TWIST — Tuicã/Tusovka
an open office on Romanian and Slovak contemporary art
curated by Viviana Checchia and Eleonora Farina
from the 13th till the 21st of October 2010
PROGRAMME
§ Opening: 13th of October at 91mQ Art project space
§ Round table “Knowledge vs. Market from a Romanian and a Slovak perspective”: 14th of October at Slovak Institute
(the conference will be held in English)
§ Video screening: 15th of October at Uqbar
§ Portfolios’ presentation: 16th of October at Golden Parachutes (the presentation will be held in English)
§ Selection of bibliographical material: 13th—21st of October at Library of the Institute for East European Studies at the Freie Universität
The “TWIST - Tuicã/Tusovka” project starts from the curatorial researches of Viviana Checchia in the Slovak Republic and Eleonora Farina in Romania.
At 91mQ Art project space the two curators present an ‘open office’ with the material gathered during their residencies respectively in Bratislava and Bucharest.
To present similarities, affinities and similitudes but also and above all divisions, contrasts and diversities between the two countries is the fundamental preamble for the proposed project, with the conviction that (in spite of the past twenty-year-long period after the fall of the Berlin Wall) the understanding of some differences between Romania and Slovakia, which have been associated under the mystificatory classification of “East Europe” for decades, is still very important. The venue’s choice for this presentation is fallen on Berlin as epicentre of Europe’s political and geographical struggles in the 20th century.
Thanks to an easy installation, the above mentioned ‘open office’ is a way to read, watch and deepen both the realities during a whole week. Thanks to the curators’ help the public can in fact interact with the proposed material. Near by the paper, video and audio archive, in the 91mQ’s exhibition space the video-works of the experimental film festival unarte_fest -University of Fine Arts in Bucharest-, of the Platforma DigiVAF(ex) -Academy of Banskà Bystrica-, of the Faculty of Art’s students in Kosiceare and of the internet based broadcast Hore Bez are presented.
Parallely to the office’s collection, during the days following the opening a rich programme of events is proposed, which foresees the participation of important representatives of the contemporary art world in Romania and Slovakia, with the aim of establishing a permanent dialogue between the two. The support of the Library of the Institute for East European Studies at the Freie Universität is therefore essential as a further opening, enriching the archive with bibliographical material found in Berlin itself.
Viviana Checchia (1982) has devoted herself to a research on the development of the contemporary art system in Slovakia for two years, thanks to a grant of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She is a PhD candidate at the School of Art of Loughborough University (UK) with a research about the new identity between East and West Europe.
Eleonora Farina (1981), after her one-year-long Leonardo da Vinci grant at MNAC — National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, is dedicating her PhD-research to the contemporary art reality in Romania through the museum’s permanent collection after the Ceauºescu’s dictatorship (Freie Universität, Berlin).
Project’s venues:
- 91mQ Art project space, Landsberger Allee 54 10249 Berlin - www.91mq.org
between 13th and 21st of October open from 10am to 3pm
- Slovak Institute, Zimmerstr. 27 10969 Berlin - www.mzv.sk/siberlin
- Uqbar, Schwedenstr. 16 13357 Berlin - http://projectspace.uqbar-ev.de
- Golden Parachutes, Kreuzbergstr. 42E 10965 Berlin -
http://goldenparachutes.net
- Library of the Institute for East European Studies at the Freie Universität,
Garystr. 55 14195 Berlin - www.oei.fu-berlin.de
between 13th and 21st of October open from Monday to Friday from 9am to 7pm
Knowledgement:
Coordination: Elena Bellantoni, Viviana Checchia, Marco Giani and Eleonora Farina
Fundraiser: Andrea Vara
Graphic designer: Vincenzo Estremo
With the support of: Italian Cultural Institute Berlin, Slovak Institute in Berlin, Piazza Italia
Partnerships: 91mQ Art project space, Golden Parachutes, Library of the Institute for East European Studies at the Freie Universität, Uqbar — Gesellschaft für Repräsentationsforschung e.V.
Media Partners: berlinerpool, Drome magazine
Network Partner: UnDo.Net