ANDREI NACU: WHOSE?
04.11.2020 - 29.11.2020

Artistic intervention in the EXPO_01_BUC_ARH_SP.PUBLIC exhibition


Artist Talk

Wednesday, November 4, 2020 / 19.00

Live on Salonul de proiecte’s YouTube channel

The intervention of Andrei Nacu within the Mihai Oroveanu Image Collection entails the inclusion of new photographs in the archive, without specifying which they are. Nacu thereby extrapolates his own experience as a collector of photographs, as an artist who in his practice employs archive materials, and, not least, as a collaborator of the Royal Anthropological Institute, London, an institution that houses a vast collection of images. His action gives rise to multiple questions and creates the premises for debates on the politics of the image, revealing the complex and at the same time problematic character of the relationship between image and property. The construction of narratives proceeding from the archive constructed by Mihai Oroveanu is at an incipient stage, and the political charge of the situation should not be ignored. Its potential, which also entails a great responsibility for the research team, is all the more obvious given that the archive itself is in the midst of a process of formatting, in a context defined by the culture and circulation of the image.


This invisible intervention – opaque even to the project team – is completed by a diagram inserted into the exhibition space, whose aim is to bring into discussion a series of questions that extend the task of researching the images, siting it in a (self-)interrogative zone: Who took the photographs? When? In what context? What was their purpose? What journey have they made? Who owns the photographs now? Who uses them? To what end? What part does the viewer/user play and how is she interpellated by such questions? Can the archive be a public space? By the fact that they are visible to visitors and users,  such questions are intended to stimulate ongoing debate about the role of the image, bringing critical reflection to the space of the archive.

Andrei Nacu (b. 1984) is a visual artist based between London, U.K. and Iași, Romania. In his creative practice he is using documentary photography, the family album and the photographic archive to create stories which analyse the junction between personal memory and social history. His most recent work includes video, installation and performance and focuses on the politics of representation and media archaeology. He studied photography at the University of Wales, Newport, U.K. and George Enescu National University of Arts, Iasi, Romania. /  www.andreinacu.ro


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The exhibition EXPO_01_BUC_ARH_SP.PUBLIC / A selection from the Mihai Oroveanu Image Collection imagines an elliptic journey through various layers of Bucharest’s architecture, suggesting a more comprehensive understanding of the public space, of which single buildings represent only a small part. This decision was dictated by our own emplacement, as well as by the vast presence of images on this topic within the collection; the selection has been guided by the intention to construct a wide-ranging view—however fragmentary—of an urban space in transformation. The series of exhibited photographs seek to be at odds with various stereotypes of representation, to move away from the centre toward the margins, to make visible broader social categories, and to bring to attention the network of public services that make up the metropolis’s hidden “nervous system”.


The exhibition can be visited until January 31, 2021, the guided tours will be announced in advance on social media.


www.photopastfuture.ro

The exhibition, the artistic intervention and the artist talk are part of the project Photographic Image Between Past and Future. Its main objective is to preserve and bring into public circulation an archive of photographs of enormous cultural and historical relevance, and at the same time to organise around it contemporary art activities. The project will unfold from June 2020 to November 2021, in partnership with Fotogalleriet Oslo. The total budget of the project is 170,000 Euros, of which the value of the non-refundable financial support is 152,000 Euros.


This project is financed with the support of EEA Grants 2014 – 2021 within the RO-CULTURE Programme



The EEA Grants represent the contribution of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway towards a green, competitive and inclusive Europe.
There are two overall objectives: reduction of economic and social disparities in Europe, and to strengthen bilateral relations between the donor countries and 15 EU countries in Central and Southern Europe and the Baltics.
The three donor countries cooperate closely with the EU through the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA). The donors have provided €3.3 billion through consecutive grant schemes between 1994 and 2014. For the period 2014-2021, the EEA Grants amount to €1.55 billion.
Further information available here: www.eeagrants.org și www.eeagrants.ro


RO-CULTURE is implemented in Romania by the Ministry of Culture through the Project Management Unit. The Programme aims at strengthening social and economic development through cultural cooperation, cultural entrepreneurship and cultural heritage management. The total budget amounts to almost 34 million EUR. For more details: www.ro-cultura.ro