The new exhibition season

The Prisoners of the Avant-Garde. A Ion Bitzan Retrospective​
Curator: Călin Dan
Assistant curator: Sandra Demetrescu
Exhibition design: skaarchitects
Graphic design: Bogdan Ceaușescu
Research assistants: Magda Predescu, Cristina Cojocaru
With the support of: Fundația Ion Bitzan / Ion Bitzan Foundation

Ion Bitzan (1924–97) belongs to a Romanian generation of great talents, manifest in the brief period of détente between 1962-1974 approximately, who developed a body of work that can be ascribed to international conceptualism and minimalism. His career was highlighted by participations to the most important international Biennales of the time, and his works are in the collection of prestigious institutions like the MoMA, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In contrast to other colleagues who later either emigrated, or isolated themselves from the ever more aggressive politcal context, Ion Bitzan devised a different strategy—original and at the same time risky. Parallel to his research into the history of international experimental art (which resulted in an impressive number of works), Bitzan also produced works commissioned by and dedicated to the Communist Party and its leader. Looking at the oeuvre of Ion Bitzan, the exhibition tries to shed light on a period full of nuances and shadows, when artistic innovation and political art co-existed in a complicated relation.

Marshalling yard—The Ethel Lucaci-Băiaș and Silviu Băiaș Donation
Exhibition design: atelier ad hoc
MNAC Coordinator: Irina Radu

The National Museum of Contemporary Art is honoured to introduce the Ethel Lucaci-Băiaș and Silviu Băiaș donation, comprising a significant body of works by the two artists. Outstanding in their cultural refinement and embracing each their own well-defined territory of forms and ideas, Ethel and Silviu have covered a long path—together and side by side—while being simultaneously at the centre and on the fringe of Romanian visual art. At the centre—since their personalities unmistakably left an imprint on the ways the graphic image was conceived of in the eight and ninth decades of the last century. On the fringe—because their independent character, moral strength and unyielding modesty kept them aloof from both the turmoils rooted in conceit, and the inevitable compromise of those times.

Wanda Mihuleac: Contextualizations
Curators: Magda Cârneci, Mica Gherghescu
Research assistant: Ioana Tomșa
Exhibition design: skaarchitects
MNAC Coordinator: Mălina Ionescu

The exhibition Wanda Mihuleac: Contextualizations aims to retrace the artistic journey of one of the most inventive and dynamic figures of the Romanian artistic scene of the ’70s and ’80s.

Three thematic axes, which also function as semantic modules structure the exhibition. The wall, the mirror, and the writing are as many places of signification, which have been, over time, displaced, re-contextualized and re-played in various visual and situational strategies by Wanda Mihuleac, in an exceptional diversity of visual solutions.

The exhibition is a great opportunity for the re-visitation of the great monumental ensembles, of her series of ecological projects, of her conceptual interventions and also of her collaborations with Romanian writers, experimental music composers and choreographers in the ’70s and ’80s.

The exhibition Wanda Mihuleac: Contextualizations is coherent with MNAC Bucharest’s program of recuperating the experimental artistic discourses in the Romanian art in the ’70s and ’80s.
(Magda Cârneci and Mica Gherghescu)

Gheorghe Rasovszky: aNORMAL | abnormal
Curator: Simona Vilău
MNAC Coordinator: Cerasela Barbone

The exhibition dedicated to Gheorghe Rasovszky (b. 1952) presents a selection of works from 1970 to 2017. His vast artistic production consists of drawing, collage, mixed media works, painting, photography, video works and installation. Known mostly as a member of the ’80s Generation, featured in articles and studies covering the period, by critics such as Mihai Ispir, Adrian Guță and Magda Cârneci, promoted by curator Ruxandra Balaci in the ’90s and early 2000,  Gheorghe Rasovszky is a singular personality, hard to frame inside a style or an artistic movement. Despite being a friend and collaborator of Gellu Naum and of a few important contemporary poets and artists, such as Dan Stanciu, Sebastian Reichmann, Iulian Mereuță, Vlad Iacob, Rasovszky dug his own tunnel in a hard rock mountain, using his acid yet sensitive spirit, difficult to pin down geographically or geopolitically.
(Simona Vilău)

Selfie Automaton
Concept and adaptation: Tiberiu Bucșa, Gál Orsolya, Stathis Markopoulos
MNAC Coordinator: Ioana Mandeal

Selfie Automaton talks about mechanisms and the role of the individual in their making and functioning. The exhibition consists of automata, uncanny and entertaining objects, used as a pretext and a way of communicating between the authors and the public.

Caricatures of characters and fantastic animals are assembled in predefined scenes, parts of a show in which the visitor is granted a special role. Placed on stage, he becomes dynamo and actor in a closed and cyclical scenario, a possible generic portrait of social relations, broken into pieces.

The project was produced for the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2016 and has traveled thereafter to the Museum Speelklok in Utrecht (NL) and FITPT in Iași (RO). In its reiteration at MNAC, Selfie Automaton gains new contextual meanings and opens up a particular perspective on personal positioning.

Catch the artist
During the opening event, Gabriela Mateescu proposes two durational performances which explore the relationship between the artist, the institution and the public. The artist’s presence is part of MNAC’s mission to support performative arts and is curated by Ioana Păun.

Sponsors: Crama Oprișor, Policolor, Grup Transilvae, Square Media