The Eastwards Prospectus Cultural Association (ACEP) launched on Sunday, June 25, the series of artistic projects in the public space, part of the Accelerator program, which will take place between June and September 2023 at the national level, in Bucharest, Timișoara, Constanța, Cluj- Napoca, Pitesti, and Oltenița.
The artists who will create the works of art in the public space are Andrei Arion, Roberta Curcă, Lucia Ghegu, Alina Ion, Maria Mandea, Delia A. Prodan, Stanca Soare, and Ana Maria Szöllösi.
The first art project activated in public space belongs to the artist Maria Mandea, who proposed the Biblioteca de jocuri publice/ Public Games Library, a collection of games that can be adapted to public spaces and played by anyone.
The games are accessible on the website of the Institutul Jocului (www.institutuljocului.ro), along with the rules and installation instructions. Players can choose a game to make in space or propose a new one by developing the library. Thus, the public space becomes a play space, an inhabited space, a poetic space, and an active space.
The next step is the development of a network of playgrounds – public spaces in Bucharest – where the library becomes a platform accessible to everyone.
In the Accelerator program, the game in the public space will take place at the end of August, in an area in front of Bucharest’s Gloria cinema in the Titan district.
“Art in the public space is a challenge for us, a leap into the unknown because it is unexplored territory in Romania. That is why we are privileged because we have the opportunity to present the Accelerator projects at the national level, in several cities and communities in Romania. The artists contextualized their practice specifically, based on the study and investigation of communities, while having the opportunity to give their practices new valences. We are preparing to come, with openness, to the communities and we can’t wait for people’s reactions to a novel approach, which I can even call pioneering.” – says Andrei Breahnă, cultural manager and Accelerator project manager
Maria Mandea is an artist whose messages are strongly anchored in community issues. In the Back to Where It All Began exhibition, the artist proposed a manifest work, Restitutio in integrum, a game installation that starts from the real case of the IOR park in Bucharest, part of which became private property following the retrocessions after 1989. In the exhibition, the players reclaimed the park by planting lollipop trees, which they received upon entering the exhibition.
Anchoring artists in the community and activating areas in cities are important to increase visibility and draw attention to issues or ways to improve features noticed by artists over time. At the same time, through these projects, we can observe the working methods and an extension of the practices of the artists involved in the Accelerator project. The projects developed by the artists will be individual or collective.
About the other works of art in the public space
Andrei Arion and Delia A. Prodan will produce a series of metal and terrazzo grills, placed in areas of Bucharest where road repairs are taking place. Seemingly mundane objects will activate places where craters and mud persist. They are both a practical, tangible tool for cleaning shoes and, at the same time, a commentary on the failing infrastructures of cities and how they affect the daily lives of citizens.
Alina Ion, Treads of Solitude. A soundtrack that will contain “instructions” or directional cues (left, right) and some general cues such as “when you see the first tree, turn right”, “when you reach the second block, turn around”, and so on. The parameters for the soundtrack follow a short trip to the artist’s hometown, Oltenita.
Roberta Curcă, Lucia Ghegu, Stanca Soare, Ana Maria Szöllösi, with the contribution of Maria Mandea, Full of Mmerit, yet Poetical / Auto-destructive Traces. The proposal is a performance in the following cities in Romania, Timișoara, Cluj-Napoca, Pitesti and Bucharest. The work consists of a ball made of chalk, which will be rolled around the city by an artist until it disintegrates.
Lucia Ghegu, On the Same Line. The work consists of an installation consisting of paper kites, tied to a wooden frame, placed in squares or pedestrian streets. Passers-by are invited to take a kite and fly it. The work will be presented in Constanta.
Stanca Soare, Joint Lines. Inspired by a French initiative called “Pianos in Stations”, which made pianos available to the general public on unsafe trains, the project is a loom-like installation. Located in Cluj-Napoca railway station, “Joint Lines” envisions art as a healing tool for random travelers, homeless people, and the spaces they pass through.
Funded by SEE Grants 2014 – 2021 within the RO-CULTURE Program and implemented by the Eastwards Prospectus Cultural Association (ACEP), in partnership with Gaep Gallery from Bucharest and i8 Gallery from Reykjavik, Iceland, Accelerator is the first and most complex mentorship for emerging artists which offers young artists a strategic approach to their careers.
