Rehearsing History - Takes

For Mihai Iepure-Górski, the events of recent history with a defining character for contemporary Romanian society occupy a privileged place in his thoughts, they are recurrent to the point of obsession. The revolution of 1989, but also the moment of the University Square in 1990, for example, declares that they appear to him as a vision - records of some lived events, although, being a child, he did not set foot there in those days. For Mihai Iepure-Górski, "working with art becomes a tool for discerning and negotiating some traumas stuck on repeat in the collective and personal memory. The pressure exerted on them through gestures often executed by means of substitutes, proxies (actors, musicians, performers, etc.) becomes a way by which I get rid of what seems, at the moment, insurmountable".

As part of the Energy Exchange!, Mihai Iepure-Górski will continue and expand the series of recordings of performances on the border between improvisation and what he calls historical choreography. The material that the actor/musician/performer puts on stage is based on a script taken directly from recent historical events (for example taking speeches of historical figures or street chants literally), but it is problematized, evaluated and rearticulated. The exercise format, rehearsal in another time and another reality recontextualizes, extrapolates, implicitly updates the material extracted from the collective memorial.

Although starting from the medium of sculpture, the discipline studied at university and master's degree, Mihai Iepure-Górski declares that his current practice is freed from the limitations of traditional mediums and moreover, it produces gestures that are far from clear or conclusive, often taking the form of documented exercises, rehearsals , without the pretense of becoming finished works. "Negotiating the relationship with and positioning towards the environment or environments and artistic production is also forced by a working method that involves, almost exclusively, partnerships with other practitioners from various artistic fields (actors, performers, musicians, designers, etc.) - collaborations which discuss the role of the author in a dialogue in which the approach to the subject (which is most often provoked by me) is negotiated between the interlocutors. These Rehearsals for history are part of a process already started in dialogue with actor Doru Mihai Taloș (Creation and Experiment Reactor, Cluj), mezzo-soprano Oana Bolboacă, actor Adonis Tanța (Teatrul Muzical Stația) and other practitioners but also personalities from the civic space, directly involved in recent historical events".

This project is part of the national cultural program "Timișoara – European Capital of Culture in 2023" and was funded through Energie! Burse de Creație grant by the City of Timisoara, through the Center for Projects.