Empower Art & Artists Cultural Association takes art out of conventional spaces and brings it closer to the public through a series of digital art exhibitions created with the help of artificial intelligence, projected on TVs in Altex magazine and Media Galaxy.
The opening of the first exhibition will occur on Wednesday, September 20, 2023, at 6:30 p.m., at Altex Bucharest Orhideea (Calea Giulești 1-3, Bucharest, sector 6).
The 13 artists participating in the project, 13m10j, Irina Bako, Marian Codrea, Antonia Corduneanu, Dan Chiș, Dragoș Dogioiu, Gea, Mihnea Rareș Hanțiu, Herne Hiili, Cristina Iliescu, Marta Mattioli, Nico Mureș, Radu Pandele, created especially for this exhibition digital artworks, facilitated by artificial intelligence, which will be presented in a site-specific audio-video installation, in unique spaces for art: Altex and Media Galaxy e_lectronics stores.
This referentiality of the exhibition space linked to a technological imaginary is complemented by the curatorial concept that fits into a broader context, which Călin Man, established artist and curator, kinema ikon (KI) coordinator, has been developing since the early 1990s: ready media. This concept refers to the aesthetics of Duchamp’s ready-made, but with a synchronous update to the technology of 2023. Thus, the media itself, taken as such, diverted by a more or less random algorithm, can cause (on request ) works that, assumedly or accidentally, we call works of art.
_ready media network(RMN)_ questions, detached, critical, ironic, but responsible, the current digital possibilities for producing video files by request. The Dadaist spirit is preserved by the way these films, received almost ready, are presented in a commercial space projected on television screens. The prospective buyer unwittingly turns into a visitor to an atypical, subversive art gallery, the experimental films running alternately with the advertising clips.
The video works will be presented on September 29-30 at the Media Art Festival Arad (MAFA), a kinema ikon project and the most important multimedia festival in Romania, which has as its central point the visual, sound, performative experiment in its technological, hybrid version, digital, analog, intentionally redundant. The screenings will be complemented by a discussion session on one of the most complex recent debates: artificial intelligence.
The special guests of this session will be Raluca Oancea (Nestor), curator and lecturer at the University of Arts in Bucharest, where she teaches courses in Aesthetics and New Media Art; Horea Avram, art historian, independent curator and associate professor at the Department of Cinema and Media, Faculty of Theater and Film, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca; Cristian Nae, curator and associate professor at the George Enescu Faculty of Arts, Iasi where he teaches Art History and Theory; Mirela Stoeac Vlăduți, founder and director of the art and science center MV sci-art, from the Polytechnic University of Timișoara; Ileana Selejan, art historian, researcher and curator, lecturer at Edinburgh College of Art where she teaches Art History, Culture and Society.
The video works created with AI will be accessible online and on the Empower Artists platform, containing a special section for this project – Going Digital.
The art exhibition _ready media network(RMN)_, part of the project Going Digital – Embracing New Visions and Perceptions of Art, co-financed by AFCN, will be presented in three important cities in the country – Bucharest, Brașov, and Constanța.
Exhibition program:
Bucharest
Ready media network (RMN) exhibition opening at Altex Bucharest Orhideea, September 20, 2023, 6:30 p.m.
Exhibition period: 20 – 26 September 2023
Address: Altex Bucharest Orhideea (Caale Giulești 1-3, Bucharest, sector 6)
Braşov
Opening of ready media network(RMN) exhibition at Media Galaxy, September 28, 2023, 6:30 p.m
Exhibition period: September 28 – October 4, 2023
Address: Media Galaxy (Calea Bucuresti 109, Brașov)
Constanta
Opening of the exhibition ready media network (RMN) at Media Galaxy Constanța Tom,
October 5, 2023, 6:30 p.m
Exhibition period: October 5 – 11, 2023
Address: Commercial Complex Tom (B-dul. Tomis, No. 391, Constanta)
Arad
Talk RMN discussion session within the Media Art Festival Arad (MAFA)
Date: 30 September 2023, between 12:00 and 14:00
Address: Arad Art Museum (Str. Gh. Popa de Teiuș 2-4, second floor, Arad)
Going Digital –Embracing New Visions and Perceptions of Art is a project initiated by the Empower Art & Artists Association.
Participating artists: 13m10j, Irina Bako, Marian Codrea, Antonia Corduneanu, Dan Chiș, Dragoș Dogioiu, Gea, Mihnea Rareș Hanțiu, Herne Hiili, Cristina Iliescu, Marta Mattioli, Nico Mureș, Radu Pandele. Curator: Călin Man.
Public access to the exhibitions is free.
About the curator
Călin Man (reVoltaire), established artist and curator, one of the first artists to develop, since the 90s, projects based on hypertext, hypermedia, hyperlink, database, interface, interactivity, www, net, HTML, etc. Coordinator of kinema ikon (KI), the longest-running Romanian group focused on experimental art, which supports, since the 70s, a constant and coherent program of new media art. In 2003, he was the curator and commissioner of the Romanian Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale, for which he proposed that the hypermedia installation have three components: Esoth Eric by Călin Man, alteridem.exe by kinema ikon and net.art_kit by Călin Man.
The Empower Art & Artists Cultural Association aims to support and promote artists and specialists in the field of visual arts by carrying out projects that highlight the artistic approach and potential in Romania, simultaneously aiming to facilitate the access of the largest possible audience to contemporary art. An essential objective of the Association is facilitating interaction between the general public and the artistic community.
The association opened the series of projects with the online, bilingual publication Empower Artists, an x-ray of artistic manifestations on the Romanian art scene, referring to the international context. The platform aims to become an important communication channel for artists, future art critics, and cultural journalists, as well as a leading source of information for the general public.
About partners
Altex is one of Romania’s most important Romanian private companies and the market leader in electronic, household appliances, IT&C, and multimedia products. The national network of Altex stores (over 125 stores) is constantly expanding, as is the range of products they sell. Altex’s mission is to bring the latest generation of technology to the homes of all Romanians through products and services that satisfy their needs.
Media Galaxy represents one of the largest networks of stores selling electronic and household appliances active on the Romanian market, offering customers a varied range of products both online and offline, in the country’s largest cities: Bucharest, Cluj, Iasi, Arad, Brașov, Constanta, Timisoara, Pitesti, Baia Mare, Oradea, Craiova, Târgu Mureș, Suceava.
Main partners: Altex Media Galaxy.
Institutional partners: UNARTE Bucharest, Media Art Festival Arad (MAFA), kinema ikon, Baraka Artist Cultural Association, Arad Museum Complex.
Media partners: Radio Romania Cultural, RFI Romania, ARTA Magazine, igloo, Agerpres, Empower Artists Magazine, IQads, The Institute, Modernism, ArTeVezi, Curatorial.ro, Revista Atelierul, Amos News, Romania Insider, Timișplus, Ultima Ora, Observator Constanța, Presa de Azi.
The project is co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration (AFCN). 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.
