Geta Brătescu (b. 1926, Ploiești) has been a central figure of Romanian contemporary art since the 1960s. An artist with a rich and long career, Brătescu developed a complex body of work that comprises drawing, collage, engraving, tapestry, object, photography, experimental film, video, and performance. It is the first time in the history of the Romanian participation at the Venice Biennale that this role has been entrusted to a woman artist.
Geta Brătescu’s participation in Biennale Arte
2017 brings together works representative of all
the stages of her artistic trajectory – many of
them shown for the first time –, demonstrating
the ease with which she employs a multitude of
artistic media. She draws on a series of procedures
from the visual and conceptual arsenal of
modernism, but also modulates and transforms
this legacy, while at the same time advancing
toward contemporary modes of expressing and
conceptualizing the artistic act, with an emphasis
on performance, process, self-representation,
and the serial.
The exhibition Apparitions is conceived through
the lens of thematic clusters, including the
most recent phase in her artistic practice, in
an attempt to provide a mirror of her studio
space, understood both as a physical space and
a meta-artistic entity. The physical and mental
spaces of the studio blend together in a complex
assemblage, and so do the literary texts with
their visual conceptualizations, the feminine
mythologies with the process of self-investigation,
personal memory with cultural memory
and imagination. “Memory is apparition; an
epiphany, like art”, states the artist.
In the current context, Geta Brătescu’s presence
at Biennale Arte 2017 is aimed at communicating
art’s capacity to invent narratives that transcend
the gloomy climate of the contemporary world,
by means of an artistic reflection that highlights
the transformative strength of femininity as
the consummate embodiment of a “nomadic
subject”. Geta Brătescu’s art finds itself in full
consonance with the return to materiality, to the
power of the artistic imagination, to art’s power
to give shape. Her artistic practice resonates
with the current debates about the role of art
as a space that points to reality’s sore spots, but
also as a means of instituting a specific language
capable of generating new forms of subjectivity.
The exhibition will take place both in the Romanian
Pavilion in Giardini della Biennale and
the New Gallery of the Romanian Institute for
Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice.
The exhibition in the Romanian Pavilion is
conceived around two major themes: the studio,
which is central to Brătescu’s career as an artist,
and reflection on female subjectivity through
various modes of conceptualizing the feminine.
Two coordinates define the identity of the second
exhibition space – the New Gallery of the Romanian
Institute for Culture and Humanistic
Research in Venice –, which is both a place
for study, providing conditions for readers to
immerse themselves in the exhibition catalogue
and other materials relevant to Brătescu’s artistic
and intellectual career, and a concentrated
exhibition, whose theme is the artist’s creative
process.
The consistency, integrity, and aesthetic and
intellectual quality of Geta Brătescu’s art, as well
as the artist’s incredible presence – revealed in
both the works in which she represents herself
and in the female characters she invokes – transforms
the Romanian Pavilion and the New
Gallery into a “continuous studio” for every
visitor.
On the occasion of the exhibition, the book ‘Geta
Brătescu – Apparitions’ is published by Koenig
Books, London. The publication is edited by
Magda Radu and Diana Ursan together with
Marius Babias and it features a broad selection
of texts written by Geta Brătescu over the course
of time – fragments in which the artist comments
on facets of the creative process and the
sources of her work. The artist’s notations are
interspersed with numerous illustrations of the
works she mentions in her writings, thus making
the book an indispensable companion to the
exhibition.
A series of events and talks will also be organized
throughout the exhibition period, both in
Romania and in Venice. The talks will be given
by international curators and theorists and
they will explore and present new directions for
understanding the work of Geta Brătescu.
Geta Brătescu (b. 1926, Ploiești) has been a central figure of Romanian contemporary art since the 1960s. An artist with a rich and long career, Brătescu developed a complex body of work that comprises drawing, collage, engraving, tapestry, object, photography, experimental film, video, and performance. She studied at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy and concurrently at the Fine Arts Academy in Bucharest and worked as an artistic director for the magazine Secolul 20 [20th Century], renamed Secolul 21 at the turn of the millennium. In 2016, Hamburger Kunsthalle mounted an extensive retrospective exhibition on Brătescu’s work.
The artist’s recent exhibitions include a solo show at Tate
Liverpool in 2015; MATRIX 254 / Geta Brătescu, a solo
show at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
in 2014; as well as participations in The Encyclopedic
Palace, Biennale Arte 2013; La Triennale, Paris, Palais
de Tokyo, in 2012; and the 12th Istanbul Biennial in 2011.
Brătescu’s works are in important collections such as
MoMA, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris;
Tate Modern, London; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles;
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco;
Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; The National Museum
of Contemporary Art, Bucharest; MUMOK, Vienna;
Kontakt Collection, Vienna; Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana;
and FRAC Lorraine, Metz. In 2017, Brătescu takes part
in Documenta 14, Athens and Kassel, and has a solo
exhibition at the Camden Arts Centre, curated by
Jenni Lomax.
Magda Radu is a curator and art historian based in
Bucharest. She is one of the founders and co-curator
of the program Salonul de proiecte, which functioned
between 2011 and 2015 at MNAC Anexa and is now
an independent initiative located in the Universul
Palace in Bucharest. She edited (or co-edited) several
exhibitions catalogues and books, among which: Art in
Romania Between 1945-2000. An Analysis from Today’s
Perspective (2016), subREAL (2015), Dear Money (2014)
and André Cadere / Andrei Cădere (2011). In the last
few years she also curated exhibitions at institutions
including MUSAC, Léon; Spinnerei, Leipzig; and Photo
España, Madrid. At the National University of Arts in
Bucharest, she taught a course about the history and
theory of conceptual art in Eastern Europe, as well as
a Curatorial Studies course.
Commissioner: Attila Kim
Curator: Magda Radu
Project manager: Corina Bucea
Assistant curator: Diana Ursan
Communication: Cătălin Năstăsoiu, Oana Hodade, Cristina Curcan
Designer: Raymond Bobar
Website: Dan Burzo
Photography: Ștefan Sava
Initiated by: Salonul de proiecte
Organizers: The Ministry of Culture and National Identity; The Ministry of Foreign Affairs; The Romanian Cultural Institute
Partners: The National Museum of Art of Romania; Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König; Ivan Gallery, Bucharest; Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin
With the support of: Hauser & Wirth
Sponsors: UniCredit Bank; ISSA – Crama La Salina
On the occasion of the exhibition, the book ‘Geta
Brătescu – Apparitions’ is published by Koenig Books,
London. The book is published in collaboration with
Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin (n.b.k.) and is
cofinanced by The Administration of the National
Cultural Fund. The project does not necessarily represent
the position of the Administration of the National
Cultural Fund. The Administration of the National
Cultural Fund is not responsible for the content of the
project or the manner in which the results of the project
may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the
funding recipient.
Special thanks to the institutions and collections
which are lending works for the exhibition Geta
Brătescu – Apparitions: The National Museum of Art
of Romania, MNAC Bucharest/The National Museum
of Contemporary Art, Romania, Vehbi Koç Foundation
Contemporary Art Collection, Istanbul.
