The UTOPIAN BODY exhibition, signed by Claudiu Ciobanu, will open soon at Artep Gallery in Iasi. The opening is scheduled for Tuesday, September 10, at 6 PM.
“Claudiu Ciobanu analyzes and reflects both the ways of representation and the types of discourse, building his own utopia by choosing to paint only heads – symbols of the mind. These heads are devoid of age, gender, race or distinguishing features, serving as a universal canvas for the viewer’s interpretation. They are neutral, suggesting that the mind is the generator of all connections, perceptions and identities. (…) In UTOPIAN BODY, Claudiu Ciobanu invites us to look beyond our material dimension, to penetrate the mind’s eye and discover the true essence of our humanity – fragile and strong, vulnerable and capable“, explains the curator of the exhibition, Cristiana Ursache.
Claudiu Ciobanu is part of the young generation of artists from Iasi, a graduate of the Faculty of Visual Arts and Design, “George Enescu” National University of Art in Iasi. He studied painting through the Erasmus program at the Universidad de Salamanca, Spain, where he discovered experimental painting and drawing techniques. The studies in Spain were completed with a drawing exhibition project later selected in 2009 for the Young Romanian Art 10 exhibition, “Slightly bored”, curated by Mircea Nicolae at Galeria Nouă, Romanian Cultural Institute in Venice. He participated in various national and international projects, presenting in exhibitions in Israel, Washington, Berlin, and Vienna. In 2022, he presented SOLARIS, an art installation curated by Cristian Nae, at the Artep Gallery, and in 2023, Memento Vivere, the art exhibition curated by Cristiana Ursache, being hosted at ICR Vienna. Claudiu Ciobanu, born in 1984, lives and works in Iasi.
Cristiana Ursache is curator at the Artep Gallery in Iași. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s studies at the “George Enescu” University of Arts Iași, at Art History and Theory and Theories and Practices in Visual Arts. He is currently conducting a research within the doctoral school at the same university, with the object of study being curatorial practices in Romania from 2000-2023. In the past, he attended courses at universities in Spain and Switzerland, at Escuela de Arte de Sevilla through the Erasmus+ Scholarship program and at Zurich University of the Arts, deepening the course The Emancipated Audience – Experiential Curatorial Knowledge Production. He curated exhibitions in the country and abroad by artists such as Ștefan Câltia, Sorin Ilfoveanu, Claudiu Ciobanu and Miruna Radovici. In the summer of 2022, he had the role of cultural mediator at the Romanian Pavilion in the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale.
The exhibition is the result of the research carried out by the artist Claudiu Ciobanu on the theme of body politics within the Artistic Residency 110 project, developed by the Artep Gallery Association and co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration (AFCN), dedicated to the development of creative residencies for artists and curators from Iasi and Berlin. The program of artistic residencies carried out during 2024 is based on the specific partnership between the Iasi institution Asociatia Galeria Artep and the Berlin institution Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures).
The exhibition will remain open until October 26, 2024. Admission is free.
Cultural project co-financed by: Administration of the National Cultural Fund
The project does not necessarily represent the position of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the project’s content or how the project results may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.
