This year, Kinema ikon celebrates 55 years of activity – an artistic history marked by innovation, experiment and radicalism in Romanian media art. On this occasion, the group launched the project “Kinema ikon: pied à terre” with a first exhibition that focuses on the group’s archive.
The first exhibition within the “Kinema ikon: pied à terre” project in the ISHO space brings together works with statement value about visual hybridization, media exploration, collectivity and playful experiment.
The event also marks the launch of a project initiated by the artistic director, Ingrid Ene: arhivare.dezarhivare /dezarhivare.arhivare. The project aims to draw attention to the lack of coherent policies for the preservation of digital and multimedia heritage in Romania, as well as to its fragility in the absence of the necessary infrastructures and resources. The kinema ikon archive – rich in films, interactive works and multimedia – thus becomes the starting point for an approach of activation, analysis and institutional imagination.
The opening of the exhibition “kinema ikon: FFW100 /Fast Forward One Hundred/” took place on June 6 at ISHO Riverside. The opening featured the digital sculpture “kNΞM::blob_LV”, created by Bogdanator, gH. and reVoltaire.
A hybrid artefact, on the border between physical and digital, “kNΞM::blob_LV” transforms the 55 years of kinema ikon archive into a self-reflexive and active system. Glitch, experimental film, and mixed media converge in an installation that proposes a living archive — one that is participatory, playful, and speculative.
The publication “kinema ikon: compendium—m (2025–1970)” was also launched, a compendium of ideas, works and gestures that document and reactivate the path of kinema ikon over the last five decades – between film, video, multimedia and digital.
The opening event was completed with a discussion on archiving.unarchiving / unarchiving.archiving, moderated by Gavril Pop, with the participation of Ileana Pintilie, Diana Marincu and Levente Kozma.
This conversation brought to the fore the archiving experience of the kinema ikon group and opened a broader reflection on the challenges related to the preservation of digital and multimedia art in Romania.
The discussion addressed topics such as infrastructure, technology, professional training and collaboration between artists, curators and independent spaces. At the same time, he explored the need to envision new hybrid professions – such as archivist-curator-artist – and to develop educational models tailored to this field.
The meeting aimed to initiate a professional and applied dialogue that would outline possible directions for the conservation, exhibition, and education of digital and multimedia art, while also identifying good practices, real needs, and opportunities for collaboration between the cultural, educational, and institutional sectors.
The exhibition is open to the public until September 6, 2025.
kinema ikon: pied à terre is a project of the kinema ikon association supported by ISHO.
compendium—m (2025–1970) is a publication edited by kinema ikon, financed by the Arad Art Museum.
The arhivare.dezarhivare / dezarhivare.arhivare project is initiated by kinema ikon and whosedi.productions
Partners: Timișoara Municipality Project Center, Minitremu, Salonul de Artă și Industrie, Muzeul Cineastului Amator.
The arhivare.dezarhivare / dezarhivare.arhivare project is co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.
