Vlad Nanca & Janek Simon
28 Mar - 03 May 2008
VLAD NANCĂ & JANEK SIMON
"Remix"
Opening: Friday, March 28th 2008, 6 - 9 p.m.
Vlad Nanca (Bucharest) and Janek Simon (Krakow) first met in 2004 during a residency at Casino Luxemburg, Luxembourg. Janek later exhibited in Bucharest (2020 Home Gallery) at Vlad's invitation, and then invited Vlad to participate in the Polish Year in Madagascar project (2006). This growing acquaintance and friendship between the artists, who also share similar generational and geopolitical experiences, provided a starting point for their joint-project in Raster.
The exhibition takes the shape of a creative experiment, a peculiar way of doubling one's artistic capacity - the artists alter and remake each other's works by changing the context, "improving" them, or simply translating them into their own artistic language. The result is a series of works of somewhat ambiguous authorship: Vlad's works are a variation on chosen early projects by Janek, and conversely Janek has chosen to rework particular pieces of Vlad's. This seemingly simple idea, however, reveals a number of interesting issues. On the one hand it asks questions about the possibility of "improving" someone else's work and a clash of two artistic egos. On the other hand, the process of remixing specifically boils down to changing the context of the original works, thus becoming a process of cultural translation which is particularly intriguing.
What determines the difference in thinking between two young artists active at the beginning of the 21st century in two European countries with similar recent history and geopolitical and institutional conditionings? Would the works of a Romanian artist, once filtered through the sensitivity of his Polish counterpart, become more legible to us, and vice versa? And finally, how far can one go in relieving a work from its original meaning, and how capable is it of acquiring new meanings?
This exhibition hints at various possible answers to the above questions and a number of ways of providing them. By choosing and reworking each other's pieces Nancă and Simon have managed to create a whole which indicates similarities in both their artistic practice and field of interest. Thus the exhibition in Raster can also be seen as a reflection of the Do-It-Yourself strategies and personal involvement in anarchist or alterglobalist movements. Particular works, such as personal armor for urban combat invented by Vlad and "improved" by Janek, or Janek's "Suicide-painter" "altered" by Vlad into a home-made painterly battle, reach back to practices verging on guerilla warfare. In the context of the Raster exhibition those references take on an even more complex character. They refer to the topicality of straightforward engagement and the issues of institutionalization and "musealization" of such practices, advanced chiefly by means of contemporary art.
Vlad Nancă
(born in 1979 in Bucharest) works in installation art, performance, photography and projects in urban space. One of his major areas of interest is the process of political transformation taking place in Romania (and the whole of Eastern Europe), its flaws and surprising side effects. Called an "art provocateur" by his colleagues, he is an active participant of Bucharest art (and not only art) scene and co-founder of 2020 Home Gallery.
vladnancaworks.blogspot.com
vladnanca.blogspot.com
Janek Simon
(born in 1977 in Krakow) carries out projects aimed at revealing the anarchic face of surrounding reality and contemporary world. His works are based on a critical analysis of structures meant for better control of human activities: from politics to electronics. His best known projects include: organizing the Polish Year in Madagaskar (2006), a cheating "Calculator" (2006), inspired by the practices of Chinese illegal currency traders, shown at the "Willa Warszawa" project organized by Raster. Last year Simon was announced the best young emerging artist in the competition organized by Zacheta Gallery, Warsaw and Deutsche Bank.
"Remix"
Opening: Friday, March 28th 2008, 6 - 9 p.m.
Vlad Nanca (Bucharest) and Janek Simon (Krakow) first met in 2004 during a residency at Casino Luxemburg, Luxembourg. Janek later exhibited in Bucharest (2020 Home Gallery) at Vlad's invitation, and then invited Vlad to participate in the Polish Year in Madagascar project (2006). This growing acquaintance and friendship between the artists, who also share similar generational and geopolitical experiences, provided a starting point for their joint-project in Raster.
The exhibition takes the shape of a creative experiment, a peculiar way of doubling one's artistic capacity - the artists alter and remake each other's works by changing the context, "improving" them, or simply translating them into their own artistic language. The result is a series of works of somewhat ambiguous authorship: Vlad's works are a variation on chosen early projects by Janek, and conversely Janek has chosen to rework particular pieces of Vlad's. This seemingly simple idea, however, reveals a number of interesting issues. On the one hand it asks questions about the possibility of "improving" someone else's work and a clash of two artistic egos. On the other hand, the process of remixing specifically boils down to changing the context of the original works, thus becoming a process of cultural translation which is particularly intriguing.
What determines the difference in thinking between two young artists active at the beginning of the 21st century in two European countries with similar recent history and geopolitical and institutional conditionings? Would the works of a Romanian artist, once filtered through the sensitivity of his Polish counterpart, become more legible to us, and vice versa? And finally, how far can one go in relieving a work from its original meaning, and how capable is it of acquiring new meanings?
This exhibition hints at various possible answers to the above questions and a number of ways of providing them. By choosing and reworking each other's pieces Nancă and Simon have managed to create a whole which indicates similarities in both their artistic practice and field of interest. Thus the exhibition in Raster can also be seen as a reflection of the Do-It-Yourself strategies and personal involvement in anarchist or alterglobalist movements. Particular works, such as personal armor for urban combat invented by Vlad and "improved" by Janek, or Janek's "Suicide-painter" "altered" by Vlad into a home-made painterly battle, reach back to practices verging on guerilla warfare. In the context of the Raster exhibition those references take on an even more complex character. They refer to the topicality of straightforward engagement and the issues of institutionalization and "musealization" of such practices, advanced chiefly by means of contemporary art.
Vlad Nancă
(born in 1979 in Bucharest) works in installation art, performance, photography and projects in urban space. One of his major areas of interest is the process of political transformation taking place in Romania (and the whole of Eastern Europe), its flaws and surprising side effects. Called an "art provocateur" by his colleagues, he is an active participant of Bucharest art (and not only art) scene and co-founder of 2020 Home Gallery.
vladnancaworks.blogspot.com
vladnanca.blogspot.com
Janek Simon
(born in 1977 in Krakow) carries out projects aimed at revealing the anarchic face of surrounding reality and contemporary world. His works are based on a critical analysis of structures meant for better control of human activities: from politics to electronics. His best known projects include: organizing the Polish Year in Madagaskar (2006), a cheating "Calculator" (2006), inspired by the practices of Chinese illegal currency traders, shown at the "Willa Warszawa" project organized by Raster. Last year Simon was announced the best young emerging artist in the competition organized by Zacheta Gallery, Warsaw and Deutsche Bank.