Geta Brătescu: Apparitions

hand in hand with creativity, specific to her as an artist. Geta Brătescu’s participation at the Venice Biennale is a summary of her career as an artist, but one which is viewed through the lens of thematic nuclei, including the most recent phase in her artistic practice, in an attempt to provide a mirror of her studio space, in the sense of both a physical space and a meta-artistic entity. The consistency, integrity, as well as aesthetic and intellectual quality of her career, and the artist’s incredible presence – which reveals itself through works in which she represents herself, as well as works in which she depicts herself as the female characters/figures she invokes – will transform the Romanian Pavilion and the New Gallery of the Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice into a “continuous studio” for every single visitor. In addition to having had a historically significant career, Geta Brătescu is also an artist of the contemporary, whose versatility and constant ability to reinvent herself resonate with the concerns, the material and conceptual explorations of the artists who blaze the trail of contemporary art today. Her participation at the Venice Biennale is aimed above all at communicating art’s capacity to invent narratives that transcend the gloomy context of the contemporary world, against the backdrop of an artistic and curatorial 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. Renewed interest in the image and representation also points to the relevance of her artistic practice in current debates about the role of art, as a space that mirrors reality’s sore points, but also as a means of instituting a specific language capable of generating new forms of subjectivity. Geta Brătescu is a central figure of Romanian contemporary art since the 1960s. An artist with a rich and long career, Geta Brătescu developed a complex body of work that comprises drawing, collage, engraving, tapestry, objects, photography, experimental film, video and performance. She studied at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy and the Fine Arts Academy in Bucharest and has been working as an artistic director for the magazine Secolul 20, renamed Secolul 21. In 2016, Hamburger Kunsthalle has shown an extensive Geta Brătescu retrospective exhibition. Her recent exhibitions include the 2015 Tate Liverpool solo show, MATRIX 254 / Geta Bratescu 2014 solo show at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, as well as her participations in Il Palazzo Enciclopedico, La Biennale di Venezia 2013, La Triennale, Paris, 2012, Palais de Tokyo, the 12th Istanbul Biennale, 2011. Geta 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. In 2017, Camden Arts Center, London, will organize a solo exhibition of works by Geta Brătescu curated by Jenni Lomax. Magda Radu is a curator and art historian based in Bucharest. She is a founder 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 Building 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, Leon; Spinnerei, Leipzig and Photo España, Madrid. She taught at the National University of Arts in Bucharest a course about the history and theory of conceptual art in Eastern Europe as well as a Curatorial Studies course. The exhibition Geta Brătescu – Apparitions will take place in the Romanian Pavilion at the Giardini della Biennale and at New Gallery of the Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice. The press and professional preview of the biennale takes place between 10 May and 12 May 2017. The Biennale will be open to the public from 13 May until 26 November 2017. The international exhibition curated by Christine Macel at the 2017 edition of the Venice Biennale is called Viva Arte Viva. In the curator’s own words, ‘art is the ideal place for reflection, individual expression, freedom and fundamental questions. More than ever, the role, the voice and the responsibility of the artist are crucial in the framework of contemporary debates.’

Commissioner: Attila Kim

Team
Curator: Magda Radu
Project manager: Corina Bucea
Assistant curator: Diana Ursan
Communication: Cătălin Năstăsoiu, Oana Hodade, Cristina Curcan
Graphic design: 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

Colaborators:
Architects: Frederic Eyl & Steffen Oestreich
Antonescu PR & Consulting, București
Sutton PR

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: The National Museum of Art of Romania, MNAC Bucharest/The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Romania, Vehbi Koç Foundation Contemporary Art Collection, Istanbul.

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