/News

The Centre for contemporary art Club Electroputere launches its new project, titled the Mobile Biennale (MB).

Mobile Biennale 1
The Tour of Oltenia in 7 days
28 July–3 August 2014

Authors of the project: Adrian Bojenoiu, Alexandru Niculescu

Motto:
“The style of thought is its mobility”
–Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari

The Mobile Biennale is an opera in which mobility and interaction develop in a previously determined space or territory. The coagulant element of the mobile biennale concept consists in its mobility. Perceived as materiality, the mobility gains its shape according to the space-time coordinates that appoints it, while the content is generated by the participants’ interaction and disparity, which establish a relationship to the world.

The MB brings into question one more time the “biennale” institution, the content and shape of which have currently become stereotypes, due to the projects’ redundancy and lack of novelty. Proposing a re-evaluation of the “biennale” institution and its relation to artistic production, the MB may be understood through the following characteristics:

–The MB emphasises characters. The project focuses on the participant’s behaviour and his free mobility, both in relation to the otherness and to the shape and content of a space designated by geography, culture, history etc.
–Mobility is understood as movement within a territory, a fact which generates interaction and contingency.
–Taking part in the MB is considered as explicit artistic production; a potential exhibition phase of the project is optional and doesn’t constraint the participants to produce artistic works.
–The MB doesn’t depend on space and country. It can be produced anywhere on the globe, in any type of space either real or virtual, in compliance with the initial scenario.
–The MB is relevant not only to visual art; it can also be of great interest for individuals who work in various areas, according to the initial scenario of each edition.

Mobile Biennale 1: The Tour of Oltenia in 7 Days
The first edition of the Mobile Biennale (MB1) will take place between the 28 July and the 3 August and includes an itinerant trip by bus, in the Oltenia region (Southern Romania). This edition aims to unplug the participants from their ordinary lives and to challenge them through interaction, producing a relational context stimulated by a certain level of chance.

The thematic priorities of the current edition focuses on Oltenia in its various aspects, which can generate working subjects related to urbanism, economy, architecture, art, ecology, landscape, pop culture, etc.

The itinerary includes objectives such as Craiova (starting point), Cetate (harbor on Danube), Iron Gate Hydroelectric Power Station, the Danube Canyon, Cheile Nerei – Beusnita National Park, Bigar Falls (Western Carpathians), Sohodol Keys, Polovragi Cave, Tismana Monastery, Targu Jiu (sculptural works of Constantin Brancusi), coal mining from Rovinari, Defileul Jiului National Park (Southern Carpathians), Transalpina, Rânca mountain resort, the Woman’s Cave, traditional ceramic workshops in Horezu, balneary and climatic resort Caciulata, Cozia Monastery, Ramnicu Valcea.

The result of this edition will be summed up in a publication covering the entire process: the inception, the project’s various phases, and implications that appear during the implementation.

Open call:
Twenty guests active in the international artistic space will be invited to participate in this edition. Five more individuals will also be eligible to join the tour. The selection criteria includes the candidate’s portfolio and a motivation letter. The requested materials can be submitted in PDF format via e-mail to info@clubelectroputere.ro, as an attachment until 1 June. The selected artists will be announced on 5 June, via e-mail, on our web page and on Facebook.

Transportation, accommodation and meal expenses during the event will be covered by Club Electroputere. Artists should be able to meet additional costs, such as travel to and from Romania and accommodation before or after the tour. For more details, feel free to contact us at info@clubelectroputere.ro.

Club Electroputere – Centre for contemporary culture (CEP) was founded in 2009, in Craiova, by Adrian Bojenoiu and Alexandru Niculescu. CEP functions as a flexible and independent structure, connected to the community’s life, mediating a new cultural status in society. We intend to produce a platform targeting the artistic approaches we consider relevant to answer the needs of the current cultural discourse. CEP especially promotes: alternative art, the new media of creation, multiculturalism and interdisciplinary approaches, the pursuit of ways to decode the existing means of expression and communication, the production and promotion of alternative narrative structures.

Adrian Bojenoiu earned a PhD in Philosophy and is now an independent curator and associated lector at the University of Bucharest. In 2009, he became the co-founder of the centre for contemporary art Club Electroputere. In 2011, he represented Romania at the Venice Biennale and is the co-editor of the album Romanian Cultural Resolution, published by Hatje Cantz. Adrian has participated in and curated various international exhibitions. He is interested in working subjects, such as contingency study, practical philosophy and theories on speculative realism.

Alexandru Niculescu is an artist who has studied painting at Bucharest National University of Arts. In 2009, he became co-founder of the centre of contemporary art Club Electroputere. In 2011, he represented Romania at the Venice Biennale. Alexandru has had exhibitions in various spaces, such as Galeria Nicodim, Galeria Plan B and Barbara Seiler Gallery. His artistic practice reflects a variety of working techniques, with a particular interest in the forms of expression generated by everyday life experiences.