ROME.- The Romanian Academy announced the 7th edition of Spazi Aperti, the annual collaborative exhibition in a continuous expansion, opening on Wednesday, 27th May 2009.
The exhibition is curated by Mirela Pribac and will take place in the alternative spaces of the Romanian Academy in Rome, opened for site-specific installations. As in previous editions, Spazi Aperti is the largest collaboration between the artists in residence at foreign academies and institutes in Rome, this year including: the American Academy, the Belgian Academy, the Danish Academy, Académie de France à Rome – Villa Medici, the German Academy Rome Villa Massimo, the Hungarian Academy, the British School at Rome, the Scandinavian Circle, the Swedish Institute, the Swiss Institute, the Royal Spanish Academy and Temple University.
The special guest for this edition will be the National Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest, presenting the works of young Romanian talents. The selected artists include: Michele Bressan, Valeriu Cătălineanu, George Enache, Anca Ştirbacu, Dragoş Stroe.
For the first time Spazi Aperti is launching a theme: re:making worlds / ri:fare mondi. With this theme artists are invited to create and exhibit work exploring the juxtaposition of fantasy and reality, bridging between past and present, navigating among personal memories and memory in a larger, historical sense. The works will engage in a discourse on how memory can be preserved and re:delivered, as filtered through the fantastic net of imagination. Fantasy becomes the mediator between past and present and will determine the way memories are recycled. In a year marking the passage of 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the decline of totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe, artists will explore how fantasy worlds emerge from sublimated historical trauma.
The title also playfully connects with the theme of 53rd Venice Biennale entitled Making Worlds / Fare Mondi, underlining the ludic element of the exhibition that aims to re:activate realities of the past through fantasy, without embarking on the utopian enterprise of redefining the world. The opening concert will feature an extraordinary performance by Alexander Bălănescu of the Bălănescu Quartet in London, playing together with the Romanian cult vocalist Ada Milea. The electronic music concert of the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia, the Infinite Column theatre performance by Telluris Associati and the Argentinian Tango of Marco Lo Russo Ensemble are curated by Alexandra Şolea.
Participants include:
David Humphrey, Marie Lorenz, Jeff Williams (American Academy), Térèse Dehin (Belgian Academy), Fie Tanderup (Danish Academy), Emmanuel Giraud (Académie de France à Rome – Villa Medici), Henriette Grahnert, Jochen Lempert, Charlotte Seither, Daniel Widrig (German Academy Rome Villa Massimo), János Kórodi, Erik Mátrai, Annamaria Őry, Nóra Bujdosó (Hungarian Academy), Chris Cook, Katie Cuddon, Celia Hempton, Eddie Peake (The British School at Rome), Daniel Hoflund (Scandinavian Circle), Amanda Werger (Swedish Institute), Luzia Hürzeler, Una Szeemann e Bohdan Stehlik (Swiss Institute), Ingrid Buchwald, Iñaki Carnicero, Iñaki Estrada Torio, Héctor Fernández-Elorza, Fernando Maquieira, Jaumesimo Sabatergarau, Manuel Saiz, Toni Tena (Royal Spanish Academy), Marius Purice, Monica Timofei, Paul Timofei (Romanian Academy), Christopher Hartshorne, Louis-Pierre Lachapelle, Sheryl Oppenheim (Temple University).
Special guests include:
Georgiana Branea e Doru Popescu (Romania), Adina Drinceanu e Matteo Peretti (Italy), Alessandra Giacinti (Italy), Mark Kostabi (Italy/USA) e Myriam Laplante (Italy/Canada). Laplante will give the first performance of a work designed for the Venice Biennale.
