Aurora Király
Aurora Király is one of the best-known Romanian artists of her generation, exploring how the mind record, relives, remembers. The artist works with photography and installation in a variety of media, at the intersection of photography with textile art, drawing or installations. She is particularly interested in exploring feminist theories in relation with identity-making and the status of women in society. Her works relates to complex connections between events, public and private sphere of experience. During the 1990s and the 2000s, her projects explored the capacity of photography to record the quotidian, by combining auto-referential fragments with documentary aspects of day-to-day life (e.g. Melancholia, 1997 – 1999). The self-reflecting images have provided an interesting point of departure for further installations that included collage (Viewfinder 2014 – 2015 and Viewfinder Mock-ups, 2016 – ongoing), text (News Convertor, 2016 and News Remix, 2016 – 2017), textiles (Soft drawings, 2020), and even painting (Heroines, 2013 – 2015). Her most recent works question the sources or artistic inspiration depending on the context, the recent history as well as the references in art history of the status of women artists. Between 2001 – 2009 Aurora Király ran one of the most significant art-spaces for photography in Romania, Galeria Nouă and since 2007 she has been teaching at the department of Photography and Dynamic Image, at the Bucharest National University of Arts.
Matei Bejenaru
Matei Bejenaru is a visual artist who lives and works in Iaşi, where he teaches photography and video art at the “George Enescu” University of Arts. In his projects, through photography, video, performance and inter-media installations, he analyzes how the ways of economic production, technological knowledge, mentalities and lifestyles have changed in the last two decades in the post-communist countries. The Romanian workers’ immigration towards the West was analyzed in his artistic projects Travel Guide and Maersk Dubai, selected for various international exhibitions, like the ones in Tate Modern, Level 2 Gallery in London in 2007, The Taipei Biennial in 2008. His choral music experimental project, started in 2010, Songs for a Better Future, was presented at The Drawing Room and Tate Modern in London, Western Front la Vancouver, Kuenstlerhaus Buchsenhausen Innsbruck, Laakteater Haga. The most recent episode of this project, Ode of the Matter, was exhibited at The National Museum of Contemporary Museum in Bucharest and at the Art Encounters Biennial in Timişoara.
Iosif Király
Iosif Király is one of the most renowned artists working with photography in Romania. His work investigates the relationship between perception, time, synchronicity and memory through photography, installation-art, drawing and more recently, video. He has initiated, coordinated, and, together with architects, visual artists, and anthropologists, participated in research projects related to the changes having occurred in post-communist Romania: D-Platform, RO-Archive, Triaj, Tinseltown. During the 1980s, Iosif Király became active in the mail art network, an international underground movement established by Fluxus. After 1989, he exhibited both individually and within the subREAL* group. Iosif Király’s works are found in numerous private and public collections such as the following: The National Contemporary Art Museum in Bucharest, 2000+ Arteast Collection, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana*; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Light Work, Syracuse, NY; Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; Neue Galerie Graz am Landsesmuseum Joanneum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Ars Aevi, Sarajevo*. Since 1991 he has been teaching contemporary photography at the National University of Arts (UNArte) in Bucharest, Romania. In 1995, he was among the founders of the Department of Photography and Media Art at UNArte, where he is presently a professor.
Ioana Cîrlig
Ioana Cîrlig (b. 1987) studied Cinematography and began working as a photojournalist while still in school. Since 2012, she has been a freelance photographer, developing personal long-term projects that focus on the industrial landscape and the relationship between humans and nature in rural Romanian communities. In 2017, she started working on an exploration of the botanical world, encompassing rare plants and national parks, as well as an imagined future that examines plant-garbage symbiosis and speculative space colonies. In addition to her personal projects, she works as a photo editor for a cultural magazine and co-founded a photo collective dedicated to projects focusing on environmental issues.
Delia Popa
Delia Popa (b. 1980, Bucharest, Romania) holds an MFA in Painting and Drawing from School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA (2007), a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College, University of London (2005), as well as an MFA in Visual Arts and a Bachelor Diploma in Painting from the National University of Arts Bucharest (2004). She works in media such as painting, video, installation, performance and participatory projects. Delia POPA’s works have been presented in prestigious national and international group exhibitions, screenings and performance events, including at the National Museum of Contemporary Art/MNAC, Bucharest (2023/2020/2014/2005), Pragovka Gallery, Prague (2024), at Galeria Anca Poterașu, Bucharest (2024), at Toplocentrala, Sofia, Bulgaria (2022), at the Cologne Biennale, Germany (2022),at the Occupy Art Festival New York City, USA (2022), at Kunsthalle Bega, Timișoara, Romania (2021), at WASP Studios, Bucharest (2018). In 2020, some of Delia POPA’s works were included, through public acquisition, in the collection of the National Museum of Contemporary Art of Romania (MNAC).
Artists: Aurora Király, Matei Bejenaru, Iosif Király, Ioana Cîrlig, Delia Popa
Curator: Rafaela Bîrlădeanu
09.05-01.07.2024
ARAC, Anca Poterașu Gallery
26 Popa Soare Street, Bucharest
Anca Poterasu Gallery presents Ecology of the After Life, an exhibition that revolves around recurrent and obsessive questions regarding human existence, science, nature’s resilience, and the echoes of our actions.
The exhibition serves as a metaphor for the regeneration of life as a whole, exploring not only human existence but also the intricate connections between organisms that sustain life on Earth. From Aurora Király’s landscapes to Delia Popa’s introspective reflections, Iosif Király’s blurring of reality and fantasy, Ioana Cîrlig’s documentation of coal miners, and Matei Bejenaru’s chronicles of forgotten spaces, Ecology of the Afterlife contemplates the interconnectedness of living beings.
Aurora Király’s latest series of photographic views captures ethereal landscapes where time seems to stand still. The artist transports us to places where the limits between humanity and nature are blurred, inviting us to contemplate our role in the grand tapestry of life. Her photographs serve as a reminder of nature’s remarkable ability to adapt and thrive in the face of environmental challenges. In these tranquil scenes, we witness the timeless beauty of the Earth and the intricate network of life that sustains it.
Delia Popa’s video work, Letters to a Young Gardener, initiates a conversation that highlights our deep connection to nature. Through her activities in the garden that once belonged to her grandparents and by recounting events in her life, the artist highlights nature’s healing role. She challenges viewers to reflect on the intricate layers of existence and the lasting impact of our actions.
Iosif Király’s complicates the negotiation between reality and fantasy, inviting viewers to meditate upon the fluidity of perception and the fine separation between past, present, and future, while the visual representation challenges us to reconsider our understanding of time and space.
Ioana Cirlig‘s portraits of miners at the Petrila coal mine in Romania shed light on the human impact on the environment. As one of the last working mines in Romania, the process of shutting down the activities in Petrila signifies not only the loss of jobs but also the end of a period. The closing of Petrila coal mine serves as a stark warning about the consequences of relying on non-renewable resources. It highlights the imperative for transition towards cleaner energy sources. Through this series of photographs, we witness the human cost of industrialization and the need for sustainable alternatives. The coal mines, with their towering structures and vast underground networks, symbolize humanity’s relentless pursuit of resources at any cost. Yet, in the aftermath of the closing out, what remains are scars on the landscape and communities left grappling with economic uncertainty and environmental degradation.
Matei Bejenaru’s Between Two Worlds is a poignant reminder of the impermanence inherent in human endeavour. With a keen eye for the melancholic beauty of abandoned spaces once dedicated to scientific exploration, the artist urges us to reflect on the ephemerality of our achievements and the legacy we leave behind. In his work, Bejenaru captures more than the physical decay of these places; he captures the essence of what they once represented. Through this careful visual narrative, he invites us to consider the inevitable passage of time and the impermanence of our existence.The artists question the complexity of our world by dwelling into the interaction between humanity, the surrounding environment, science and the forces that shape our collective destiny.
Ecology of the Afterlife invites the viewer to ponder on the cyclicality of life, the many shapes that the natural world can take, and our role in shaping the atmosphere around us.
Ecology after Life exhibition is part of Artists for Artists Residency Network (AFAR).
Artists for Artists Residency Network (AFAR) is an EU cofunded project, also supported by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The residency program aims to improve the mobility of contemporary visual artists and curators in Romania, Germany, Croatia, and Austria. The project is led by the Romanian Association for Contemporary Art (ARAC), in partnership with Goethe Institute Network, the Croatian Association of Fine Artists, and Künstlerhaus Vienna.
The AFAR Network project is co-funded by the European Union. “The views and opinions expressed, however, are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.”
More information on the website: www.afarnetwork.com
Partners: Goethe Institute Network, Croatian Association of Fine Artists, Künstlerhaus
Vienna, Austrian Cultural Forum, Aqua Carpatica