Manifesto to the Youth (Manifest activist către tinerime), Contimporanul journal, 1924.
  • Brauner, The Pictopoetry manifesto, 75HP journal
  • Brauner, "The Surrationalism", 75HP journal
Journals
  • Contimporanul, 1922/1924?-1932, Bucharest, Edited by Ion Vinea and Marcel Janco. Most widely regarded of the modernist periodicals, [2] [3]
  • 75HP (Horsepower), 1924, Bucharest, 1 issue, Edited by Ilarie Voronca, Stéphane Roll and Victor Brauner. Brauner and Voronca created their picto-poetry, non figurative oil paintings, with words culled from dada-futurist vocabulary manipulated into geometric forms. [4]
  • Punct (Full stop), 1924-1925, Bucharest, edited by Victor Brauner (nos. 2-9) and Stéphane Roll. An imaginative integration of constructivist art, architecture and literature. [5]
  • Integral, 1925-1928, Bucharest. Edited by Max Herman Maxy. Published by Maxy, Voronca and Brauner includes non-representational linocuts, reproductions of constructivist collages, stage designs, non-figurative sculpture. Both Contimporanul and Integral promote constructivism, a synthesis of literary genres, represented by Ion Vinea, B Fundoianu, Ion Calugaru, Ilarie Voronca, Marcel Janco. Integral later adds another publishing office in Paris under Benjamin Fondane and Hans Mattis-Teutsch. [6]
  • Periszkóp, 1925-?, Arad, Hungarian avant-garde journal, edited by György Szántó
  • Unu (One), 1928-32, a monthly magazine of the literary avant-garde. Edited by Saşa Pană (1902–1981), the poet and apologist of Romanian Surrealism. Included contributions not only from prominent Romanian surrealists, such as Ilarie Voronca, Geo Bogza, Stephane Roll (the literary pseudonym of Gheorghe Dinu) but also from foreign contributors like Louis Aragon, André Breton, René Crevel, F T Marinetti, and Paul Éluard, and which was richly illustrated with the art work of Marc Chagall, Yves Tanguy, Osip Zadkine, and Man Ray, among many others
Literature
  • "Moments in the Romanian Literary Avant-Garde", [7]
  • Dan Gulea, Gentlemen, Tovarishes, Comrades. A History of Romanian avant-garde, Paralela 45 Publishing, “Deschideri” Series, Piteşti, 2007, 484 pp. [8] [9] [10]
  • Andrei Oisteanu, "The Romanian Avant-Garde And Visual Poetry", in Exquisite Corpse. A Journal of Letters and Life. The original study was published for the exhibition 'Dada East? The Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire = Dada Est? Romanii de la Cabaret Voltaire', curated by Adrian Notz, Raimund Meyer, and Juri Steiner for the Cabaret Voltaire Dadahaus, Zurich (20.09.06 - 22.02.07) [11]
  • Contimporanul. Istoria unei reviste de avangarda?, Institutul Cultural Roman, Bucuresti 2007
  • Irina Carabas, "Can Aesthetics Overcome Politics? The Romanian Avant-garde and its Political Subtexts", lecture for 'New Histories of Politics' a conference at Central European University, Budapest (18-20 May 2007). [12]

'Experimentalism'

Op art, neo-constructivism, land-art, hyperrealism, minimal art, conceptual art, happening in the 1960s and 1970s.

Neo-constructivism

Publications
  • Ştefan Bertalan, "Fragments of a Possible Program", Arta, No 8, 1970.
  • George Lecca, Flondor, de la '111' + 'Sigma' la 'Prolog' [Flondor, from 111+SIGMA to "Prolog"], IDEA Design & Print, Cluj, 2005, 197 pp. [13] review

Experimental film, avantgarde film

Artists

Kinema Ikon group (Arad, 1970-2005), Sigma group (Timisoara, 1970s), Ion Grigorescu, Sergiu Lupse [14]

Literature
  • George Sabau, "Contextual history of Kinema Ikon" (2005) [15]
Works
  • Sigma, Multi-vision I and II, presented at the exhibition "Study 1", in the high school gym in Timisoara, 1978. A spatial environment formed by a three-dimensional structure made of coloured semi-transparent nets, spatially arranged in the form of a tetrahedron, onto which there was a projection of black and white and colour film for two cameras.

Performance art

Literature
  • Ileana Pintilie, "Performance Art In Romania. Between gesture and ritual", [16]

Computer and computer-aided art

Summary

"On the international stage, the ’60s and ’70s have constituted a period of intense research into what was called the impact of digital technology upon art. Prestigious names and consecrated works of art, but especially worth mentioning international exhibitions, such as the first world exhibition of computer graphic, in 1965, at Howard Wise Gallery in New York, then the 1968 Cybernetic Serendipity in London, and the Stuttgart Impulse Computerart, in 1969. The latter was an itinerant one, so that I was able to see it in 1974 at the Goethe Institute in Bucharest, presented by Herbert W. Franke, who edited too a substantial catalog.
The same year, 1974, visual artist Florian Maxa presented a computer graphics work at the collective exhibition Art and Energy in Bucharest, and researcher Mihai Jalobeanu has an exhibition at the students’ House of culture in Cluj, exhibition I was able to see in may ’74 at the Alfa Gallery in Arad. Next, the same Mihai Jalobeanu is present with a personal exhibition, Computer Graphics, at the Galeria Noua in Bucharest, in January 1976, and, a month later, Florian Maxa has a new exhibition at the Eforie hall, entitled Metamorphoses. Other Romanian artists, interested rather in kinetic art, optical art and constructivism, but not lacking interest in the new digital technology were Adina Caloenescu, Serban Epure, Savel Cheptea, Cristian Bruteanu, Ileana Bratu, Francis Goebész and others, from university centers in Cluj and Bucharest.
Finally, at the Electronic Computing Center in Arad, whose director was no one else than mathematician Lucian Codreanu, one of the founders of the Timisoara Sigma group, a collective of young computer specialists having artistic interests, started producing at the beginning of the ’80s, in the workshop lead by mathematician Emil Giurgiu, computer-assisted graphical works. So that, in July 1985, an exhibition was organized with all these works, in the Forum gallery, under the title Art and Computer, starting controversies in the city’s artistic world, as well as inside the ki group, which had, at the time, among its members, at least two or three computer specialists, used as sound engineers or DJs, because the thing called computer couldn’t even be mentioned. The exhibition was accompanied by a pamphlet, where art critic Horia Medeleanu made a synthetic presentation, while the opening was made by artist Valentin Stache. The young artists were Mihai Sabaila, Stelian Porumb, Gheorghe Cheveresan, Sorin Gules and Traian Rosculet, the latter, becoming, after ’89, an active member of the Kinema Ikon group in its Mixed Media stage, and of the Conversatia [The Conversation] magazine, whose computerized layout he made, until its transformation in 1993.
All this frail practice of computer graphics in Romania before ’89 was preceded and accompanied by a few attempts of informing the potentially interested audience. Thus, in 1972 was published anthology edited by V. E.Masek, Estetica. Informatie. Programare [Aesthetics. Information. Programming], comprising important texts by A. Moles, M. Bense, H. Frank, S. Maser, K. Alsleben, but also Mihai Dinu, Cezar Radu, Stefan Niculescu, and others. In 1974 was translated Abraham Moles’ book, Arta si ordinator [Art and Computer], then, in 1982, Radu Bagdasar publishes a book, Informatica Mirabilis, with the subtitle Arta si Literatura de calculator [Computer Art and Literature]. The same year, edited by professor Solomon Marcus, is published the collective work Semiotica matematica a artelor vizuale [Mathematical Semiotics of Visual Arts], containing two substantial texts in the field of the computer – art relationship, namely, Mihai Jalobeanu, Imaginile, producerea si prelucrarea lor cu sistemele actuale de calcul [Images, their Production and Processing with today’s Computing Systems] and Mihai Brediceanu, Timpul polimodular în artele vizuale [Polimodular Time in Visual Arts]." George Sabau in "Contextual history of Kinema Ikon" (2005) [17]

Artists

Works

  • Sherban Epuré, S-Band (Sherban's Band, since 1968) may be seen as an interactive machine able to reconfigures twelve visual variables, three of geometry and eight of color; the background is the last of these. The scope of the band is not to imitate nature, as origami does, but to produce non-subjective, enjoyable art forms. [18]
  • Sherban Epuré, Meta-Phorm (Meta+Metaphor+Form, since 1968) is intended to be the the visual appearance/materialisation of an abstract creative proposition by introducing geometrical forms into a game relationship. [19]
  • Emil Giurgiu's workshop at Electronic Computing Center, Arad produced computer-assisted graphical works in the early 1980s.
  • In cooperation with a designer artist (Adriana Dobra) from the research institute on porcelain and ceramic (CERO-Cluj) Jalobeanu elaborated a method for computer graphics decoration of porcelain and ceramic items. Some results were exhibited at the Bucharest International Fair 1979-1980, and in Cluj and Oradea.

Events

  • Mihai Jalobeanu's exhibitions: students' House of Culture in Cluj 1971, 1972; Arad 1973; Timisoara 1974; Satu-Mare 1975; Computer Graphics at Galeria Noua in Bucharest Jan-Feb 1976.
  • Art and the Computer, Sherban Epuré's exhibition, Bordeaux, France, November 16-24, 1973.
  • computer graphics work by Florian Maxa and computer-aided painting by Sherban Epuré (Painting and Cybernetics exhibition at The New Gallery in April [20]) at Art and Energy exhibition, Bucharest, 1974.
  • The 9th Sigma Festival at the Gallery of Fine Arts, Bordeaux, France. Director Roger Lafosse. Featuring digital artworks by Sherban Epuré (11 drawings and gouaches, Bands-S film 16mm., and a paper at the colloquium Creation Artificielle chaired by Georges Charbonnier and Abraham Mohles), Sture Johannesson, Peter Kreiss, Kenneth Knowlton, Herbert Franke, Herve Huitric, Vera Molnar, Manfred Mohr, Georg Nees, Jacques Palumbo. Performances by Maurice Bejart, Pierre Henri, Miles Davis Sextet, Young Giants of Jazz, Jean Luc Godard, and others. Music by Xenakis, Constant, Sophia Gubaidulina, and Nicolas de Pelken under Pierre Courtiuox’s direction.) November 18--December 8. [21]
  • Metamorphoses, Florian Maxa's exhibition, Eforie hall, Feb 1976.
  • Jalobeanu was invited to participate to the Ars ex Machina exhibition at Kuenstlerhaus in Vienna, 1977.
  • Art and Computer, works from Emil Giurgiu's workshop, Forum Gallery, July 1985. Works by Mihai Sabaila, Stelian Porumb, Gheorghe Cheveresan, Sorin Gules and Traian Rosculet.

Centres

Publications

  • Sherban Epuré, "Cybernetic Attitude, Mathematical Thinking", România Literarã No. 25, Bucharest, June 13 1970. [22]
  • Adrian Rogoz, "Arta Programativã", Stiinta si Technica, Bucharest, June 1970.
  • Sherban Epuré, "Cybernetics and Art", Arta Review # 7, Bucharest, Sep 1970. [23]
  • "Glossary", Arta Review, Bucharest, Romania, February-August 1971. The "Glossary" was published throughout most of 1971, as a series of monthly articles. It deals with such terms as: cybernetics, structure, input, output, feedback behavior, information, the significance of information, feedback, black-box, redundancy, noise, sensibility, original, entropy, etc. [24] [25] [26] [27] [28]
  • Viktor Ernest Maşek (ed.), Estetică, informaţie, programare [Aesthetics. Information. Programming], Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucharest 1972, 216 pp. Anthology comprising important texts by A. Moles, M. Bense, H. Frank, S. Maser, K. Alsleben, but also Mihai Dinu, Cezar Radu, Stefan Niculescu, and others.
  • Viktor Ernest Maşek, Arta şi matematica, Editura Politică, Bucureşti 1973.
  • Sherban Epuré, "Mathematics and anatomical constructions", the Secolul XX Review #11-12, Bucharest, Romania, 1973. [29] [30]
  • Sherban Epuré, "Realism Mathematic", the Arta Review, Bucharest, Romania, 4.13.1973. [31] [32] [33]
  • Abraham Moles, Artă şi ordinator [Art and Computer], Editura Meridiane, Bucharest 1974. Classic book translated to Romanian.
  • Sherban Epuré, "Applications of Cibernetical Methods in the Fine Arts", the Arta Plastica Magazine, Bucharest, Romania, October 1974. [34]
  • Sherban Epuré, "Painting and Cybernetics", Installation and Extensive One Man Show, part of the 
Art and Energy exhibition, at The New Gallery, Bucharest, Romania, 1974. Catalog text. [35] [36] [37]
  • Viktor Ernest Maşek, review of Jalobeanu's exhibition 'Computer Graphics', Arta 6, Bucharest 1976
  • Radu Bagdasar, Informatica Mirabilis - Arta şi Literatura de calculator [Computer Art and Literature], Editura Dacia, 1982.
  • Solomon Marcus (ed.), Semiotica matematică a artelor vizuale [Mathematical Semiotics of Visual Arts], Editura Ştiinţifică si Enciclopedica, Bucharest 1982, 409 pp. Contains two substantial texts in the field of the computer–art relationship, namely, Mihai Jalobeanu, "Imaginile, producerea si prelucrarea lor cu sistemele actuale de calcul" [Images, their Production and Processing with today's Computing Systems] and Mihai Brediceanu, "Timpul polimodular în artele vizuale" [Polimodular Time in Visual Arts].
  • pamphlet accompanying 'Art and Computer' exhibition, 1985. Text by Horia Medeleanu.
  • Ambroise Barrac, Poezia electronică, 2008. [38]

Video art

Equipment
  • VCR were available on the black market in 1980s. Video cameras became available in a second wave, however they were more expensive than VCRs and therefore did not spread as quickly or easily. In the black market, a video camera cost approximately the equivalent of a yearly salary for someone from the upper echelons of society (Ian Bogdan Lefter, "On the Romanian Video Context", in: Ex Oriente Lux, 1994).
Artists
Exhibitions
  • Ex Oriente Lux. Curated by Calin Dan, Dalles Hall, 1993.
  • Media Culpa. Curated by Irina Cios, Soros for Contemporary Arts Bucharest, 1995.
  • Transferatu: New Tendencies in Rumanian Art. Curated by Dan Mihaltianu and Barbara Barsch, IFA Gallery Berlin/Bonn, Institut fur Auslandsbeziehungen, 2000/2001.
  • Context Network. Curated by Alexandru Patatics and Sebastian Bertalan, 49 Venice Biennial Romanian Pavilion, 2001.
  • Romanian Video Art- Looking East: Contemporary Art from Eastern Europe. Curated by Zygmunt Bauman, Romanian Cultural Institute London, 2007.
  • Personal Places. Curated by Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor, Gallery A+A, Slovene Central Visual Art, 2003.
  • Portraits of the Artists as Young Artists. Curated by Andreiana Mihail, Andreiana Mihail Gallery, Bucharest, 2009.
Literature
  • Calin Dan (ed.), Ex Oriente Lux, Bucharest: The Soros Center for Contemporary Arts, 1994. (catalogue)
  • "Videokunst in Rumänien", (German), [39]
  • Natalie Musteata, "Wired to History: Romanian and Lithuanian Video Art Post-1989", PhD Program in Art History, CUNY Graduate Center, 2010. [40]

Electroacoustic and experimental music, sound art

Literature
  • Breve Histoire de la Musique Electroacoustique en Roumanie. 2007. [41] (French)

New media art, Media culture

Exhibitions
  • [R][R][F] 2004, section: "Young media art from Romania", 2004. [42]

Art history, art theory

Alexandra Titu [43], Adrian Guţă

Literature

  • Alexandra Titu, "Experimentalism in Romanian Art after 1960" (Experimentul în Arta Românească după 1960), 2003 [44]
  • Calin Dan, "Media Arts Get Media Free: A Small Anthology of Older Views", in: Transitland: Video Art From Central and Eastern Europe: 1989-2009, 2009.


Countries
avant-garde, modernism, experimental art, media culture, social practice

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