Dan Mihaltianu
07 Jun - 27 Jul 2013
DAN MIHALTIANU
Les enfants de Ceausescu et de George Soros
7 June – 27 July 2013
Galeria Plan B is happy to announce the personal exhibition of Romanian artist Dan Mihaltianu.
"Les enfants de Ceausescu et de George Soros" is a survey of the Romanian art scene following people, events and places, through the changes occurred on the long way from the closed society of Ceausescu‘s regime through the extended and still on-going period of transition towards the open society of the post communist era.
The exhibition including works from different periods (late 70s to the present) is re-contextualizing a vast raw material (text, object and image) which focuses on the artist's life - between private and socio-political determinations - in an attempt to understand the flow of history and the act of creation.
Present Shock (excerpt from the text "Les enfants de Ceausescu et de George Soros", Dan Mihaltianu 2007, 2013)
Shortly after the execution of the presidential couple in December 1989, the nation was confronted with a horrible inheritance – too big a House for such a poor People. National opinion was divided between, on the one hand, admiration, pride, satisfaction or approbation and on the other, bewilderment, surprise, embarrassment, disgust or anger. Previously, everyone had tried to cope with the situation as well as they could, either by ignoring the existence of the huge construction site in the middle of Bucharest, or by trying to take advantage of it by becoming actively involved in the process.
The deep and irreversible changes brought to bear on the social, economic and cultural fields of Bucharest and of Romania as a whole, by the construction of the Bucharest Civic Center and the People’s House, can never be properly evaluated. The impact was in the order of a nuclear explosion, which left behind an indelible mushroom cloud of concrete that cannot be blown away by the wind, washed away by rain or buried. Its radiation will not diminish as time goes by. No one can tell whether its effects will be harmful or benign. What can be observed for the time being is the division of Romanian society, which nevertheless continues the struggle to occupy new territories that have opened up after the collapse of communism.
More than two decades after Ceausescu, many of the features I have mentioned are still to be seen behind huge billboards covering the facades of buildings in Bucharest. Other aspects of daily existence during the last decades of Real Socialism in Romania - the fear, the humiliation, the confusion, the alienation, the duplicity and opportunism - did not fade from people’s consciousness. They were merely covered over by a thin layer of new attitudes and behaviours in a rapid attempt to adjust to the new economic, political, social and cultural environment called “Transition”.
Dan Mihaltianu (born 1954 in Bucharest, based in Bucharest, Berlin and Bergen) has studied fine arts at the Institute of Fine Arts Bucharest (1975-1983). He was cofounder of subREAL (1990), Editor / Associate Editor of Arta Magazine Bucharest (1990 - 1993 and 2011 - to present), Professor at Bergen Academy of Art and Design (2001-2007), Guest Professor at Universite du Quebec a Montreal (2008-2009). Since the 1980s his work has been widely exhibited internationally in major art events, museums, art centres and galleries, among others: Impact Art Festival Kyoto (1986, 1997, 1988), European Print Triennial Grado (1987), Istanbul Biennial (1992), IfA-Galerie Berlin (1993, 1996), La Biennale di Venezia (1993, 1998, 2001), Kunstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin (1994), Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Bonn (1994), Art in General New York (1996), Museum of Contemporary Art - Ludwig Museum Budapest (1997), ZKM / Museum for Contemporary Arts Karlsruhe (1998, 2001), Periferic, Iasi (1999, 2000), Museum of Modern Art Skopje (2004), Renaissance Society Chicago (2004), Tallinn Print Triennial (2004), Bergen Kunsthall (2005), National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest (2005, 2012), Prague Biennale (2007), NGBK Berlin (2007), 3.14 International Contemporary Art Foundation Bergen (2008), Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin (2010), Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art Thessaloniki (2011), Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo (2011), Tallinn Art Hall (2012), SALT Istanbul (2013).
Les enfants de Ceausescu et de George Soros
7 June – 27 July 2013
Galeria Plan B is happy to announce the personal exhibition of Romanian artist Dan Mihaltianu.
"Les enfants de Ceausescu et de George Soros" is a survey of the Romanian art scene following people, events and places, through the changes occurred on the long way from the closed society of Ceausescu‘s regime through the extended and still on-going period of transition towards the open society of the post communist era.
The exhibition including works from different periods (late 70s to the present) is re-contextualizing a vast raw material (text, object and image) which focuses on the artist's life - between private and socio-political determinations - in an attempt to understand the flow of history and the act of creation.
Present Shock (excerpt from the text "Les enfants de Ceausescu et de George Soros", Dan Mihaltianu 2007, 2013)
Shortly after the execution of the presidential couple in December 1989, the nation was confronted with a horrible inheritance – too big a House for such a poor People. National opinion was divided between, on the one hand, admiration, pride, satisfaction or approbation and on the other, bewilderment, surprise, embarrassment, disgust or anger. Previously, everyone had tried to cope with the situation as well as they could, either by ignoring the existence of the huge construction site in the middle of Bucharest, or by trying to take advantage of it by becoming actively involved in the process.
The deep and irreversible changes brought to bear on the social, economic and cultural fields of Bucharest and of Romania as a whole, by the construction of the Bucharest Civic Center and the People’s House, can never be properly evaluated. The impact was in the order of a nuclear explosion, which left behind an indelible mushroom cloud of concrete that cannot be blown away by the wind, washed away by rain or buried. Its radiation will not diminish as time goes by. No one can tell whether its effects will be harmful or benign. What can be observed for the time being is the division of Romanian society, which nevertheless continues the struggle to occupy new territories that have opened up after the collapse of communism.
More than two decades after Ceausescu, many of the features I have mentioned are still to be seen behind huge billboards covering the facades of buildings in Bucharest. Other aspects of daily existence during the last decades of Real Socialism in Romania - the fear, the humiliation, the confusion, the alienation, the duplicity and opportunism - did not fade from people’s consciousness. They were merely covered over by a thin layer of new attitudes and behaviours in a rapid attempt to adjust to the new economic, political, social and cultural environment called “Transition”.
Dan Mihaltianu (born 1954 in Bucharest, based in Bucharest, Berlin and Bergen) has studied fine arts at the Institute of Fine Arts Bucharest (1975-1983). He was cofounder of subREAL (1990), Editor / Associate Editor of Arta Magazine Bucharest (1990 - 1993 and 2011 - to present), Professor at Bergen Academy of Art and Design (2001-2007), Guest Professor at Universite du Quebec a Montreal (2008-2009). Since the 1980s his work has been widely exhibited internationally in major art events, museums, art centres and galleries, among others: Impact Art Festival Kyoto (1986, 1997, 1988), European Print Triennial Grado (1987), Istanbul Biennial (1992), IfA-Galerie Berlin (1993, 1996), La Biennale di Venezia (1993, 1998, 2001), Kunstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin (1994), Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Bonn (1994), Art in General New York (1996), Museum of Contemporary Art - Ludwig Museum Budapest (1997), ZKM / Museum for Contemporary Arts Karlsruhe (1998, 2001), Periferic, Iasi (1999, 2000), Museum of Modern Art Skopje (2004), Renaissance Society Chicago (2004), Tallinn Print Triennial (2004), Bergen Kunsthall (2005), National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest (2005, 2012), Prague Biennale (2007), NGBK Berlin (2007), 3.14 International Contemporary Art Foundation Bergen (2008), Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin (2010), Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art Thessaloniki (2011), Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo (2011), Tallinn Art Hall (2012), SALT Istanbul (2013).