Ami Barak and Diana Marincu are the curators of the 2017 edition of Timișoara Art Encounters
Art Encounters Foundation proudly announces Ami Barak and Diana Marincu as the curatorial team of the second edition of Art Encounters. The event will take place in Timișoara, between September 30 and November 5, 2017.
The choice of the two curators is based on Ami Barak’s rich curatorial experience and Diana Marincu’s close collaboration with the artistic local scene. Their experience and vision will contribute to the event’s aim to become a vector for facilitating dialogue and promotion of visual contemporary culture. The process will benefit from the interaction with the city of Timișoara, but, at the same time, will adjust to a broader - national, regional and international context.
Central to the biennial remains the support of the national artistic scene. The second edition of the biennial will continue the programs dedicated to art in the public space, education and cultural mediation, but will lay emphasis on supporting new artistic production, primarily that of young artists. Furthermore, in 2017, according with the event’s long term vision of promoting an open and transparent dialogue with the proponents of culture and the audience, a special attention will be given to independent art spaces in Romania, that will benefit from a better representation during the event.
The Art Encounters second edition will continue to pursue the path established by the curators of the previous edition, Rainald Schumacher and Nathalie Hoyos, by following the history of contemporary art in Romania for five decades, beginning with 1960 until present days. The endeavor will continue to employ an “archaeology of the present” approach of the Romanian artistic scene, as initiated by the 2015 team, to explore the recent history of the Romanian avant-garde, whilst trying to initiate new interactions and focus on the diversity of voices of the contemporary scene. The curatorial aim is to connect to the present and interact with the local public in the creation of an up to date overview, through a series of exhibitions, debates and other related events.
To increase the interaction with the city, the event’s artistic map will continue to include both conventional exhibition spaces, and alternative, surprising spaces around the city centre. In the context of Timișoara being awarded the title of European Capital of Culture in 2021, the trans border and international connections that the project manages to establish by gathering personalities from the field, both national and international, will become more and more relevant.
The event will be organized by the Art Encounters Foundation, in collaboration with the Timișoara City Hall, The County Directorate for Culture and Interart Triade Foundation. Raiffeisen Bank is the main sponsor of the event. Art Encounters 2017 will also benefit from the support of the local and national cultural community and that of the representatives of the local business environment.
About the curators
Ami Barak is an independent curator and art critic based in Paris, currently a Lecturer at the Paris 1 Sorbonne University. Between 2002-2005, he was President at the IKT. Among recent projects: Art of the world (the Expo) the City of Forking Paths, World Expo Shanghai 2010, Performing History the Romanian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, 2011. Foreigners everywhere (works from Pomeranz collection) JMW Vienna, Austria in 2012, I am also... Douglas Gordon, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, in 2013, Off to a flying start, Nuit blanche Toronto, 2013, Stuttering – Melik Ohanian Crac Sete 2014, Taryn Simon, Rear views, star forming nebula and foreign propaganda bureau Jeu de Paume Paris 2015, Tim Parchikov – Features of intuition Mmoma, Moscow 2015, Le Salon de Montrouge 61e édition 2016, Juliao Sarmento The Real thing Fondation Gulbenkian Paris , Peter Kogler Next ING Art center Bruxelles. He is an invited curator of the 15th edition of the Biennial dedicated to contemporary image, MPM Montreal, 2017.
Diana Marincu is a curator and art critic. She graduated from The Art and Design Faculty in Timisoara and she holds a Master in The History and Theory of Art at The National University of Arts in Bucharest. She is a Ph. D. student at the same university, conducting a research on curatorial discourses on identity and periphery, built around some geographical criteria in big exhibitions and biennials. Starting with 2013, she works with Plan B Foundation in Cluj and the Paintbrush Factory for the Learning and Unlearning program and the curatorial program of the foundation. Her most recent exhibitions include: M (Teodor Graur and Cristian Rusu), Plan B Cluj (2016); White dot and Black Cube curatorial project (together with Anca Verona Mihulet), National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest (2015-2017); Inventing truth. On Fiction and Reality, one of the two projects representing Romania at the 56th edition of the Venice art biennial, the New Gallery of the Romanian Institute for Culture and Humanistic Research from Venice (2015).
About the Art Encounters Foundation
The Art Encounters Foundation is an independent cultural institution, which was set up in 2015. The projects of The Art Encounters Foundation are predominantly aiming at ensuring support for the development of the contemporary art scene in Romania. In the present cultural context, the programs initiated by The Art Encounters Foundation intend to play a role in consolidating the position of the art scene, by supporting and encouraging art, promoting the artistic production, through encouraging various participatory artistic practices, the development of new forms of artistic expression, the organization of exhibitions, the publication of books and albums of contemporary art, but also by supporting key institutions of art and culture.
