THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD: AN EXHIBITION IN TWO PARTS CURATED BY ANTJE EHMANN

PATRICIA MOROSAN. (I) REMEMBER EUROPE & BORDERS AND BARRIERS – THRESHOLDS AND SEPARATIONS


Asociația Culturală Manekino, with the support of AFCN (Administration of the National Cultural Fund) and Goethe Institut BucharesT presents THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD, an artistic project in two parts: (I) Remember Europe a solo show with works by Patricia Morosan and a video intervention by Uli M Schueppel at Salonul de Proiecte (vernissage: November 4, at 7pm). This part is complemented by the show Borders and Barriers - Thresholds and Separations, an international video art exhibition placed in conversation with Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan’s artwork Conflict Lines showing at Pavilion 32, Goethe Institut Bucharest (vernissage: November 3, at 7pm). With video works by a selection of acclaimed international artists: Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Noor Abuarafeh, Cathy Lee Crane, Harun Farocki, Lamia Joreige, Patricia Morosan, Rabih Mroué, Rawane Nassif AND John Smith.

VENUE I - SALONUL DE PROIECTE - November 5 – December 3 2023 | Thu-Sun, 3 pm - 7 pm

Throughout history, Europe's borders have changed. Its center has constantly shifted, and this perpetual dislocation can be measured. Berlin-based Romanian artist Patricia Morosan's first solo show in Romania entitled (I) Remember Europe poetically explores the arbitrary concept of borders by documenting seven places in Germany, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Slovakia that claim to be the geographical center of the continent - each marked by its own monument. (I) Remember Europe is a photographic journey that reveals the center as an existential quest and as a political metaphor. Documenting these centers opens up the discussion on the concept of 'Europe' and the changing construction of the idea of the border. The work shows not only the mutability of borders - but also an emotional location in the coordinates that define themselves as the geographical center of Europe. In her work, Morosan‘s images unfold a psychogeography of people, landscapes, villages, cities, and buildings that partly precede and partly react to the cartographic constructions of the center. As a guest artist, filmmaker Uli M Schueppel converses with the works shown in the exhibition through his film IM PLATZ (1997), a meditation on the symbolic center of the old and new capital Berlin after the fall of the Wall, a non-space in transformation after the dissolution of the border between GDR and FRG. To look at borders from the perspective of the center is at the heart of Morosan and Schueppel’s work. The works are a quest for the invisible center, but also for what stays alien to it.

VENUE II - Pavilion 32, Goethe-Institut Bucharest - November 4 – December 2 2023 | Thursday & Friday: 4 pm -8 pm; Saturday: 11 am-5 pm.

The exhibition Borders and Barriers – Thresholds and Separations presents nine video art works. Each video draws, observes or crosses a line or border; explores barriers and distances; or finds itself outside of a territory, lost in space. In these works, borders are perceived both as enablers and obstacles. They can be powerful yet banal, absurd yet lethal.

Cathy Lee Crane takes us to the US/Mexico border, John Smith to the border of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, while with Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s work we learn about an Opera House that was constructed on the Canada-United States border: where Derby Line, Vermont, meets Quebec. With Patricia Morosan, we witness a telepoetic experiment that she invented during the first lockdown to overcome distances. With Harun Farocki’s installation, we take part in a curious exploration of the ends of computer game worlds, that include the possibility of characters falling into space. A further out-of-space experience is created by Rabih Mroué with his animated drawings of the outlines of bodies. Noor Abuarafeh takes us to caged animals in Zoos in Palestine, Switzerland and Egypt, and catalogued animals in Natural History Museums. With Lamia Joreige we drive through a suspended landscape in Beirut. And finally, filmed in a fake Venice in Qatar, we observe in precise framings, lines and separations on the level of the images themselves. The very act of framing, in the case of Rawane Nassif’s work, also means drawing and showing lines and structures that separate and combine elements in architecture and facades.

Along and in dialogue with these 9 video works we present the installation Conflict Lines, by Anca Benera and Arnold Estefán. (2018, cut-out metal, prints on paper, variable dimensions).

Conflict Lines is in itself an astonishing investigation into the fatal absurdities that center and border definitions create and the way technology is instrumentalized in the interest of state politics. At the same time, the installation functions as a link between the photographic and filmic works of Patricia Morosan / Uli M. Schueppel and the manifold approaches into the center / border topics that the video works in Borders and Barriers present.



OPENING HOURS:

Salonul de Proiecte - Thursday to Sunday, from 3 pm to 7 pm;

Pavilion Goethe, Goethe-Institut Bucharest - Thursday & Friday: 4pm-8pm; Saturday: 11am-5pm

Public program:

Performative artist-curator tour and artist book presentation - Sunday, November 5 (4 PM Salonul de Proiecte);

Performance by Patricia Morosan & Bianca Oana for Telepoetics – Friday, November 3 (6 PM Goethe)



Credits:

Artists: Patricia Morosan, Uli M Schueppel, Noor Abuarafeh, Cathy Lee Crane, Harun Farocki, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Lamia Joreige, Rabih Mroué, Rawane Nassif and John Smith.

Curator: Antje Ehmann

Creative Producer: Bianca Oana

Exhibition Design: Robert Băjenaru

Installation Assistant: Matei Emanuel Cîcu

Cultural Mediation: Mircea Hristescu

Communication: Tiana Alexe & Andreea Tiriplică

Graphic design: Alice Stoicescu

Financial coordination: Gabriela Mitrofan

Media Partners: Scena9, Radio România Internațional, Revista Arta, The Institute, IQads

Acknowledgements: Ștefan Sava, Nicolae Oana, Dragoș Hanciu, Fatma Kilani

Produced by Asociația Culturală Manekino

With the support of AFCN (Administration of the National Cultural Fund) and Goethe Institut Bucharest

The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project, nor for the manner in which the results of the project might be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the grant.

For further information:

Tiana Alexe | Communication Coordinator

tiana.alexe@manekinofilm.ro | T: +40 732 048 411