Since last season Salonul de proiecte has been working with artists Anca Munteanu Rimnic and Delia Popa on developing the projects that have now come to fruition in the present exhibition. While Anca Munteanu Rimnic was invited to make a proposal on the occasion of the Global Without Globalisation exhibition, Delia Popa was one of the artists selected as a result of the 2011/2012 Open Call for emerging artists. For various reasons, the two proposals were unable to be completed within the framework of the exhibitions in question, but Salonul de proiecte continued steadfastly to support their endeavours.
Delia Popa’s work, We, Our Friends and Us: A Theatre Piece for Multiple Monitors, is an installation that arose from discussions on apparently divergent topics such as civic activism and spirituality, which the artist had with various people from her circle of acquaintances. It was in this way that the idea of interviewing friends and people who inspired her came about. The seven interviewees, active on different "fronts" in the social sphere, are presented as pseudo-characters, such as "The Atheist Feminist Artist", "The Buddhist Artist" or "The Christian Engineer". Delia Popa arranges the interviews in four acts, the same as in
a play for the theatre: the "characters" talk to one another indirectly, and each interaction between them creates a dramatic moment.
For her presentation at Salonul de proiecte, Anca Munteanu Rimnic prepared two works that reflect her perception of Romania, her leaving the country, and her attempt to enter into a relationship with the exhibition space. The building where Salonul de proiecte is located used to be a paper warehouse. The traces of this past can still be seen on the floor, and the imprints visible in space provide the premise for a site-specific intervention. In connection with this project, the artist developed a work based on interaction and performance: a video installation in which six women improvise starting from various concepts proposed by the artist, together forming a choreography of the "threnody". Anca Munteanu Rimnic’s project has been realised with the support of the Bucharest Goethe Institute, and in 2014 Distanz Verlag, Berlin, will publish a book relating the artist’s personal experiences to her own reflections on contemporary society.
Special thanks: PSM Galerry, Berlin
