Senzart
05 Jun - 30 Nov 2014
SENZART
05 June –30 November 2014
Curator: Raluca Velisar
The National Museum of Contemporary Art Romania, Friends of MNAC Association and Orange Foundation Romania are pleased to present SenzArt, an exhibition of interactive multimedia installation: MEM-NON by Martin-Emilian Balint; SIMTE PULSAȚIA! by Cătălin Crețu; POESIA DOMESTICA by Matthias Neumann in collaboration with Cristina David; FluO by Paul Popescu. SenzArt is dedicated to those suffering from visual and hearing impairment and wishes to promote to the general public the possibilities of contemporary art for communicating its messages on so many different levels of perception and with such a variety of means of expression, actively acting as a facilitator for communication.
All four installations are winners of SenzArt Call for Applications launched in Feb 2014 and had been carefully selected by the members of the jury from seventeen eligible applications. (Jury: Irina Botea – visual artist, Asst. Prof., The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Aurora Kiraly – visual artist, Assoc. Prof., National University of Arts Bucharest; Alexandru Patatics – visual artist; Larisa Sitar – visual artist; Raluca Velisar – curator, Head of Curatorial and Research Dept., National Museum of Contemporary Art); Dana Deac – Chair of Board of Directors, Orange Foundation Romania, Mary Lisa Durban – Corporate Philanthropy International Development Manager, Orange Foundation).
MEM-NON is an interactive environment that combines principles of chromatic mimicry found in nature with synesthesia. Structured as a visual soundscape, MEM-NON invites the public to live a multilayered sensorial experience through complementary perception.
Martin-Emilian Balint is a Romanian visual artist who works and lives in Bucharest. He received his bachelor’s degree and MFA in New Technologies for the Arts within Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice where he also obtained a grant from the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa in 2004. He has participated in collateral events of the Biennale di Venezia in 2005 and 2007, OPEN – International exhibition of sculptures and installations (10th, 11th and 14th edition), Manifesta 7 (2008). He is also a finalist for the Arte Laguna Prize (2008). Martin-Emilian Balint is one of the founders of the international art group CREAM (Creativity and Research in Arts and Media).
The project SIMTE PULSAȚIA! gives impaired individuals the opportunity to “feel” and experience – by means of interactive art – dynamic, pulsating processes and unconventional audio-visual spacing methods. A colourful canvas of 88 shapes is to be projected on the floor, while repetitive, pulsating music is being played in the speakers. Thus, the audience can experience a multitude of interactions between the audio and the visual processes. The project was realized at the Center for Electroacoustic Music and Multimedia of the National University of Music in Bucharest, with the support of Verso design.
Cătălin Crețu is a romanian composer and multimedia artist. He studied composition – with Dan Dediu and Adrian Iorgulescu – at the National University of Music in Bucharest and multimedia composition – with Peter Michael Hamel and Georg Hajdu – at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. He received his doctoral degree in music in Bucharest, advisor Octavian Nemescu. Since 2002 he is member of the Society of Romanian Composers and Musicologists. Since 2008 he is researcher at the Center for Electroacoustic Music and Multimedia of the National University of Music in Bucharest.
“La pittura è una poesia che si vede e non si sente, e la poesia è una pittura che si sente e non si vede.” – Leonardo DaVinci, Trattato della Pittura
Architecture commonly relies heavily on visual information. Throughout the process of design and building, as well as in the appreciation of a built work the predominant sense in understanding, communicating and experiencing architectural space is visual. LeCorbusier defined architecture as “the magnificent play of masses seen in light”; but what happens if you pull the plug? The project POESIA DOMESTICA proposes an investigation of architecture that excludes the visual element. Following a condensed trajectory of architectural production the work is guided by the generic steps in design and building: from site analysis, through design conception, development and building, and finally usage and human interaction with the space. The resulting work emulates a domestic environment in complete darkness, developed in collaboration with a Bucharest resident who is blind. As you enter, four rooms can be experienced: the entry porch, built of a wooden lattice structure that marks the entrance, followed by the kitchen, the bed room, and the living room. The room sequence is continuous and circular so that visitors will always return back to the entry porch, which is clearly identifiable through its construction even in complete darkness. A series of discreet sounds are placed throughout the rooms, adding an aural element to experiencing the environment.
Matthias Neumann is an architect and artist based in New York City. Over the past 10 years his work has been oscillating between spatial installation, architectural concern and social practice. While he continues to practice architecture in a more literal sense, a core interest in his work is a productive dialogue at the fringes of established disciplinary hermeneutics. This includes explorations into multi-media collaborations and installations, as well as work that engage with collective memory and social and political processes. His noted architectural work includes his finalist entry to internationally open architectural competition for the World Trade Center Memorial in New York (2003), renovation and addition to the residence and studio of artist Vik Muniz (2006), temporary exhibition hall for the South African Biennial for Contemporary Art (2007), and Hendershot Gallery in New York (2010), among others. His work has been exhibited in various galleries in New York and abroad, as well as at venues such as Manifesta 8, Murcia, Spain, Public Museum/SITE:Lab, Grand Rapids, Michigan, NRW Forum, Dusseldorf, Germany, Flint Public Arts Project, Flint, Michigan, among others.
He would like to acknowledge I-Park Foundation and the Foundation for Contemporary Art for additional support in realizing POESIA DOMESTICA.
Cristina David is working with narrative, humor, numbers, people and facts, real or invented, which at times are difficult to pick apart which one is which. She is an artist based in Bucharest and elsewhere, a person that is having difficulties to write her bio in the third person. Cristina’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, including the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, Futura Gallery in Prague, Galerie fur Zeitgenossische Kunst in Leipzig, Ivan Gallery (Bucharest). Additionally, she has participated in Manifesta 8, Biennial for Contemporary Art (Spain).
FluO is multi-sensitive water string instrument modulated by the people interacting with it, emitting sound as the streams of water are touched. On many levels, FluO takes inspiration from the classical Harp instrument that by nature engages the user in a very intimate and virtuous interaction. FluO challenges the limits of sensorial perception through a technological metaphor that questions the interpretation of reality and of the simplest natural phenomena like gravity, generating a sort of ambiguity that takes the observer into an upside-down world, similar to the dream and fantasy worlds of childhood.
Paul Popescu is a transmedia artist working with interactive installations which he showed in different local and international new media festivals (CyNet Art – Dresden, Germany 2008; Piksel – Bremen, Norway, 2011). He developed the interactive installations for Romanian Pavilion at Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012 and was included in top 100 creative Romanian (100towatch.ro). In 2009/2010 he worked for the media lab of the National Contemporary Art Museum. He is the founder of Modulab, the first art and technology lab in Bucharest, which follows four directions: new media art (installations), education (workshops and presentations) technological innovation and theoretical research.
05 June –30 November 2014
Curator: Raluca Velisar
The National Museum of Contemporary Art Romania, Friends of MNAC Association and Orange Foundation Romania are pleased to present SenzArt, an exhibition of interactive multimedia installation: MEM-NON by Martin-Emilian Balint; SIMTE PULSAȚIA! by Cătălin Crețu; POESIA DOMESTICA by Matthias Neumann in collaboration with Cristina David; FluO by Paul Popescu. SenzArt is dedicated to those suffering from visual and hearing impairment and wishes to promote to the general public the possibilities of contemporary art for communicating its messages on so many different levels of perception and with such a variety of means of expression, actively acting as a facilitator for communication.
All four installations are winners of SenzArt Call for Applications launched in Feb 2014 and had been carefully selected by the members of the jury from seventeen eligible applications. (Jury: Irina Botea – visual artist, Asst. Prof., The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Aurora Kiraly – visual artist, Assoc. Prof., National University of Arts Bucharest; Alexandru Patatics – visual artist; Larisa Sitar – visual artist; Raluca Velisar – curator, Head of Curatorial and Research Dept., National Museum of Contemporary Art); Dana Deac – Chair of Board of Directors, Orange Foundation Romania, Mary Lisa Durban – Corporate Philanthropy International Development Manager, Orange Foundation).
MEM-NON is an interactive environment that combines principles of chromatic mimicry found in nature with synesthesia. Structured as a visual soundscape, MEM-NON invites the public to live a multilayered sensorial experience through complementary perception.
Martin-Emilian Balint is a Romanian visual artist who works and lives in Bucharest. He received his bachelor’s degree and MFA in New Technologies for the Arts within Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice where he also obtained a grant from the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa in 2004. He has participated in collateral events of the Biennale di Venezia in 2005 and 2007, OPEN – International exhibition of sculptures and installations (10th, 11th and 14th edition), Manifesta 7 (2008). He is also a finalist for the Arte Laguna Prize (2008). Martin-Emilian Balint is one of the founders of the international art group CREAM (Creativity and Research in Arts and Media).
The project SIMTE PULSAȚIA! gives impaired individuals the opportunity to “feel” and experience – by means of interactive art – dynamic, pulsating processes and unconventional audio-visual spacing methods. A colourful canvas of 88 shapes is to be projected on the floor, while repetitive, pulsating music is being played in the speakers. Thus, the audience can experience a multitude of interactions between the audio and the visual processes. The project was realized at the Center for Electroacoustic Music and Multimedia of the National University of Music in Bucharest, with the support of Verso design.
Cătălin Crețu is a romanian composer and multimedia artist. He studied composition – with Dan Dediu and Adrian Iorgulescu – at the National University of Music in Bucharest and multimedia composition – with Peter Michael Hamel and Georg Hajdu – at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. He received his doctoral degree in music in Bucharest, advisor Octavian Nemescu. Since 2002 he is member of the Society of Romanian Composers and Musicologists. Since 2008 he is researcher at the Center for Electroacoustic Music and Multimedia of the National University of Music in Bucharest.
“La pittura è una poesia che si vede e non si sente, e la poesia è una pittura che si sente e non si vede.” – Leonardo DaVinci, Trattato della Pittura
Architecture commonly relies heavily on visual information. Throughout the process of design and building, as well as in the appreciation of a built work the predominant sense in understanding, communicating and experiencing architectural space is visual. LeCorbusier defined architecture as “the magnificent play of masses seen in light”; but what happens if you pull the plug? The project POESIA DOMESTICA proposes an investigation of architecture that excludes the visual element. Following a condensed trajectory of architectural production the work is guided by the generic steps in design and building: from site analysis, through design conception, development and building, and finally usage and human interaction with the space. The resulting work emulates a domestic environment in complete darkness, developed in collaboration with a Bucharest resident who is blind. As you enter, four rooms can be experienced: the entry porch, built of a wooden lattice structure that marks the entrance, followed by the kitchen, the bed room, and the living room. The room sequence is continuous and circular so that visitors will always return back to the entry porch, which is clearly identifiable through its construction even in complete darkness. A series of discreet sounds are placed throughout the rooms, adding an aural element to experiencing the environment.
Matthias Neumann is an architect and artist based in New York City. Over the past 10 years his work has been oscillating between spatial installation, architectural concern and social practice. While he continues to practice architecture in a more literal sense, a core interest in his work is a productive dialogue at the fringes of established disciplinary hermeneutics. This includes explorations into multi-media collaborations and installations, as well as work that engage with collective memory and social and political processes. His noted architectural work includes his finalist entry to internationally open architectural competition for the World Trade Center Memorial in New York (2003), renovation and addition to the residence and studio of artist Vik Muniz (2006), temporary exhibition hall for the South African Biennial for Contemporary Art (2007), and Hendershot Gallery in New York (2010), among others. His work has been exhibited in various galleries in New York and abroad, as well as at venues such as Manifesta 8, Murcia, Spain, Public Museum/SITE:Lab, Grand Rapids, Michigan, NRW Forum, Dusseldorf, Germany, Flint Public Arts Project, Flint, Michigan, among others.
He would like to acknowledge I-Park Foundation and the Foundation for Contemporary Art for additional support in realizing POESIA DOMESTICA.
Cristina David is working with narrative, humor, numbers, people and facts, real or invented, which at times are difficult to pick apart which one is which. She is an artist based in Bucharest and elsewhere, a person that is having difficulties to write her bio in the third person. Cristina’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, including the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, Futura Gallery in Prague, Galerie fur Zeitgenossische Kunst in Leipzig, Ivan Gallery (Bucharest). Additionally, she has participated in Manifesta 8, Biennial for Contemporary Art (Spain).
FluO is multi-sensitive water string instrument modulated by the people interacting with it, emitting sound as the streams of water are touched. On many levels, FluO takes inspiration from the classical Harp instrument that by nature engages the user in a very intimate and virtuous interaction. FluO challenges the limits of sensorial perception through a technological metaphor that questions the interpretation of reality and of the simplest natural phenomena like gravity, generating a sort of ambiguity that takes the observer into an upside-down world, similar to the dream and fantasy worlds of childhood.
Paul Popescu is a transmedia artist working with interactive installations which he showed in different local and international new media festivals (CyNet Art – Dresden, Germany 2008; Piksel – Bremen, Norway, 2011). He developed the interactive installations for Romanian Pavilion at Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012 and was included in top 100 creative Romanian (100towatch.ro). In 2009/2010 he worked for the media lab of the National Contemporary Art Museum. He is the founder of Modulab, the first art and technology lab in Bucharest, which follows four directions: new media art (installations), education (workshops and presentations) technological innovation and theoretical research.