The European Union Delegation to the State of Israel is celebrating this year's Europe Day (which was held on May 9th) by organizing three special video art installations in three of Israel's major cities: Eilat, Haifa and Tel Aviv. The event is held in cooperation with 17 different cultural institutes and attaches, all supporting an artist taking place in the installation.
Romania will be represented by Irina Botea Bucan, with the video work "Out of the Bear", and Alex Mirutziu, with the video work "Tears are Precious".
Irina Botea Bucan - Out of the Bear,2004
In this work Irina Botea Bucan inhabits one of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s 40 holiday getaways in Romania - Casa Arcus, a hunting residency that was not accessible to the public until 1989. Botea Bucan inhabited the house for three days, documenting her interaction with it. She inserted herself into the picture as a way to rehearse and understand what possibilities of resistance and opposition can arise in that situation. Through this act, she constitutes a way to inscribe herself into the history of the house, and in a metaphoric way, it allows for a kind of inhabiting of the physical or virtual places one did not have access to before 1989 in Ceaușescu’s Romania.
Alex Mirutziu - Tears are Precious, 2007
In his work Tears are Precious from 2007, Alex Mirutziu filmed himself crying.
Mirutziu materializes the act of crying in an attempt to slowdown any memory and pain, facing us with the question: to what degree we believe, tears are a signifier of true inner trauma.
Each installation will include several screens, showcasing 20 fascinating video art works (1-6 minutes each, and curated by Avi Lubin), all centered around the same topic: the new communities of the world, following the COVID-19 crisis. The artists represent some of Europe and Israel's finest and most well-respected video artists. Some of the works will be presented for the first time.
Locations and times
Eilat: 17.6 – at the Eilat boardwalk, 19:00-01:00
Haifa: 19.6 – at the Haifa Turkish Market, 19:00-01:00
Tel Aviv: 24.6 – at Habima Square, 19:00-23:00
29.6 – Cameri Theatre Square, 19:00-23:00
After a year of isolation, quarantines and solitude, we are now facing the need to rethink the idea of a community. Permanent changes occurred in our understanding of what it means to live together and physical distancing influenced the way we understand the idea of "being together" both from a distance and in isolation. The works raise questions about our ability to disassemble and reassemble our understanding of terms like being together and being alone and establish new thoughts about how to build a new community following the epidemic.
Irina Botea Bucan (b. Ploiesti, Romania) teaches at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Bucharest University of Arts and is currently pursuing a PHD at Goldsmiths University of London. Solo and group shows include: 55th Venice Biennale, New Museum, New York, MUSAC, Pompidou Centre, Paris, National Gallery Jeu de Paume, Paris, Kunsthalle Winterthur, Reina Sofia National Museum, Madrid; Gwangju Biennale 2010; 51st Venice Biennale; Prague Biennale; Kunstforum, Vienna; Foksal Gallery, Warsaw.
Alex Mirutziu's (b. 1981, Sibiu. Lives and works in Cluj-Napoca, Romania) practice extends over a wide range of media and activities, including sculpture, film, drawing, poetry and performance as well as critical and curatorial projects. He has lectured at Royal College of Arts, London, Von Kraal Theatre, Estonia, Konstfack, Stockholm, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. His work has been shown among others at Power Plant, Toronto, Glass Factory Lab, Boda, Mucsarnok Kunsthalle, Budapest, Center for Contemporary Art and National Museum, Warsaw, Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Kunsthalle Mulhouse, Kunsthalle Winterthur, Kunsthalle Bega, Centre for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Royal Academy of Arts, London, and Venice Biennale.
