Life a User’s Manual
September 30–November 5, 2017
Timișoara & Arad, Romania
Curators: Ami Barak and Diana Marincu
Art Encounters 2017 is pleased to announce its second edition this year, and to unveil the first list of artists, including: Francis Alÿs, Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan, Michel Blazy, Irina Botea Bucan, Pavel Brăila, Corneliu Brudașcu, Dora Budor, Cristina David, Camille Henrot, Mary Reid Kelley, David Maljković, Victor Man, Olivia Mihălțianu, Roman Ondak, Miklós Onucsan, Julien Previeux, Anri Sala, Mircea Suciu, Mona Vătămanu & Florin Tudor. The initial selection of artists is now available at: www.artencounters.ro
Art Encounters 2017 lies at the intersection between an experimental art festival and a contemporary art biennial, focusing on the Romanian art scene, as well as an extensive selection of international artists. Titled Life a User’s Manual, the exhibition curated by Ami Barak and Diana Marincu surveys and compiles everyday life fragments, as seen in both current artistic practices, and in historical art projects from the 1960s onwards.
On an international level, this year’s biennial is expanding its program dedicated to the dialogue between the local and global scenes. On a regional level, the biennial aims at strengthening its ties to artists in close geographical proximity to Romania. The biennial brings together a group of international artists who will engage in meaningful dialogues with the region’s artistic communities. The exhibition will be embedded across several venues in Timișoara and Arad, and will highlight the ways in which artists reflect on many day-to-day realities that are now becoming increasingly unstable. Like in Georges Perec’s novel, La Vie mode d’emploi, the exhibition will present characters, situations and contexts—stories that span not only a day, but also a lifetime. As the Fluxus artist Robert Filliou said, “art is what makes life more interesting than art.”
Alongside the main exhibition, Art Encounters 2017 will provide a close examination of the Romanian independent art scene by inviting a comprehensive selection of art organizations which provide critical support and opportunities for contemporary art in Romania.
Ami Barak is an independent curator based in Paris. Among recent projects: I am also… Douglas Gordon, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, in 2013; Off to a flying start, Nuit blanche Toronto, 2013; Stuttering – Melik Ohanian, Crac Sete 2014; Taryn Simon, Rear Views, a Star-forming Nebula, and the Office of Foreign Propaganda, Jeu de Paume Paris 2015; Le Salon de Montrouge 61st & 62nd editions 2016, 2017; Juliao Sarmento – The Real Thing, Fondation Gulbenkian Paris; Peter Kogler – Next, ING Art Center Bruxelles. He is the curator of the 15th edition of the biennial of the contemporary image – Momenta, Montréal, 2017.
Diana Marincu is a curator and art critic based in Cluj and Bucharest. Her most recent exhibitions include: Narrating images / Imagining stories, group exhibition, Domino (2017); M (Teodor Graur and Cristian Rusu), Plan B Foundation Cluj (2016); The White Dot and The Black Cube, a curatorial project in six parts (together with Anca Verona Mihuleț), The National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest (2015-2017); Inventing truth. On Fiction and Reality, one of the two projects representing Romania at the 56th International Art Exhibition – Venice Biennale, the New Gallery of the Romanian Institute for Culture and Humanistic Research from Venice (2015).
Art Encounters Foundation is an independent cultural institution, which was founded in 2015 in Timișoara. The projects of The Art Encounters Foundation are predominantly aimed at ensuring support for the development of the contemporary art scene in Romania.
Team of the Art Encounters Foundation:
Ovidiu Șandor, Founder and President
Cristina Olteanu, Executive Director
Georgia Bacinschi, Marketing & Events
Natca Vaszilcsin, Logistics coordinator
Sarah Bălăceanu El-Amine, Junior PR
