binding images | framing books

Minitremu has the special pleasure of inviting you to an exhibition that presents a collection of over 50 photo books made in the last 7 years by students of the Photo-Video Department at the National University of Arts Bucharest alongside the Fabrik printing workshop.

An important segment of the exhibition is configured around the publications resulting from the practice program within UNArte, coordinated by Alexandra Croitoru in collaboration with Nicoleta Radu and Crăița Niga (Fabrik) and Vlad Albu (Palpabil Studio). This interdisciplinary program for second-year students was initiated to support hybrid expressive languages and the exploration of new publishing formats, which sometimes test the very limits of the notion of a book. 

The exhibition will also feature teaching materials and work tools designed specifically for understanding the book production process, from the ABCs of prepress to the physical object.

The practical works, together with semester and diploma works, offer the dimension of pedagogical experiments and examples of institutional collaboration unique in Romania and reflect the commitment to a work environment - printing - which thus becomes an educational tool in itself.

How do books by young authors evolve and transform? What differences occur from one academic year to another? How do visual processes and practices adapt to the rigors and physical limits of a print? How do the imagination and artistic concerns of new generations of artists materialize in paper, ink and binding?

If you are concerned with photography, but especially if you have projects that you would like to see brought together in a book by author/author/x, the exhibition ≣ binding images | framing books | has some answers to these questions. During the exhibition there will be discussions and workshops that will be announced on the FB | page INSTA Minitremu.

The presented materials are part of the Fabrik archive and are exhibited with the consent of the Bucharest National University of Arts.

The photos illustrating the didactic exercises were taken by Crăița Niga. The video presentations were coordinated by Daniel Constantinescu and Răzvan Tun within the Photo-Video / UNArte department.

Fabrik is a multidisciplinary printing workshop that combines craftsmanship with creativity, old technologies with modern ones, the result always being a surprising one, on the border between craftsmanship and unique object. Fabrik's titles and prints have been exhibited in various galleries and museums in the country and abroad, being awarded several times at national and international competitions such as "The most beautiful books in Romania" or Stiftung Buchkunst Leipzig / "Best Book Design from all over the World" from Germany. They are the authors of Colofon https://colofon.ro/ – a project that deals with the end of the book, literally and figuratively, and the organizers of numerous workshops around working with type and typography.

The Photo-Video Department within UNArte appeared in 1995 at the initiative of a group of artists interested in the role of new media in artistic education. Within a traditional educational system, specialization promotes new technologies, and artistic disciplines are thought from the perspective of transdisciplinarity and the dialogue proposed by contemporary aesthetic theories. The artistic education offered by the department helps students to think imaginatively and to know and overcome their creative limits.

Palpabil Studio is a design and risograph print workshop from Bucharest.

Founded in 2017, Sit+Read Art Book Fair is a free and open multi-day event that brings together contemporary artists, designers, zine creators, printers, independent publishers, bookstores, as well as hundreds of visitors every year. The fair includes a varied program for both children and adults, composed of a diverse range of events (talks, book launches, workshops, exhibitions).

Minitremu is an inclusive research and collective learning space, in continuous transformation, open source and work in progress, intended for meetings and dialogues on education and art. It functions as a permanent exhibition, public library, workspace and studio, agora and garden, in the desire to question traditional methods of art education, and provide an overview of recent changes in art pedagogy.

The event is part of the national cultural programme "Timișoara – European Capital of Culture in the year 2023" and is funded by the City of Timișoara, through the Center for Projects.

Part of

Outside the School 2023

Outside the School 2023