IP—The Institute of the Present (Bucharest) organises the second edition of the residency programme aimed at researching and rediscussing artworks created in the early 1990s in Romania, Hungary and Serbia, together with their contexts, the (temporary) artistic collectives or solitary initiatives conceived as solutions for new gestures, sometimes utopic at their time.
In the frame of his residency, artist Gavril Pop, researching the activity of group Alb16 from Timișoara, opens his process in a lab taking place on May 21-25, 2023. Participation is based on registration only.
GAVRIL POP x ALB16 (1991)
The Alb16 group consisted of Simona Nuțiu, Sorin Vreme, Marcel Brăilean, Tiberiu Giucă and Ion Oprescu, who were also co-founders of the “State without Title” festival, 1991, a landmark event of those years, organised by Ileana Pintilie at the Art Museum in Timișoara. Limited documentation is available in regards to the history of the group, although its activity was important for that period. Probably the best known performance of the members consists of a group walk across the city, holding hands and blindfolded. The action could be joined by any passer-by and was part of a series of performances created as part of “State without Title”, which embodied a collective state of general oppression and confusion in an uncertain and unstable political context.
The research process that the artist Gavril Pop opens to those interested to join (students, artists, art lovers) proposes to explore the following tracks: development of a set of skills related to sight/comprehension, which are related to generating knowledge; the artistic group as a pretext, with reference to the context of the early 1990s, which added a lot of uncertainty to an even greater enthusiasm, but also to extremely limited resources. During the research, the artist aims to create social contexts that will include film screenings, drawing or domestic activities, city walks, aiming to contextualise what happened in 1991, in order to highlight an affective level related to memory.
GAVRIL POP is interested in visualising cognitive processes and the conjunction of knowledge elements. He is also concerned with the relationship of the general public with art processes and constantly collaborates with foundations and associations in Timișoara in cultural mediation programmes attached to contemporary art exhibitions. He published critical texts in magazines Arta and 22. As an artist, he has collaborated with independent spaces and artistic platforms such as Lapsus, Draft, Secret Garden (Timișoara), GAEP (Bucharest), Camera (Cluj). He has recently participated in the artistic residency programme of the niki e.v. venue from Hanover.
IP—The Institute of the Present is a research and an artist and theory resource platform in the field of visual and performing culture conceived by Ștefania Ferchedău and Alina Șerban.
The “Uncensored Act” programme, which features the event, dwells on the idea of community, collective action, collaboration and solidarity in the spirit of shared values, with a route that is triggered by the history of Timișoara in the 1989 context, connected regionally and internationally through the proposed artistic content.
The residencies are organised in the frame of the projects “Uncensored Act” and “COLLEGIUM. A Possible History of the Invisible”.
Partners: MV Sci-Art Center, Indecis artist run, The Secret Garden Bookshop
Image: Action by Alb16, photograph from Simona Nuțiu’s archive