by Raluca Voinea
There are three major nuclei that can be deciphered in contemporary art in Romania today: the UAP (Artists’ Union) structure, the more or less centralised public institutions and the private initiatives. UAP was founded when the communists came and for a long time represented the only option. The UAP provided artists with studios, gallery spaces, grants to work or to travel abroad, and a pension. The Arts Universities prepared the students exclusively for this kind of career and the professors teaching there the traditional techniques (painting, sculpture, etc.) were themselves successfully representing and perpetuating this system – and, in an overwhelming majority, they still are. Also, taking into account that it still owns most of the art galleries in the country, UAP is still a powerful institution that one cannot ignore.
Among the public institutions, MNAC (the National Museum of Contemporary Art) was, beyond doubt, last year’s hot topic in all the local or international discussions about Romanian contemporary art. Opened at the end of October 2004 in its new venue, within the Palace of Parliament and under the patronage of the prime minister (at that time), the Museum raised a lot of questions regarding its status in a building representing Romania’s traumatic past, and the political and moral implications of its location. The remote and inhospitable spaces where it is located, as well as the lack of programmes attracting the public still make it a controversial project, even if its use for propaganda has ceased with the recent change of Government.
Other institutions, like CIAC (the International Centre for Contemporary Art, the former Soros Centre) have difficulties in surviving since much of the funds from the budget go to this Museum; they must constantly re-orient themselves to seek different partnerships, nationally or internationally – which is normal for many foreign institutions, but in the case of CIAC this does not happen on a regular basis and it is therefore unable to provide the support and counselling to artists that such an institutions should be able to do over and beyond organizing exhibitions.
The last one of the public institutions is Galeria Noua, a municipal gallery in Bucharest, which manages to maintain a regular timetable and to have an exhibition almost every three weeks. Although it lacks a clear curatorial program (apart from the declared preference for new media works), the gallery has become a stable landmark in Bucharest, and promises to professionalize itself more and more, largely due to its collaboration with a cultural marketing agency that it is working with, run by Dragos Olea. One of the first laws concerning arts policy which was passed by the new Government states that every citizen of Romania has the option of giving 1% of his/her income tax to an NGO – turned to be very good news for independent organizations.
Such organisations, whether already constituted in legal terms or acting as informal structures – are the most active element of this art scene. The people who are running these organisations fill many gaps in the system, performing many different and necessary roles at the same time, such as mediators, organizers, teachers, curators and artists.
To name only the most efficient ones:
- Lia Perjovschi and the CAA, the Centre for Art Analysis, former Contemporary Art Archive, one of the most interesting projects in post-1989 art in Romania (in collaboration with and supported by Dan Perjovschi) – in Bucharest;
- Matei Bejenaru and the Vector Association in Iasi – they created the Periferic Festival, which eventually turned into a Biennial of Contemporary Art (www.periferic.org);
- Attila Tordai and the Protokoll Gallery, on the one hand, Timotei Nadasan and Idea foundation and magazine (www.idea.ro) on the other, in Cluj;
- H.arta group and gallery (www.e-cart.ro/h.arta) and Ileana Pintilie, the initiator and organizer of the triennial Festival of Performance called Zona (zone) in Timisoara.
- Others are either joining these in the hope of strengthening this independent sector (as e-cart does, www.e-cart.ro) or exploring other facets of the new trends in contemporary art and life, like club culture or graffiti (2020, run by Vlad Nanca and Stefan Tiron, www.2020.ro).
The numerous international links these people create, and the fresh and direct way they communicate with the local scene make them the most reliable structures to work with and invest in for the future of contemporary art in Romania.
Raluca Voinea is a Ratiu scholar, in the 1st year of her MA in Curating Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art London; freelance art critic and curator; since 2003 founder and editor of e-cart, contemporary art magazine. www.e-cart.ro
