Visual artist and film director Ștefan Constantinescu comes to RCC

Date
24th October 2013

Time
6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

Location
Romanian Cultural Centre in London

Price
free


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We are pleased to invite you to the screening of ȘTEFAN CONSTANTINESCU’s internationally acclaimed short films
Troleibuzul 92 (2009), Family Dinner (2012) and Six Big Fish (2013)
A Q&A session moderated by SIMINA NEAGU will follow the screening

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Thursday, 24 October | 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm at Romanian Cultural Centre in London/ Ratiu Family Foundation: Manchester Sq., 18 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1H 6EQ
ADMISSION FREE (booking is essential at bookings@romanianculturalcentre.org.uk)
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The short films draw on mundane situations, which reveal the deviancy and irregularity of everyday experiences. Based on his personal background, Stefan Constantinescu’s work deals with themes such as violence, intimacy and identity in a complex, yet highly accessible manner. The artist had his international breakthrough at the Venice Biennial in 2009, when he represented Romania with the films ‘Passagen’ and ‘Troleibuzul 92’.

Between his current show at Gothenburg Museum of Art and his participation at the B3 Moving Image Biennial in Frankfurt, Stefan Constantinescu comes to RCC to present three of his latest short films. The discussion, moderated by curator Simina Neagu will give an insight into Stefan Constantinescu’s work, his artistic practice as well as his upcoming projects.

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Six Big Fish (2013) | 14 min | in Swedish, Romanian, English with English subtitles 
Ann Sofi and Andreas are a couple of Swedish artists. They came to Romania as exchange students and have a workshop in an apartment downtown Bucharest. Ann Sofi sees art as a means of expressing her personal experiences and records her daily life obsessively with a video-camera. One summer afternoon, their neighbour, an amateur fisherman, offers them bag of live fish. The two are more eager to admire rather than slaughter the six creatures. After much ado, they chose to leave the fish in the freezer. A few hours later, to their surprise the fish are still alive. The two embark on a mission to release the fish in the nearest pond. However, this undertaking turns out to be more difficult than they would have expected and the obstacles they encounter bring to light their differing approaches to art, life and authorship.
(Screenplay by Xandra Popescu & Ștefan Constantinescu)

Family Dinner (2012) | 14 min | in Swedish with English subtitles
In the prosperous and chic apartment of the Christiansson family, strange things are going on. While Niclas is in the kitchen preparing dinner, in the bathroom adultery is being consummated through the means of new technologies. Maja, wife and mother, is exchanging kinky messages on her mobile phone from the bathtub while her husband and daughter are impatiently waiting for her to have a family dinner. Even when her phone is out of battery, she cannot bring herself to stop.
(Screenplay by Xandra Popescu & Ștefan Constantinescu)

Troleibuz 92 (2009) | 8 min | in Romanian with English subtitles
A man gets on a trolleybus and starts a phone conversation with his wife or girlfriend. Because she doesn’t answer the phone, he is talking violently and threatens her with death. The passengers become spectators, unwillingly.

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About:

Visual artist and film director, Ștefan Constantinescu (b. 1968) is living and working in Stockholm and Bucharest. He works with various mediums to include film, artist books and paintings, approaching the political through introspection to challenge notions of identity, while working in and with issues of post-communist Romania.

Recent work includes the painting series An Infinite Blue, the short film Troleibuzul 92, the pop up book The Golden Age for Children, the film My Beautiful Dacia directed together with Julio Sotto and the film Passagen.

Simina Neagu (b. 1988) holds an MA in Aesthetics & Art Theory at Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University London. She collaborated with various institutions such as Pavilion Unicredit, Pavilion–journal for politics and culture, Bucharest Biennale 4 (Bucharest), Knoll Galerie (Vienna and Budapest), Centre for Visual Introspection (Bucharest), South London Art Map (London) or Artist Pension Trust Institute (New York), working as a curator, arts administrator or writer.

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A reception sponsored by Deli Twist will follow the screening and the Q&A. Deli Twist is a patisserie serving freshly baked pretzels and pastries and also sweet and savoury twisters.





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