Land of Fire

Artists: Claudia Andujar, Florin Bobu, Alex Bodea, Tony Chakar, Ana Deji, Megan Dominescu, Mihaela Drăgan, Ion Dumitrescu, Chitra Ganesh, Alexandra Gulea, Loredana Ilie, Sakarin Krue-On, Ivana Mladenović, Nicoleta Moise, Silvia Moldovan, Elisabeta and Emilia Morar, Veda Popovici and Mircea Nicolae, Maria Prodan, Citra Sasmita, Ștefan Sava, Ultima Esperanza, Sana Shahmuradova Tanska, Robel Temesgen, Hans Mattis-Teusch, Mona Vătămanu and Florin Tudor, Mark Verlan, Cecilia Vicuña, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Cristina Zárraga

Kunsthalle Bega is pleased to present the international group exhibition Land of Fire, a concept by Cosmin Costinaș, Bega Art Prize Winner 2021, and curated together with Mona Vătămanu and Florin Tudor. 

Departing from several lesser-known historical episodes, Land of Fire is interested in some lines of exclusion in both historical and art historical discourses in Romania, involving moments of darkness as well as progressive occurrences. This process raises several questions: which groups, along with their stories, images, and perspectives, have been left out from Romania’s ongoing process of self-imagination, from ethnic communities to social groups? Which narratives from the undercurrents of Romanian history continue to be ignored? Here, the exhibition initiates an examination of the involvement, proximity, as well as the benefits gained by the Romanian territories from the European colonial project. Bringing in figures from this unexamined Romanian colonial history, such as that of Iuliu Popper, a major participant in the genocide of the Selk’nam people in Tierra del Fuego, the exhibition also discusses other chapters from Romania’s past: from the five hundred years of Roma enslavement to the colonization of Cadrilater, the occupation of Transnistria and the genocide of Jews and Roma, from the first written account of the first European expedition around the world to other explorers and scientists, serving the colonial project. Alongside these, however, the exhibition is also interested in stories of solidarity that have been equally obscured by mainstream history telling, looking for example at the place held by diplomat Nicolae Titulescu in Ethiopia’s memory of its anti-colonial struggle. 

Land of Fire also asks what genres, styles, languages, media and artistic genealogies have been excluded, often at the expense of complexity, from the dominant art historical narratives used to construct the nation’s self-image? Perhaps that of eighteenth and nineteenth century vernacular Orthodox glass icons in Transylvania, many of them made by female artists, in an era when women were generally excluded from the male dominated artistic profession, throughout the European continent? Or the history of ‘Transylvanian rugs’, produced in Muslim countries, collected in Transylvania, and represented in Western European paintings, that show the complexities of trade and exchange routes of the global colonial economy? Or the hybrid music genres that are still a point of contention in Romania today?

The exhibition gathers multiple perspectives on these questions, both from within and outside the country, as well as points of analogy from different continents. These stories and exercises open up new horizons, and the world as seen from a Romanian vantage point is becoming wider while the country’s place in it more layered, for better or worse.

Kunsthalle Bega continues its long-term mission to support the production of new artworks by both emerging and established artists. Land of Fire features 15 new artistic projects, introduced to the public for the first time. 

More info here.

The exhibition Land of Fire is an event organised by Fundația Calina, produced by Kunsthalle Bega & co-financed by the Ministry of Culture through the Center for Projects and by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. Kunsthalle Bega is an alternative and experimental space where contemporary art is thought, discussed, and exhibited, founded in Timisoara, in 2019, by Alina Cristescu, Liviana Dan, and Bogdan Rața, together with Andreea Drăghicescu and Lajos Ugron. Dedicated especially to young artists from Romania and the world, Kunsthalle Bega is aesthetically and socially interested in the platforms of contemporary art museums. Every year, following consultations with a specialised jury, it offers an award—the Bega Art Prize—to a Romanian curator under the age of 40 who has managed to change the rules of curatorial perception. Involved in educational projects with diverse communities, Kunsthalle Bega promotes the importance of art publications.