The Softpower of the Artmarket

THE SOFTPOWER

OF THE ARTMARKET

FIRST EDITION DEBATE ON THE CURRENT SYSTEM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

COLOURING THE GREY State of Body

“Colouring the Grey” curatorial project has opened a series of three exhibi tions,

by bringing forward the Romanian emergent artists in international cultural spaces, in 2011-2012. The concept illustrates an overview on the East-European identity in tran sition. The first was pre sented within “Special Projects” section

of the Moscow Bi ennale of Contemporary Art 2011, under the name ”The Second Wave of Romanian Emerging Contemporary Artists” (September 2011). Second

exhibition was presented in Artists’ House Tel Aviv, the oldest cultural location in Israel (1934), developping the concept of “State of Mind” (November-December

2011). The third and last part of the series is called ”State of Body” and is exposed within the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2012.

AND THE CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL ART

AS THE NEW FOLKLORE

ISBN: 978-973-1984-86-5

2 | Năsui Private Collection & Gallery 2012-2013

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Special thanks to artists involved in this projectCopyright © 2012 Cosmin Năsui. All rights reserved. Contents of this publication may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of Nasui Private Collection & Gallery.

ISBN: 978-973-1984-86-5

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2012-2013 Năsui Private Collection & Gallery | 3

THE SOFT POWER OF THE ARTMARKET

INTRODUCTION

5 Definitions

6 Hypotheses

6 Post Duchamp & Warhol contemporary art as the new popular & folk art

6 Folk art, a consequence of the paradigm change. The artwork’s folk feature

6 Contemporary art as entertainment industry

6 The public receiving, contributing to and continuing the art's folk attribute

7 Art beyond systems and institutions

7 Introducing Theoretical Art

7 The cultural capital and the economic capital of the artwork

7 Artwork addiction to the capital circulation

I.

9 Post Duchamp & Warhol paradigm: the new folk art

II.

11 Perishability as the common attribute of styles and theories

III.

12 The value of art after the twentieth century

IV.

13 The crisis of present day values

V.

15 Institutionalized art and its role as a soft power

NĂSUI PRIVATE COLLECTION & GALLERY

CONTENTS

5

THE SOFT POWER OF THE ARTMARKET

Debate on the current system of contemporary art

51

FOCUS CRISTIAN TODIE

Introducing Theoretical Art

24

COLOURING THE GREY STATE OF BODY

Rediscovering corporal figuration in realistic key

SPECIAL EDITION FOR PREVIEW BERLIN & INDEPENDENTS LIVERPOOL BIENNIAL 2012



CONTENTS

VI.16 The market and the industrialization of artistic values

from the second half of the twentieth century16 The geography of contemporary art: major and minor markets,

shrinking markets and emerging markets 16 The economy of cultural and artistic values

VII.18 Art institutions as agents

18 Collectors Museum18 The Agency-Gallery

18 Art dealer18 Art fairs

19 Auction houses 19 Investment funds and their returns

19 The public 19 The artist

VIII.20 The competition of art market giants

IX.21 Corrupt art

X.22 Emerging markets in Eastern Europe

22 Activists23 Dezinstitutionalized institutions

23 Economy of sharing, collaborative consumption, Fair Trade

CURATORIAL CONCEPT

24 Colouring the Grey - State of Body

SELECTED ARTWORKS

26 Radu Belcin, Dragoș Burlacu, Francisc Chiuariu, Felix Deac, Bogdan Rața, Flavia Pitiș, Aurel Tar

FOCUS CRISTIAN TODIE51 Introducing Theoretical Art

ARTIST SHORT BIO

54 Radu Belcin, Dragoș Burlacu, Francisc Chiuariu, Felix Deac, Flavia Pitiș, Bogdan Rața, Aurel Tar

PARTNERS

58 St George’s Hall, Best Communication Media, Certinvest, Chapman Taylor

UPCOMING PROJECT

64 Future Now, Working Title


ECONOMIC CAPITALof the artwork

Art in the 21st century is looking for a new artistic paradigm that should restore the

aesthetic and commercial valua-tion system.

The theory that this study aims at introducing is that, at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century, contemporary culture and art have begun generating a new type of ”urban folklore”, forced, through the speed of novelty, to enter an anonymous artistic consumption and production.

Definitions of conceptsFOLKLORE: all stories, legends

and creative production owned

by a particular space, group or specific activity. In this material, it refers to the urban areas in general, as art generators, all around the globe.

POPULAR: that can be easily understood by anyone, simple, natural

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES are considered components of modern post-industrial economies and synthesize a series of characteris-tics1:

- they represent a set of inten-sive knowledge activities, part of the knowledge-based economy;

- include design, production and distribution activities of goods and services with high artistic and scientific creativity, respecti-vely having intangible cultural or

information / encoded (as intellec-tual property) assets;

- have the ability to generate revenue from marketing creative products and services, as well as from the exploitation of intellec-tual property rights;

- have the potential to gene-rate economic sustainable growth, promoting social inclusion, cultural diversity and human development.

THE CULTURAL AND CREATIVE2 INDUSTRIES are: Advertising, Architecture, Art and art market, Crafts, Design, Fashion, Movie, Video and photography, Software and computer games, Music, Visual arts and Performing arts, Publishing, Television, Radio.

I. Introduction

CULTURAL CAPITALof the artwork

* This material is used as a starting point for discussions

on the current system of contemporary art. The recording of debates in

various cultural areas will add to this material to create

a subsequent book. Thank you for all comments,

live or at [email protected].

simulation of artwork structure in the field of

productionCULTURAL CAPITAL

of the artwork

ECONOMIC CAPITALof the artwork

Western Europe & USA Eastern Europe & emerging states

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2.1. Post Duchamp & Warhol contemporary art as the new popular & folk art

We define the post Duchamp & Warhol contemporary art as contemporary folk art, an art using anthropological decoding tools specific to nowadays urban areas. We also consider it a popular art, easy to understand, using very well known idioms and iconographies, globally spread.

2 . 2 . Fo l k a r t , a consequence of the paradigm change. The artwork’s folk feature

The types of artistic emulation, known as Schools or Trends, are actually creative products generated by prototype models. This kind of art objects is derived from the inter-pretation of reality made by artists, from the prototype perspective. This is supplemented by the wide dissemination of artistic message to the public very wide open to inter-pretations. All these form the folk

characteristic of an artwork.

2.3. Contemporary art as entertainment industry

The power and expansion of global entertainment industry is due to features such as ”simple”, ”easy” based upon which creative products are disseminated and understood unbelievably fast and by a large extent of people from diffe-rent cultural areas.

We hereby define contempo-rary art as entertainment, with features such as: mass produc-tion and distribution, general audi-ence, high aesthetic tolerance, after-hours broadcast (after the working program), following the same audi-ence segment in competition with show arts (music concerts, dance, theater, etc.), movie industry and TV productions.

The entertainment function of contemporary art is the result of the need for relaxation, of the social cultural alternative to the time assigned to work. The need for entertainment is directly propor-tional to the access to free time of a society. Culture and arts are the trade support of entertainment

activities and products. Artistic genres and cultural products and any other derived products are unprecedentedly in ongoing deve-lopment.

2.4. The public receiving, contributing to and continuing the art's folk attribute

Public frustration of educated people when meeting entertain-ment forms of contemporary art is recorded through the inability of selection and attraction to easi-ness. The speed of entertainment artistic productions shows the high level of perishability of the value and reduced cultural capital.

2.5. Art beyond systems and institutions

In reversal to contemporary art as folk art, genuine art is the one that generates research and de-automates consciousness, first of the artist, then of the viewer. Genuine art is open to anyone and no form of power or capital should have ownership monopoly on art.

Hypotheses: assumptions for this paper and for further

discussions


Art autonomy is demonstrated by the fact that it can be produced independently, outside institutions, whether public or private. The critical self-negation essential for the development of art often takes place outside institutional prac-tices. To society, the contesting role of contemporary art is important and uncensored, even if associated to any revolution, reform or radi-calism factor. Art between power (politics) and market (economic) acquires (media) addiction.

Art should not exist only in and for museums and on the art market, but also with the aim to develop and always articulate new ways of critical sensitivity. Genuine art should become a tool to see and learn the world with all its contra-dictions. From this point of view, museums and art institutions should function mainly as deposito-ries and laboratories for the world’s aesthetic exploration. Private or public institutions should prevent art from privatization, economic assignment and subordination to the populist logic of culture industry.

In The Rules of Art (p. 104) Pierre Bourdieu records the types of art objects: social art, bourgeois art, art for art and pure art. Upgrading these categories in nowadays contemporaneity we could classify the art of Jeff Koons, for example,

in the category of bourgeois art and aesthetics.

2.6. Theoretical artA form of genuine art is theore-

tical art. Theoretical art means art which is based on a theory, deve-lops it and arguments it visually and artistically. The difference between theoretical and concep-tual art is that the latter replaces the object with the concept, opera-ting a change of language and means of expression. Theoretical art is art inspired through research by forms of science such as mathematics, geometry, physics, etc. Theoretical art investigates scientific researches on the structure of which it builds new realities. Works of theoretical art are patented as inventions and protected by industry. Their owners can use them with prototype value, but also with the opportunity to be reproduced at large scale for utility purposes.

See the postulate of Cristian Todie page 51.

2.7. The cultural capital and the economic capital of the artwork

The absence of Eastern European art market in the last almost six decades has produced artworks

with no important commercial value, with dissemination and move-ment restricted almost always to the producers themselves. Therefore, Eastern Europe understands and defines differently the cultural capital and the economic capital of the artwork.

On the other hand, recent intense exploitation within the areas of the economic powers (the Anglo-Saxon American model) of artworks accu-mulations of economic capital has led to various types of economies which subordinated and marginalized their cultural capital.

2.8. Artwork addiction to the capital circulation

Artifact self-sufficiency and social engagement of art have been corrupted by the forces getting in touch with it: politics, economics, media. The accepted, official, confor-mist art is the result of public, political corruption (as distortion), while the decorativism and entertainment art are the result of private corruption made by commercial and utility struc-tures. Contemporary art is dependent on the movement of capital.

A contemporary art oriented to the progress of the cultural capital would lead to the loss of market, just as market development involves maximizing the profit and increa-sing economic capital.

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Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait in Drag, 1981. Dye diffusion transfer print (Polaroid), 3 11/16" x 2 7/8"

Rose Sélavy (Marcel Duchamp), 1921. Photograph by Man Ray. Art Direction by Marcel Duchamp. Silver print. 5-7/8" x 3"-7/8"


Cristian Todie, ”Caddy® Baroc”, 2001, used into the performance action ”ACHAT”

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The end of the twentieth century art has under-gone one of the most radical paradigm shifts

from Leonardo Da Vinci. Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol, the pioneers of this new artistic para-digm have each launched defini-tions and mechanisms that have irrevocably transformed the understanding of the function and forms of art. The former left art without the object of the professi-onal art craft, the latter deprived it of its unique value. Many innova-tions have occurred successively, using these new paradigm formats, leaving, on one hand, many artists without their livelihood and, on the other hand, a great part of the public in discontent, because of the misunderstanding of art works and in extensio of artistic phenomena.

Relinquishing its function as object, art was progressively charged with concept until this has become indispensable to it. The charging with concept of the artistic production is inver-sely proportional to the presence of the art object; it might even be absent from the encounter with the artistic discourse or the materia-lity of creation.

Because art no longer requires

craft skills, the savoir faire is widely accessible to creators. Artistic means and stylistic methods were made available to the public, giving rise to hybrids, true folk artists, producers or co-producers (not only through interpretation) of artistic crea-tion and different types of deriva-tives of artistic character. Through mimicry, these artists take advan-tage of this systematic confusion of cultural capital production and pursue financial resources in order to become new Jeff Koons-es.

Art criticism has gradually remained without the object of analysis; it became a rigid and academicized textualism of highly-conceptual or philosophical and aesthetic discourses. The analysis of concepts transformed art criti-cism into a discipline of hunting footnoted quotes to build a meta-discourse on artistic concepts, lacking in object form, oftentimes dull and incomprehensible to the general public, like a network of parallel mirrors.

The “prophets“ Duchamp and Warhol have been interpreted, quoted and reinvented worldwide for more than 60 years without anyone being able to provide a real invention or an exit from the

paradigm created by them. In more than six decades, it was formed a critical mass of new folk of contemporary art, adapted to the anonymity of the speed of artistic production and of every person’s 15 minutes of fame, prophesied by Andy Warhol.

This folk art is currently repre-sented by hundreds of thousands of professional artists and amateurs around the world, in the same random way in which people in the Cucuteni period, the Metal Age or the Gothic Middle Ages produced works with a common folk deno-minator. Then, the same mate-rials (ceramics, iron, etc.), motifs and decorative patterns, tools were discovered and used simultaneo-usly on an extended geographical area, similar to what we call today a global phenomenon.

Nowadays, globalization occurs locally by the adoption and adapta-tion of macro-models into micro-models. This local micro-globali-zation of contemporary art pheno-mena makes the styles of the artists resemble one another very much, without discovering great differences between the cultural areas of origin. In search of origi-nality, artists have come to be similar.

I. Post Duchamp & Warhol paradigm:

the new folk art


Aurel Tar, ”GIBRALTAR ultraperiferic art corner”, ”Pastorale Orangerie”, Râpa Roșie – Sebeș, România, 2010 performance, action

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Taking into considera-tion the fact that a para-digm shift genera-tes a folklore specific

to itself, types of folklore, deve-loped after various stylistic peri-ods of the history of art can be followed. Art objects herein called “folk objects” are the product of mechanisms started from a model based on extensive production, regardless of the historical period. One can identify examples like the Venetian School having Titian as prototype, the Florentine School with Botticelli, the Little Dutch Masters with Pieter Brueghel the Elder, the School of Rubens, the one of Rembrandt, Pre-Raphaelites with Raphael, the Barbizon School beginning with Constable and continuing with Millet, the cubist folklore around Picasso, etc.

Putting scientific research at the center of art, Leonardo Da Vinci generates on a historical scale the most important art para-digm shift until the twentieth century.

Strong Trends or Schools manage to impose themselves as Styles.

Styles are conglomerates composed of a prototype, its

variations (Trends/Schools), public perception of the time, values and theories that contain stylistic features. They practically form what we call in this material folklore/folk art.

Each style goes through three stages: avant-garde, consecra-tion, mannerism. The distances between the stages are different from case to case. These styles, actually types of folklore, once absorbed by their contempora-riness, expand, then shrink and are replaced. According to some researchers3, in order to be esta-blished to an audience, a style needs thirty years of peace, three years of war and three months of crisis. The theories, the conceptual scaffolding of the Styles, are also subject to perishability.

Paradigm-changing prototypes actually reveal new functions of art and specific forms to valorize it.

Also, a crisis of values and theo-retical systems is the sign of the paradigm going into the manne-rism stage.

II. Perishability as the common attribute

of styles and theories

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Jeff Koons' sculpture Puppy, a 12 metres high puppy made of fresh flowers built sculpture for the Documenta in Kassel 1992. Nowadays its place is permanently at the front of the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao


Here is how Pierre Bourdieu explains the value of art4:

“The producer of the value of the work of art is not the artist, but the field of production, as the universe of faith, which produces the value of the work of art as a fetish, determining faith in the artist’s creative power. Since the work of art has no value as symbolic world unless it is known and recognized, that is, socially established as a work of art to viewers endowed with the dispo-sition and aesthetic competence knowledge necessary to know and recognize it, the science of works has as object not only the material production of the work, but also the production of the value of the work or of the faith in the value of the work, which is the same thing.

Therefore, it must take into account not only the direct produ-cers of the work in its materia-lity (artist, writer, etc.), but also all the agents and the institutions involved in the production of the value of the work by producing faith in the value of art in general and the distinctive value of a particular work of art (i.e. critics,

art historians, publishers, gallery managers, dealers, museum cura-tors, patrons, collectors, members of the courts of consecration - academies, salons, juries, etc.) and all political and adminis-trative bodies having compe-tence in art (various ministries - depending on the period – The National Museums Department,

Department of Fine Arts, etc.), which can interfere with the art market, either through verdicts of establishment, with or without economic benefits (procurement, grants, awards, scholarships, etc.), or by regulatory measures (tax incentives offered to various patrons and collectors, etc.). We must not forget the members of the institutions involved in the production of producers (Schools of Fine Arts, etc.) and the produc-tion of consumers able to recog-nize the work of art as such, as value, starting from the teachers and the parents responsible for the first inoculation of artistic dispositions.” (Pierre Bourdieu, The Rules of Art, p. 295-296)

So, defining the context of producing the value of the work of art is relevant in analyzing the value of the work of art and of the artistic creation. The current art market moved the center of production of this artistic value decisively from the artist to the field of production. This indus-trialized field of production is not only the producer of artistic value but also the producer of artists and of the public receiving these values.

III. The value of art after the twentieth century

Field of production The producer of the value of the work of art is not the artist, but the field of production.DIRECT PRODUCER OF THE WORK

ARTIST

AGENTS PRODUCERS OF THE VALUE OF THE WORK

CRITICS, ART HISTORIANS

PUBLISHERS

GALLERY MANAGERS, DEALERS

MUSEUM CURATORS, PATRONS, COLLECTORS

MEMBERS OF THE COURTS OF CONSECRATION - ACADEMIES, SALONS, JURIES

POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE BODIES HAVING COMPETENCE IN ART

PROCUREMENT, GRANTS, AWARDS, SCHOLARSHIPS

SCHOOLS OF FINE ARTS

PRODUCTION OF CONSUMERS ABLE TO RECOGNIZE THE WORK OF ART


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IV. The crisis of present day values

The power of a Style to impose itself appears in the context of its func-tionality, its ability to

produce values. After the values enter the phase of decline, they become models for and witnesses to stylistic sets related to historical scales.

The post Duchamp and post Warhol paradigm went beyond the avant-garde and the establishment phase and reaches the mannerism phase through a crisis of the values of the paradigm.

The success of the post Duchamp and post Warhol art scene is due to being built on the mechanisms of an art market economically capitalized, in an aggressive manner, at global level (see above the creative indus-tries above and below the variety of active institutions-players). In a post-capitalist world, one of the aesthetic values of contemporary art is the result of the exploitation of economic capital inflows.

Aurel Tar , ”DOITSCH PROIEKT - 2 EURO”, 2008, acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150 cm

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Bogdan Rața, ”HandGun”,in Piaţa Presei Libere, within ”Proiect 1990”, Bucharest, Romania


The institutionalization of art finds many forms and roles for all types of players on the art scene.

The funding system influences the creation and the work of art in a variety of methodologies without precedent so far.

The public sector institutio-nalizes art through commissio-ning, purchasing, promotion, etc. and uses its propaganda poten-tial to recognize power (national, political, historical, ethnogra-phic, religious, military, etc.). This sector also gives art an educati-onal character, for the imposition and maintenance of specific values,

through their wide dissemination. The power of dissemination and the status of official art, recognized and thus validated is a type of soft power.

Typically, the forms in which this type of contemporary art is manifested are conservative.

The private sector institutiona-lizes art in order to use its finan-cial investment attributes and to build pyramid schemes in order to increase value and profit. Culture and art are under a corporate umbrella, engaging tax cuts for the corporations. Private corporate sponsorship connects art to corpo-rate values and culture. Copyright,

reproduction and copying regu-lations are forms of control and restriction of the freedom of move-ment of creation and shows the high degree of interdependence of the form of finance. Creative labor rights are regulated and indepen-dently traded as a commodity on the copyright market.

Thus, public and private insti-tutions worldwide are engaged in the propaganda of systems where creation is seen as an instrument or a commodity. Knowledge is limited by control; it can no longer provoke the system due to finan-cial interdependence, and gets to be diluted in the play of produc-tion.

V. Institutionalized art and its role as a soft power

DEBATE


The industrialization of culture is a factor that became dominant after the second half of the

twentieth century in Europe and USA. The term “cultural industry” was used by sociologists Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer in 1947 („The Dialectic of Enlightenment“) to represent all the techniques of production and reproduction of cultural works with social impact.

Cultural industries have become the main model of deve-lopment in the global world culture. The effects of this indus-trialization make art and culture accessible to large numbers of people who become consumers and thus producers of several types of markets. They can be minor or major markets, in terms of geogra-phical origin (from the West to the East) and of distribution and consumption of artistic produc-tion (various forms of art, from the object itself to gadgets).

Contemporary art is a creative

and entertainment industry, in which aesthetic values are supported and permanently equaled to commercial values. The field of production (to which Bourdieu refers) in post-capitalism is based on the circulation of values and finding their commercial correspondent. The art and culture market is the place of presenta-tion and meeting of demand and of supply of artistic and cultural products.

The geography of contemporary art: major and minor markets, shrinking markets and emerging markets

Contemporary art is circu-lated, produced and traded mainly in cultural spaces that overlap with the geographic distribu-tion of economic power. The maps and charts published regularly

by Artprice (www.artprice.com) accurately state which are and especially which are not the areas favorable to the production and consumption of contemporary art.

Globally speaking, artistic values have their commercial counterpart in the economic values of the spaces of geographical origin or other consumer areas. An artistic value can be commer-cially converted by the market of origin, if there is local demand, or by the global consumer market, where there is power of investment and commercial reporting to that value.

Depending on the economic power, one can distinguish the major markets, with an appetite for economic investment, usually in cultural and artistic expansion, through the products offered to consumption (including on minor markets). The major market serves a physically expanded area, exce-eding its national and geogra-phical boundaries, both through production and especially through

VI. The market and the industrialization

of artistic values from the second half of the

twentieth century


consumption. Minor markets stand out as markets where consumption is greater than domestic production can support, and this profile actually creates them. Thus, they these become outlets for major markets.

Exporting and importing

culture develop in this twentieth century a global economy of values and expand beyond the primary level of cultural diplomacy, which ensures knowledge and reciprocal politically correct recognition of the cultures from different geogra-phical areas.

The emergence of minor markets gives them the title of emerging markets. They become interesting for major markets, through the especially specula-tive alternatives of short-term profits that they can provide. Typically, new emerging markets overlap with emerging economies. By contrast, shrinking markets are markets where the economic capital is relocated to other areas with higher growth potential (see emerging markets).

The economy of cultural and artistic values

In this new economy of cultural and artistic values, the standards of classical culture are in a process of profound redefinition depending on the demand, the production and the distribution of cultural products. The commercial impact of culture and art is without prece-dent. Art and culture are institu-tionalized at a public and private level. Art institutions are agents, vehicles through which art is produced, distributed, marketed.

Several types of economies of artistic values can be distin-guished. There is an economy of transactions with art objects, an economy of arts services, an economy of derivatives, a copyright economy etc.

By consuming culture, art and media, people get in touch and are exposed to the same messages, they consume the same object, have the same values , the same representations, similar knowledge, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, level of culture. Contemporary art coagulates the society in communities, maintains their stability and social structures and creates an unconscious soli-darity, defined by sociologists and political scientists as a global neo-tribalism5.Ph

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Daniel Buren, Monumenta 2012 @ Grand Palais, Paris. The Monumenta 2012 exhibition invited Daniel Buren to create a work for the monumental space of the 45-metre high glass atrium in the 13,500-square-metre nave of the Grand Palais in Paris. The annual exhibition featured Anselm Kiefer in 2007, Richard Serra in 2008, Christian Boltanski in 2010 and Anish Kapoor in 2011.

DEBATE


Collectors MuseumPrivate contemporary art

museums have become a catalyst for investment and a guarantee for risk insurance. This guarantee is given by continually adding value to works in museums, by the “heavy rotation“ movement in which they are entered.

The speed with which post-capitalist values are established is an effect of the global financial crisis that needs to find alternative areas for financial security such as art and other luxury industries.

Museums of contemporary art, generically called by Hito Steyerl “Global Guggenheim”, serve the same role as the stadiums for sporting events. For an artist to be professional, he must play on these “stadiums“ of the art world, whether they are called Guggenheim, MOMA, Pompidou or Tate. A goal scored from a gate made of two backpacks on a green space is like an exhibition in a gallery in Bucharest or Tehran.

The professional peek of an artist’s career is to be exhi-bited, circulated and purchased by a museum of contemporary art. The museum guarantees the value (risk reduction), creates the landmarks of artistic value and

indirectly credits the high growth potential. The “betting agen-cies“ in the art world - auction houses, the public who buys tickets and secondary deriva-tives such as gadgets, the media industry, the publishing industry and the art books industry are found in synergy when a contem-porary artist reaches the peak of his career.

The Museum Trustees or the people in the boards of museums form a network of collectors who contribute through financial dona-tions or art objects to the collec-tions of the museums. The taste, the personal collection and the financial support form a system of interests connecting selected galleries with museums (private collections fuel public museum collections).

The Agency-GalleryThe gallery is the agency that

commissions artistic values and guarantees them by associating them with its own brand, which it seeks to strengthen and impose on permanent basis. The gallery works with a portfolio of artists organizing exhibitions and tran-sactions. For most of the galleries,

selling works of art also means promotion. The gallery marks the fields of production and the fields of consumption and seeks and finds an audience that reacts to the artistic product. The gallery creates a critical mass of small and medium collectors allowing the artist to continue his career and feeding private collections.

The art dealerArt dealers are like capital

markets brokers, they are people who have contacts and knowledge of the specific market. They may represent different inte-rests (galleries, collectors, private museums). Art dealers do not invest in cultural promotion and are aware of the economic capital, not the cultural one. For them, finding artistic products is done by systems similar to head-hunters. The traded artists’ pool is higher than that of a gallery, and involve-ment in promoting art is reduced.

Art fairsBy increasing standards, art

fairs were positioned at the level of the luxury goods industry. Sets of conditions and filters allow

VII. Art institutions as agents


access only to certain galleries and networks of galleries in order to show and sell the production and the artistic portfolios. The transa-ctions in the art fairs, like those of auction houses, aim to maximize profit (increasing economic and cultural capital by circulation and recognition).

Auction houses Auction houses make up the

secondary market segment in which art is sold as it exits the gallery circuit (considered as primary market). The mecha-nisms of auction houses form, by public sale, the art market quota system. Indexed art market quotas are processed and provide finan-cial tools as the performance of artists and of art works (see www.artprice.com). The works can get to auction houses through private sale, expropriation, transforma-tion into liquidity etc. The houses do not sell under the market price and seek a significant appreciation per unit traded. Thus, successive resale results in maximizations of the economic and cultural capital. This increase is favored by a closed environment, achieved through careful selection of the works and batch control.

Investment funds and their returns

The collective financial mecha-nisms of investment management provide a framework for forming and strengthening the artistic value. Each fund has a growth capacity ensured by the strength of the liquidity of art works in a limited period of time (maximi-zing economic capital through storage and resale at the best moment)..

The public The public of the twenty-first is

regarded as a target to be achieved.

When a campaign for an exhibi-tion is activated, the main target of reporting is, as in any other branch of industry, the financial one. To this there are added other types of indicators: cultural, educational, media, etc.

In quantifying a marketized public, the amount (rather than the quality) of participation in artistic consumption becomes more important. Art consump-tion is stimulated by large scale events, such as Biennales, art projects in the public space, mammoth museum productions etc. The total visual spectacle, within the tested parameters of the Hollywood model, receives artistic declensions at the level of the budgets. Basically, the enter-tainment coordinate is one that manages to achieve ambitious targets for tens of thousands of spectators, consumers of artistic events.

The artistThe success of a contemporary

artist is the concentrated work of the production field around him,

in order to turn him into a regis-tered and controlled brand on the consumer market. This success requires a team specialized in all branches of the main and related activities: production of works, control of works, organizing exhi-bitions and events with internal and external logistics, monito-ring, legislation on contracts and copyright, national and interna-tional quotations, presentation in spaces with closed circuit and open circuit, lobbying for awards and scholarships, advertising, media lobbying, the use of public sales tools, fundraising, attrac-ting capital, constant communica-tion with collectors and investors, making productions for the book industry (books, albums, catalo-gues) and gadgets for the secon-dary entertainment industry.

At the same time, the power of dissemination and rapid embrace of the patterns by direct imitation shows us the folk component of contemporary art reduced to the industrial control of the artist’s brand.

The transaction price of a work must ensure the costs of the team and of all these activi-ties. Without this whole package of services, which must be financi-ally supported, the artist does not become known and is traded at a lower price, often close to the price of the materials used. The material can also be a factor in assessing the final selling price.

It is known that during the Quattrocento art works costs were quantified in the amount (ounce) of color used, the most expen-sive being gold, silver and ultra-marine blue. Similarly, contempo-rary art works in precious metals remain the favorite investments in the arts. (“For the Love of God“, Damien Hirst, 2007, platinum and diamonds worth 19 million euros, was traded with 75 million euros).Ph

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“For the Love of God“, Damien Hirst, 2007, platinum and diamonds worth 19 million euros, was traded with 75 million euros

DEBATE


The global crisis of values with all its derivatives echoes in the global art scene and market. The

accelerated capitalization of the art market and the industrialization of artistic production are effects of the economic crises of searches for other units of measurement for capital investment, gold or real estate being no longer sufficient in this currency reporting crisis.

The recent interest accele-rated by investments in art made possible artistic productions which were gigantic in terms of budget, size and logistics.

One may notice that the contemporary culture follows the general structure of the distri-bution of wealth in the capitalist world, where 3-5% of the parti-cipants have control over and dispose of 70-80% of resources (material and immaterial labor, production budgets, state subsidies etc.)7. Just as in the case of other spheres of human activity, art and culture are dominated by fierce competition principles, forcing the majority to be subject to a struggle for subsistence.

Museum networks are among the largest supporters and bene-ficiaries of such artistic produc-tions, together with networks of top international galleries. The phenomenon of contemporary art biennale is extended globally (from Ukraine to South Africa).

In times of crisis, these budgets

present an impressive increase nourished by the competition of art market giants. The capitalized art market is a good alternative to financial investments in times of crisis. Also, speculation of this economic dimension of art brings new indicators and hierarchies of values similar to those in the sports world. Hyper-productivity ensures huge artistic produc-tions that guarantee emotional shock, in huge events as Biennales, Documenta or Manifesta.

The aesthetic and conceptual value extracted by Duchamp and Warhol outside the scope of the art object breaks the couple art object - artistic value. This separa-tion made it possible to integrate the creation in one of the most financially speculated forms in

the history of art. The circulation of contemporary art works shows strong financial ties between all participants in the field of produc-tion: art producers, art dealers, gallery, art fair, collector, art critic, auction house, museum, publi-cations, etc. Media publications are also financially related to the artistic values promoted in the art market. The art freed from the object crafted by the artist can be speculated with amazing speed globally, making it a finan-cial vehicle of the rich. The exor-bitant prices of contemporary art works such as those of Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, and Takasi Murakami became inaccessible even for the nouveau riche. The financial value of art has become the attribute of Forbes billiona-ires and is measured in produc-tion budgets and teams constantly engaged in the artist‘s studio. The circulation of money in art shows how many of these artistic values are exploited in order to bring direct profit to investors and indi-rect profit of those involved in supporting the entire circuit. The talent is estimated in the artistic quota indexed in specialized publi-cations that calculate with mathe-matical algorithms expressing the yield per square centimeter in public transactions.

Media participation, PR and marketing are budgeted tools inte-grated in the artistic production that ensures the curiosity of the public and media interest.

VIII. The competition of art market giants

Over one hundred biennial organizations operate around the globe. They often share similar objectives, practices and considerations, from curatorial and artistic strategies to political and economic agendas.Biennial map provided by Biennial Foundation Ph

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One of the observed effects of the industrialization of contemporary art is that art markets can corrupt

the artistic act, in different ways.

The forms and genres of art are financially distorted by the art market. Banksy is the model of such corruptions, by capitalization the pop success of an anonymous street art phenomenon. Behind the name transformed into a successful brand of the “anti“ atti-tude there is most likely already a team of artists, PR and communi-cation monitoring transactions and media effects. The huge amounts at which a stencil or graffiti are traded show the anomalies deve-loped by an art market contro-lled by capital and less by aesthetic values [Banksy‘s record in a public sale is over 1.5 million euros, “Keep it Spotless (Defaced Hirst)“, 2007].

Most times, the ethics of finan-cial systems does not distinguish between money according to their origin. Likewise, the contracts in the art world maintain the confi-dentiality of customers, routes and sources of money in order not to provoke issues. Black money gets into the world of contemporary art and is a source of deposits.

Complex systems generate profits and create values by spec-tacular sales, lobby for awards,

exhibitions and residencies, dona-tions of collections, rebuying works of art in auctions etc.

The art market not subject to taxation seems to be safer in rela-tion to the fiscalized financial mechanisms of the giants of the art industry.

The abuses and corrup-tion of cultural managers are new networked phenomena that pervade private and public institu-tions. Other workers in the creative industries only benefit from the financial results of their work in a small degree and enjoy the audi-ence points which are not contro-lled by them, but by the abovemen-tioned systems.

Opacity in the art world can be a sign of corruption or of specula-tive construction oriented towards financial profit.

Contemporary art is produced, financed and designed for

accumulation of surplus - called economic growth. Transforming art into private ownership and profit makes it a product of the elites (i.e. an aristocratic art). Contemporary art forms are thus sophisticated types of social discri-mination. In the same way as other products of the luxury industry, huge or eccentric productions of contemporary art have broken the ecological balance with the environment, with responsible consumption and with the ethics of the transaction values.

Hito Steyerl is more radical: ”Contemporary art feeds on the crumbs of a massive redistribu-tion of wealth widely, from the poor to the rich, accomplished through a class struggle under way. Guggenheim Global is a cultural refinery for a set of post-demo-cratic oligarchies, as numerous international biennales are respon-sible for the upgrading and reedu-cation of the growing population. Thus, art facilitates the develop-ment of a new multi-polar geopo-litical distribution through the engagement of often ruined econo-mies, fueled by internal unrest, by class conflict, by radical shock and policies of awe. Thus, contempo-rary art not only reflects but acti-vely intervenes in the transition to a new world post - Cold War. It is a major player in the unequal promo-tion of pseudo capitalism (...).”6

Banksy‘s record in a public sale is over 1.5 million euros, “Keep it Spotless (Defaced Hirst)“, 2007

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DEBATE

IX. Corrupt art


Emerging markets in Eastern Europe

Emerging art markets of Eastern Europe still face the histo-rical bottlenecks of the lack of free markets during the commu-nist period, in which the State was the sole sponsor and purchaser of artistic productions. The art trade was restricted to some antique art shops and ranked as prohibitive because it belonged to the ”bour-geois social class“. The commu-nist period left long-lasting marks by denying the commercial role of the artistic product, under-stood with a pejorative role, and without aesthetic value. The lack of economic value of the art object made it available to be loaded with historical value, with a propa-ganda or counter-propaganda role. Thus, the contemporary art of the Eastern Europe is profoundly marked historically but has a disas-trous financial report.

ActivistsThere are activist groups

such as ArtLeaks7 that make the

purpose of contemporary art to expose the myth that there is no alternative to the global capitalist system and that critical thinking is corrupt. They reconsider the world without the domination of profit and exploitation, from the micro-political and micro-economic level in the analysis of relations and human creation. The economic, political, intellectual and crea-tive empowerment should not be linked to capitalist or communist political structures.

People freed from faith in reli-gion trust science and various disciplines which analyze the world critically. The specializa-tion in the capitalist society places knowledge in the service of the dominant social classes, say the people from ArtLeaks. Individual research serves private inte-rests; therefore research based on critical discourse is not institu-tionally supported. In principle, critical knowledge should not be comfortable and should be distri-buted in institutionalized educa-tional systems. Social classes are not structured as bourgeo-isie and proletariat. As it evolved,

this couple may be reexamined in the antagonism labor and capital. Transforming society reconfi-gured the productive powers which now require a critical rethinking of strategies and objec-tives.

Contemporary art is a creative space without geographical spatial identity. However, it is taken into account when it is produced by the world powers or super-powers: the art created in the twenty-first century in Kyrgyzstan or in other countries that do not have pavi-lions at the Venice Biennale, for example, is not an active part in the global history of contemporary art.

One may note that only mature markets and art scenes can financi-ally lift creative persons to impose themselves to a wide audience and to a specialized one, of professio-nals. The options to improve this model can come from within it, by anarchic forms such as strikes, criticism, deinstitutionalization, piracy, etc. (not encouraged) or from the outside, from areas not yet exploited by civilization and cultural industrialization (Eastern

X. Alternative systems to the main markets for

contemporary art


Europe, Central Asia, emerging countries etc.).

Deinstitutionalized institutions

One of the institutions pirated and deinstitutionalized offe-ring the power of example and a case study is the Biennale de Paris (http://biennaledeparis.org/). It is an unusual biennale: after being founded by Andre Malraux in 1959 and abandoned by the French public institutions, its brand was registered and relaunched in 2000 by a team of artistic activists.

The Biennale de Paris has kept its name and develops a set of artistic processes, which do not have the cyclical rhythm of a biennale, are not organized as a unique curatorial project, do not have a national space or targeted and fixed audiences. The biennale records various artistic processes (political, economic and ideolo-gical), of non-institutional type, in the very place where they are made - anywhere in the world, and communicates them in its publica-tions, which are also irregular.

The efforts of the biennale are to deinstitutionalize art and to reject the use of the art object, believed to have become alie-nated because of the art market. The biennale attempts to rede-fine art by using criteria reluctant to the idea of an artist in its traditi-onal form (by the manufacturer in the market, surrounded by its field of production). The Biennale de Paris refuses to participate in what is conventional in the art world today. Blending genres, explo-ring the boundaries and practi-cing the redistribution of roles, the Biennale de Paris allows art to arise with accuracy especially where it is not expected.

Alexandre Guriţă, the director of the Biennale de Paris, defines the art market as a primitive, barbaric market, centered on the art trade. In his opinion, the art market should be centered on the services

economy and the social economy. Guriţă proposes a ”provider art“ in which artists work under employ-ment contracts and collaborate with society. These types of events developed by artists in a colla-borative way are defined by the Director of the Biennale de Paris as ”invisual artistic practices“. These practices develop creative services and not art objects. And the effects of art are actually the end product of the artistic act.

According to Alexandre Guriţă, artists must participate in meetings in public and private institutions and companies that need restructuring, providing views and solutions different from those of experts in the field.

The Biennale de Paris is an example in the reverse direc-tion, meaning that the artist is the one who recovers an institution; the institution does not recover the artist, as it usually happens. It is a biennale with no imposed theme, no curator, and no spec-tator. Art institutions can be refor-mulated based on artistic practice that questions the foundations of art. Art should not be institutiona-lized by the Ministry of Culture, a legatee, a regulating factor in the arts and the infrastructures of the cultural arts systems.

The terminology of art is asso-ciated to the practices of the Biennale de Paris to reopen the investigation of new terms to rede-fine the new artistic practices. An example of a redefined artistic acti-vity is the artist Elisa Bollazzi, concerned with the development of an artistic exhibition project consisting of micro-collections of broken fragments that belonged to famous art objects. These physical fragments of other works of art are thoroughly indexed and stocked beginning from the time they were (at the limit of legality) decom-posed and taken from museums or public spaces. By mixing these fragments, she makes up her own work of art, after an original concept.

Economy of sharing, collaborative consumption, Fair Trade

Contemporary art, explo-ited and absorbed by the finan-cial systems can still search for its resources in other concepts such as the economy of sharing, colla-borative consumption or fair trade, whose essential feature is the trust between individuals.

These new social and economic phenomena refer to markets built on contributory participa-tion among individuals: ”peer-to-peer markets“ (already known and commonly used concepts such as ZipCar, Airbnb, CouchSurfing or eBay).

-------------------------------------- This material is used as a start-ing point for discussions on the current system of contem-porary art. The recording of debates in various cultural areas will add to this material to create a subsequent book.

Thank you for all comments, live or at [email protected].

Cosmin Năsui, Oana Năsui, August 2012

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Notes:

1 Ana Bobirca, Alina Draghici, Sorin Dumitrescu, ”Measuring Creative Economy– Case study: Romania”, Romanian Economic Journal, 20092 DCMS (2001), Creative Industries Mapping Document 2001 (2 ed.), London, UK: Department of Culture, Media and Sport3 Florin Colceag, http://austega.com/florin/ 4Pierre Bourdieu, The Rules of Art, Art Publishing House, 20125 Michel Maffesoli, Robert D. Putnam, web sourse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neotribalism 6 Hito Steyerl, Politics of Art: Contemporary Art and the Transition to Post-Democracy, 20107 Art leaks, web source http://art-leaks.org

DEBATE


Romanian contemporary art has been con-cerned with body representation, since the 1980’s, often with usage of it as a method of introspection. This approach was the

perfect substitute for the mainstream reality repre-sentation, highly ideologically converted. Thus, forms of irony, sometimes of protest and different formulas of displaying the concept of individuality found the perfect support in it, during that present time of social classes’ uniformity strategies. Consequently, the body became a refuge for a reality ideologically not converted and the corporeality gathered the present generation’s interest for a specific form of mate-riality.

For the 80’s generation, it is the material that gives meaning and significance to the artwork. Most times, it is it that generates work and, very often, breeds the idea itself. Rough figurative art, oppo-site to the official reality, testifies the artist’s intervention through gesture, touch, cut, paint, line etc.

Post 2000 Eastern Europe gene-ration returns to this legacy, dating before the fall of the “Iron Curtain“ and reinstitutes interesting links over time. Rediscovering corporal figuration in realistic key is a common interest of young artists from Eastern Europe.

The first part of the curato-rial project, ”The Second Wave...”, opened the series by reviewing some Eastern European identity

issues. “State of Mind” identified a nostalgia experi-ence mixed with a certain adaptability complex, a sort of de-individualization. This last part closes the equa-tion, revealing an appetite for the material as well as for different forms of body representation. Alienated representations or (non)human mutations are favored by the usage of new materials (backlit, steel, foam support painting, synthetic resin sculptures, polymer

compounds, artificial leather) and by the keenness for experiments inspired by science and medicine.

Seven artists bring their inter-pretations of body, material and concept to the Colouring the Grey exhibit.

The supermarket shapes other types of corporal relationships and specific physical desires, studied by Francisc Chiuariu in his recent painting series “Forever Ikea”. Bogdan Raţa introduces water volumetry among the new mate-rials already used in his post-genetic sculpture. New forms of apparently anatomical, organic, yet inanimate constructions are made by Felix Deac from synthetic leather, in a hyper-realistic style. Tranzit and perishability repre-sent the states of the body in Dragoş Burlacu’s new paintings. Humanism hidden in techno sfumatto has been the recent concern of Aurel Tar. Chiaroscuro technique is an artistic effect based upon identity researches, present in the paintings of Radu Belcin and Flavia Pitiş and rebuilds, through body language, an European iden-tity.

Colouring the Grey State of Body

The state of body represents a more profound and deeper approach of the corporal, visceral identity, specific to Eastern Europe.

BY COSMIN NĂSUI


CURATORIAL CONCEPT

About “Colouring the Grey” curatorial project

» Nasui private collection&gallery, Bucharest, Romania presents the project “Colouring the Grey” within the Indepen-dents Liverpool Biennial 2012, between September 21 and October 21, 2012 in St. George’s Hall, Gladstone and Dickens Galleries.

» “Colouring the Grey” curatorial project has opened a series of three exhibi-tions, by bringing forward the Romanian emergent artists in international cultural spaces, in 2011-2012.

» The concept illustrates an overview on the East-European identity in tran-sition.

» The first was pre sented within “Special Projects” section of the Moscow Bi ennale of Contemporary Art 2011, under the name ”The Second Wave of Romanian Emerging Contemporary Artists” (September 2011).

» Second exhibition was presented in Artists’ House Tel Aviv, the oldest cultu-ral location in Israel (1934), developping the concept of “State of Mind” (Novem-ber-December 2011).

» The third and last part of the series is called ”State of Body” and is expo-sed within the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2012.


WWW.INDEPENDENTSBIENNIAL.ORG


Radu Belcin, ”Untold things”, 2012, oil on canvas, 100 x 80cm


Radu Belcin, ”Self Improvement”, 2012, oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm


Dragoș Burlacu, ”Study V”, 2012, 40 x 30 cm, oil on glossy sheet


Dragoș Burlacu, ”Waiting crowd”, 2012, 30 x 66 cm, oil on stainless steel sheet

Dragoș Burlacu, ”Study IV”, 2012, 40 x 30 cm, oil on glossy sheet


Dragoş Burlacu, ”Beyond reflection”, 96 x 66 cm, oil on stainless steel sheet


Dragoş Burlacu, ”Beyond reflection”, 96 x 66 cm, oil on stainless steel sheet


Francisc Chiuariu, ”Outdoor summer 6”, 2011, oil & ink on backlit, 80 x 120 cm

Francisc Chiuariu, ”Outdoor spring 2”, 2011, oil & ink on backlit, 80 x 120 cm


Francisc Chiuariu, ”Forever Ikea IV”, 2011, oil on canvas, 80 x 120 cm

Francisc Chiuariu, ”Forever Ikea V”, 2012, oil on canvas, 80 x 120 cm


Felix Deac, ”Agglomeration”, 2011, silicon, poly rubber, make-up, mixed media, 5×40×30 cm

Felix Deac, ”Eidetic 2”, 2010, silicon, poly rubber, make-up, mixed media, 32×22×18 cm


Felix Deac, ”Eidetic 1”, 2011, silicon, poly rubber, make-up, mixed media,18 x 13 x 15 cm


Flavia Pitiș, ”Overpassing the past”, 2012, oil on canvas, 80 x 100cm


Flavia Pitiș, ”Soul learning to live II”, 2012, oil on canvas, 120x100cm


Aurel Tar, ”Tempelhof Necklace 2”, 2012 acrylic on canvas,120 x 120 cm

Aurel Tar, ”Luise red kiss- Berlinicus series”, 2012 acrylic on canvas,120 x 120 cm


Aurel Tar, ”Wonderful collapse”, 2012, 4 pannels, each 80 x 150 cm, modular painting



Bogdan Raţa, ”Trying to Keep Life”, 2012, polyester, synthetic resin,

fibre, paint, metal, water, 153 x 36,5 x 17 cm

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Bogdan Raţa, ”Trying to Keep Life”, 2012, polyester, synthetic resin, fibre, paint, metal, water,

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Bogdan Raţa ”Round and Round”, 2012, polyester, synthetic resin, fibre, paint, metal, 105 x 86 x 41 cm




Felix Deac ”Artificial Life 01”, 2011, silicon, poly rubber, make-up, mixed media, 150 × 170 × 70 cm, page 46 - details


Felix Deac ”Dead Pillow”, 2011, silicon, poly rubber, make-up, mixed media, 18 x 38 x 38 cmpage 49 - details



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Cristian Todie, ”Volume 2D”, 2012, folded paper


Cristian TodieSCULPTOR, PAINTER, INVENTOR

LIVES AND WORKS IN PARIS, SINCE 1978. HE IS THE PROMOTER OF

THEORETICAL ART.

Introducing Theoretical Art

My «theoretical art» concentrates on the aesthetics of theory and on its artistic potential.

BY CRISTIAN TODIE

FOCUSWWW.ART-THEORIQUE.COM

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According to Leonardo da Vinci, art must be based on a theoretical knowledge of nature.

That is also the case for me, but it is essential to remember that theore-tical and mathematical values are perishable.

My «theoretical art» concen-trates on the aesthetics of theory and on its artistic potential.

Building a personal creative universe is essential to the authen-ticity of works of art.

In 1977, it became clear to me that having a vision based on the three existing dimensions and the singular dimension of time would prevent me from developing a truly new and original work.

To tie the world of general rela-tivity to the quantum universe, physics theories add new dimen-sions to the four existing dimen-sions in order to open new hori-zons.

In search of new artistic matter, I adopted the opposite method, that of reducing the number of dimensions.

The industrial process ”Folding Volume 2D” proposed in February 2012 as well as the ”Volume 2D” patent obtained 10 years ago exist as theoretical art that, in addition to their originality and novelty essential to their patentability, are

based on the idea that a geome-tric space with memory, with para-meters that differ from the metric nature of objects in the prin-ting world, is the ideal universe for experimentation. The image reproduced on a stack of sheets appears projected trapped in the mass of paper.

One can imagine in reference to this spatial volume that each of the parallel levels memorizes the whole of the volumetric and chro-matic values that pass through it and that the intervals between these images from one level to another contain a space-time value that reveals the direction of the movement.

In the hopes of going back to the origins of these forms and volumes, the mathematical memory of this mass provides for experimental manipulations that, through spatial fractures, projects the original object into another space, that of a parallel reality.

This medium, provided by the printing industry, once intelli-gently folded or sliced, allows for the image and original forms to reappear in refractions, reflections and volumetric anamorphoses. The works resulting from this process help spectators become accustomed to a new mathematic vision.

MY ARTISTIC ACT IS

A FRACTURE OF SPACE-TIME, THE OPENING OF AN ESCAPE HATCH FROM OUR CURRENT REALITY

MY CREATIVE UNIVERSE CONTAINS:

2 SPATIAL DIMENSIONS &

1 SPACE-TIME DIMENSION

MY WORK’S MEDIUM IS

MATHEMATICAL MEMORY


Cristian Todie, ”Volume 2D”, 2012, simulation


Cristian Todie, ”Volume 2D”, 2012, folded paper


Cristian Todie, ”Volume 2D”, 2012


Cristian Todie, ”Volume 2D”, 1999-2002



ARTISTS SELECTED BIO

Dragoș BurlacuDragoș Burlacu balances in wide rage of styles and painting techniques, from new expressionism to bad art and realism. Burlacu perfected a manner of visual rendition, by which he simplifies narration and figurati-veness in order to capture the emo-tion of the characters’ relationships. Dragoş Burlacu removes the details of portraits in “Royal Couple”, “Erasing Light”, “Unknown” or “The Colour is in

the Shadow” so he would not divert the focus from the outlined beauty of the relationships intimately creating themselves beyond the physical presence of the characters.

1978 – born in Bacau, RO

EDUCATION1997-2002 – B.A., Luceafarul Art Academy, Bucharest

2006-2008 – M.A., National University of Art, Bucharest, RO

1999 – Founder of the group E((O

SOLO EXHIBITIONS2009 – ”Understanding History”, Carturesti, Bucharest, RO

2008 – ”Gloria pictura”, Frunzetti Gallery, Bacau, RO

2006 – ”Insomnia II”, Museum of Contemporary Art George Apostu, Bacau, RO

2004 – ”1234…”, Velea Gallery, Bacau, RO

2003 – ”Insomnia”, Apollo Gal-lery, Bucharest, RO

2002 – ”Trafic”, Arta Gallery, Bacau, RO

GROUP EXHIBITIONS2012 – ”Romania in Paris”, American Center for the Arts, Dorothy’s Gallery, Paris, FR

2011 – ”Colouring the Grey – State of Mind”, The Artists’ House, Tel Aviv, IL (book)

2011- ”Colouring the Grey”, Spe-cial Projects section, 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Artplay Design Centre, Moscow, RU (book)

2011 – ”I am Romanian” Ben Gurion University of Negev, Beer-Sheeva, IL (catalogue)

2010 – ”Detaliile încep păşind”, Iqonique Class Studio, Bucharest, RO (catalogue)

2010 – ”Ich kenne drei Farben auf Erden / Trei culori cunosc pe lume”, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, DE (catalogue)

2010 – ”Why the black is not white”, Actionfields Gallery, Bruxelles, BE

2009 – ”Young Romanian Art # 7” Romanian Institute for Culture and Humanistic Research, Venice, IT, curator Mircea Nicolae

2009 – ”7 actual size”, Visual Arts Center, Bucharest, RO

2008 – ”Colonia”, Apollo Gallery, Bucharest, RO

2008 – ”Sapte” Frunzetti Gallery, Bacau, RO

2008 – ”Five daily views”, Vero-niki Gallery, Bucharest, RO

2008 – ”Zoomorphic Eleussis” Gallery, Iasi, RO

2007 – ”New Identities in pain-ting and sculpture in Romania after 1990”, Dana Gallery, Iasi, RO

2006 – ”36 young artists”, ING & Hart Gallery, catalogue presented at MNAC, Bucharest, RO

2005 – ”Colonia”, Apollo Gallery, Bucharest, RO

2004 – ”Identities and Visual Co-des: Images of Violence / Violence of Images”, Biennale of Young Artists, Bucharest, RO (catalogue)

2003 – ”Docu-fiction video project Bucharest”, curator Alina Serban, RO

2003 – ”Beyond photography, painting”, Galeria Noua, Bucharest, curator Aurora Kiraly, RO

2002 – ”Graduation exhibition”, Romanian Parliament Gallery Con-stantin Brancusi, Bucharest, RO

AWARDS2008 – Award for ”A35”, Union of Visual Artists from Romania

2002 – Prize of the Culture Ministry of Romania, ”Moldavian Art Salons”, RO

Bogdan RațaBogdan Rața is a sculptor from the young generation of the artists. His new hybrid realism is finding new genetic forms of human anatomy in search of a new posthumanism.

Raţa multiplies human parts (fingers, ears, and so on) and combines them into new life forms. The newborn creatures seem to result from strange experiments with the human body in an esthetics lab. Rața’s works forge a contextual change of the anatomic detail through its obsessive

multiplication. The materials used, and the resulting industrial look, question the assault on individual personality in a climate of commer-cial branding uniformity.

1984- born in Baia Mare, RO

teaches at the West University of Timisoara, Romania, Faculty of Arts and Design, Sculpture Department

EDUCATION2012 Ph. D. , West University of Timisoara, RO

2008 MA , National University of Arts, Bucharest, Romania, Sculpture Department

2006 BA, West University of Timisoara, RO, Faculty of Arts and Design, Sculpture Department

SOLO SHOWS2012 rupTrup, with Mihai Zgondoiu, Atelier 030202, The Night of the Galleries, Bucharest, RO

2012 Artists of the Month, with Francisc Chiuariu, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, RO

2011 1990 Project: Hand Gun, Piata Pesei Libere, Bucharest, RO

2010 In/Out ( Penitenciary), Mulho-use 010 Biennale, FR 2010 God Bless Me, Slag Gallery, New York, USA

2010 Minimal Feelings, Jecza Gallery, Timisoara, RO

2008 Gene , UNA Gallery, Bucha-rest, RO

GROUP SHOWS2001 Colouring the Grey, State of Mind, Artists House, Tel Aviv, IL

2011 Post Humanism, V-Art Gallery, Moscow, RU

2011 Colouring the Grey, Spe-cial Project at The Fourt Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow, RU

2011 Figure IN/OUT, LC Founda-tion, Bucharest, RO

2011 Corpul Supravegheat, Victo-ria Art Center, Bucharest, Romania

2010 Un Regarde Autre... , Farideh

Cadot Gallery, Paris, FR 2010 Al treilea 6, Little Yellow Studio, Bucharest, RO

2010 Buy What You Love, Rema Hort Mann Foundation, Jack Sha-inman Gallery, New York, USA

2009 Capturing Gil-Gulim II, Slag Gallery, New York, USA

2009 About Bodies, Jecza Gallery, Timisoara, RO

2009 Atelier in tranzitie, Alb-Negru, The Night of the Galleries, Bucharest, RO

2009 Panorama de l’art roumain, Drouot- Montaigne, Paris, FR

2008 Against All Odds, Slag Gal-lery, New York, USA

2008 International Experimental Engraving Biennale, Palatele Bran-covenesti, Mogoșoaia, RO

2007 Visual Eurobarometer, Veci-nity, National Museum of Contem-porary Art, ¾ Gallery, Bucharest, RO

AWARDS2011 Prize for Sculpture of The Union of Romania Plastic Artists, offered at The Arad Biennale of Art, Meeting Point, RO

2007 Ex-aequo Prize, Visual Euro-barometer, Vecinity, offered by the Intenational Center of Contemporary Arts, RO

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Aurel TarAurel Tar is a post-pop visual artist, interested in the subtle mix of the cultural aspects of globalisation. Both the local identity and the mul-ti-culturalism form the substance underlying Tar’s artistic statement. In his recent series “Wonderful Outskirts”, the frame is expanded and the works confront different cultural, geographical and historical identities by means of overlaying and juxtaposition. The innovative results are an equal match to tho-

se from the series of unexpected encounters of a “sewing-machine and an umbrella on an operating table”. In Tar’s case, the encounters are between Titian, Pre-Raphaelites and a Boeing aircraft.

1973 – born in Sebes, Alba, RO

1999 – member of Romanian Visual Artists Union

EDUCATION1997-1998 – M.A. study of University of Art and Design, Cluj-Napoca, RO

1991-1997 – B.A. The University of Art and Design, Cluj-Napoca, RO

1995 – Scholarship Nantes, FR

EXHIBITIONS2012 – ”Romania in Paris”, Ame-rican Center for the Arts, Dorothy’s Gallery, Paris, FR


2011- ”Colouring the Grey”, Spe-cial Projects section, 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Artplay Design Centre, Moscow, RU (book)

2011 – Group Exhibition, ”Percep-tio”, Atelier 030202, Bucharest, RO

2010 – Group Exhibition, ”Detaliile încep păşind”, Bucharest/ Cluj-Napoca, RO

2010 – ”GIBRALTAR ultraperiferic art corner” itinerant project, Sebes/ Copsa Mica/ Bucharest, RO

2009 – Group Exhibition, ”East/West. 20 – Exit and Transfer Information”, Atelier 030202, Bucharest, RO

2009 – Personal exhibition, ”EUROCENTRIC CIRCUS MAXIMUS”, Unicredit Tiriac Bank, Bucharest, RO

2008 – Personal exhibition, ”DOITSCH Proiekt”- RO, Automobile Bavaria, Bucharest, RO

2008 – Personal exhibition, ”DO-ITSCH Proiekt ”- JP, ArtSenzafine & Soakedi Classic Cars, Tokyo, Japan

2007 – Personal exhibition, ”DO-

ITSCH & ROU”, The Practice – Leo Burnett Group, Bucharest, RO

2006 – Group Exhibition, ”Roll Up Art”, Bucharest, RO

2005 – Group Exhibition, Le Saint-Ex, Itaewon-Dong, Seoul, KR

2005 – Group exhibition, ”EUROPE IN ART” HVB Group, Bucharest, Romania, Warsaw, Poland, Ham-burg, GE

2004 – Personal exhibition, NIK Gallery, Seoul, South Korea

2003 – Personal exhibition, Ger-man Evangelical Church, Nairobi, KE

2003 – Group exhibition, World Trade Center, Bucharest, RO

2002 – Group exhibition, World Trade Center, Bucharest, RO

2002 – Exhibition cooperation with HVB Bank Bucharest, RO

2001 – Group exhibition, ”Visionen 2001” Bad Kissingen, DE

2001 – Exhibition cooperation with U Art gallery/Uzinexport Bucharest, RO

2000 – Group exhibition, UAP gallery, Cluj-Napoca, RO

2000 – Group exhibition, TIAV, Bucharest, RO

2000 – Personal exhibition ”Ambi-ent abstract”, BCR.-Sebes, Alba, RO

1999 – Exhibition cooperation with Bank Austria, Creditanstalt Bucharest, RO



1996 – Group exhibition, The Art Museum, Piatra Neamt, RO

1996 – Academy 70, UAP gallery, Cluj-Napoca, RO

1995 – 75 anniversary years of ”Ioan Andreescu” Institute, UAP gallery, Cluj-Napoca, RO

Francisc ChiuariuFrancisc Chiuariu’s latest series revo-lutionises the space of the painting, decomposing it in different layers: on the front oils, on the back typogra-phic inks. The “Outdoor” project of Francisc Chiuariu selects a series of individuals captured in their daily journey. The street scene as recorded by Francisc Chiuariu represents the common collective space and the

way it is assumed and used by pedestrians. Francisc Chiurariu draws attention upon the postmodern process of individual disintegration within the collective space.

1966 – born in Sibiu, RO

EDUCATION1993, B.A., National University of Art, Painting department, Bucha-rest, RO

TEACHING: 1993-2000, National University of Art, Painting depart-ment, Bucharest, RO

SOLO EXHIBITIONS2012 – ”Shadows”, AnnArt Gallery, Bucharest, RO (book)

2012 – ”Outdoor”, Cultural Center Palatele Brancovenesti Mogosoaia, RO (book)

2012 – ”January”, National Muse-um of Contemporary Art, (MNAC), Bucharest, RO

2010 – ”Networks”, Atelier 030202, Bucharest, RO (catalogue)

2007 – ”Obsession”, Quasar Gal-lery, Bucharest, RO (catalogue)

2002 – Art Jazz Club, Bucharest, RO

2001 – Hanul cu Tei Gallery, Bucharest, RO

2001 – Caminul Artei Gallery, Bucharest, RO

1998 – Hungarian Cultural Center, Bucharest, RO

1993 – Galeria Noua, Bucharest, RO

1992 – Art Museum, Roman, RO

GROUP EXHIBITIONS2012 – ”Romania in Paris”, Ame-rican Center for the Arts, Dorothy’s Gallery, Paris, FR

2011 – ”Colouring the Grey – State of Mind”, curator Cosmin Nãsui, The Artists’ House, Tel Aviv, IL (book)

2011 – ”Post Humanism”, curator

Cosmin Nãsui, V-Art Gallery, Moscow, RU

2011- ”Colouring the Grey”, curator Cosmin Nãsui, Special Projects section, 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Artplay Design Centre, Moscow, RU (book)

2011 – ”Pour femme”, The Ark, Bucharest, RO (catalogue)

2011 – ”The other body”, Victoria Art Center, RO (catalogue)

2011 – ”Perceptio”, Atelier 030202, Bucharest, RO (catalogue)

2010 – ”Detaliile încep păşind”, Iconique Class Studio, Bucharest; Maison Maitresse Store, Cluj, RO (catalogue)

2010 – ”4 generations under the same roof”, Hotel Capital, Bucharest, RO (catalogue)

2010 – ”Coșmaruri contemporane”, curator Olivia Nițiș, Atelier 030202, Bucharest, RO

2010 – ”10 for the decade X”, Bucharest City Gallery, RO

CRINUL GROUP1999 – Bancorex, RO

1998 – Galeria Cuhnia – Cultural Center Palatele Brancovenesti Mogosoaia, RO

1997 – Casa Enescu, RO

1996 – Curtea Veche, RO

FIND MORE ABOUT THE NEXT CURATORIAL PROJECT ”FUTURE NOW, WORKING TITLE” ON WWW.COSMINNASUI.COM



ARTISTS SELECTED BIO

Radu BelcinRadu Belcin catches attention by new associations of characters, or objects, in a chiaroscuro-painted atmosphere. Starting the quest from the expres-sion of reality study, Belcin explore the identities of the individual and of the present. Radu Belcin crops the image of faces in “It’s Cold beneath the Moon”, “A Hand Full of Hands”, removes the elements of portrait in “Illusion of a Day”, “The Wish”, hides the faces in “Evening Never Comes”, “Blowing”, “Hope Maker”, “Impossible

Dreamland”, and “Full of Ideas”. The faces of the depicted characters cannot be seen; therefore not only they remain anonymous, but they also introduce a surreal sense through the surrounding elements.

1978 – born in Brașov, RO

EDUCATION2002-2003 – postgraduate studies, professor Ștefan Câlția, National University of Art ”Nicolae Grigorescu”, Bucharest, RO

1997-2002 – National Univer-sity of Art ”Nicolae Grigorescu”, Bucharest, RO, painting depart-ment, professors: Florin Ciubotaru, Valeriu Mladin

1993-1997 – Arts High School, grafic department, Brasov, RO

OTHER STUDIES2001 – workshop of scenography and Light Moving Academy for Per-forming Arts, Amsterdam NL,

2001 – workshop of scenography, Toaca Cultural Foundation – Toaca Contemporary Art Studio, Bucha-rest, RO

SOLO EXHIBITIONS2010 – ”Looking through the mirror”, The Art Museum, Brasov, RO (with Flavia Pitiș.)

2007 – Personal exhibition, Kro-nart Gallery, Brasov, RO

2007 – ”The Royal Procession and other characters”, Europe Gallery, Brasov, RO

2006 – ”The world from my world”, The Art Museum, Brasov, RO

GROUP EXHIBITIONS2012 – ”Sacrifice Generation”, Societe Generale, Paris, FR

2012 – ”Romania in Paris”, Ame-rican Center for the Arts, Dorothy’s Gallery, Paris, FR


2011 – Europe Gallery, Brasov, RO

2009 – The Mediterranean Olive

Grove, Olivepress – Art Factory, Dromonero, Crete, GR (catalogue)

2009 – Normandia Center, Brasov, RO

2008 – artMart, Kunstlerhause, Cheapart Gallery, Vienna, AT

2006 – The Art Museum, Brasov, RO

2005 – The Art Museum, Brasov, RO

2003 – National Theatre, Apollo Gallery, Bucharest, RO

2002 – The Art Saloon, Bucharest, RO

2002 – The Art House Gallery, Bucharest, RO

2002 – ”Selfportraits”, SKC Cultu-ral Centre, Belgrade, RS

2002 – National Theatre Bucha-rest, RO

2002 – ”Antediplomã” new media exhibition, UNA Gallery Bucharest, RO

2001 – ”Selfportret” installation, UNA Gallery, Bucharerst, RO

2001 - ”Accente și Amprente”, Apollo Gallery, Bucharest, RO

2001 – workshop of scenography and Light Moving Academy for Per-forming Arts, Amsterdam NL, and Cultural Foundation Toaca – The Contemporary Art Studio Toaca, Bucharest, RO

2000 – ”Expo”, Atelier 35, The Art Museum Constanța, RO

2000 – ”Selfportret” The Romani-an Literature Museum, Bucharest, RO

2000 – ”Europe Days”, The Collec-tion Museum, Bucharest, RO

1999 – ”Instalation”, Sala Palatu-lui, Bucharest, RO

1999 – ”Eveniment Van Gogh” performance, National University of Art, Bucharest, RO

Flavia PitișFlavia Pitiș’s art explores issues of identity and isolation. Her pain-ting does not have the function to represent reality, but to make present what is missing in reality. Most times, Flavia Pitiș realizes this by isolating the subject and his confrontation with the loneliness of the chiaroscu-ro. Darkness introduces the immate-rial, but sensitive forms of expecting something indefinable and outlines the aura of a mysterious presence. The universe of Flavia Pitiș's actions

unfolds in rooms without natural light. Painted by using the chiaroscu-ro technique, these works present actions that seem to be condemned by being made in the dark.

1978 – born in Făgăraș, RO

EDUCATION1997-2002 National University of Fine Arts “Nicolae Grigorescu”, Bucharest, RO

OTHER STUDIES2004 – research scholarship on image theory, Firenze, IT

2001 – workshop of scenography and light, Moving Academy for Performing Arts, Amsterdam and Toaca Cultural Foundation – Toa-ca Contemporary Art Studio

2000-2001 – classes at the Fa-culty of Comunication and Public Relations “David Ogilvy” Bucharest

SOLO & GROUP EXHIBITIONS2012 – ”Sacrifice Generation”,

Societe Generale, Paris, FR

2012 – ”Romania in Paris”, American Center for the Arts, Dorothy’s Gallery, Paris, FR


2011 – Europe Gallery, Brasov, RO

2010 – Kunstlerhaus, Vienna, AT

2010 – “Looking through the mirror” Art Museum, Brasov, RO (with Radu Belcin)

2009 – The Mediterranean Olive Grove, Olivepress Art Factory, Crete, GR

2009 – Normandia Business Center, Brasov, RO

2008 – BP Portrait Award, Natio-nal Gallery, London, UK

2008-2009 – BP Portrait Tour Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Aber-deen Art Gallery, UK, Aberystwyth Arts Center, Wales

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Felix Deac”Exceeding materiality and material conditions, I started to play shaping the forms respecting the logic of the living, intending to give each of my work its own life. Details and textures are taken from the living and real world in order to create a non anthro-pomorphical compositional whole. My intention is to provide aesthetic qualities to objects and shapes which would offer the public an unexplained existence due to the illusion of living that I create. By the works that I have

in mind to exhibit to the audience I am trying to flame visceral reactions, and to put into the game a purely sympathetic and powerful relationship between the viewer and the creation.” - artist statement

1984 - born in Satu Mare, RO

EDUCATION2009 – present - PhD studies

2007 – 2009 Master studies in various tehnics

2003 – 2007 ’’Ion Andreescu’’ University of Arts and Design from Cluj Napoca, RO, Sculpture section, investigation in sculpture and drawing tehnics

1999 – 2003 ’’Aurel Pop’’ Art Highschool Satu Mare

SOLO & GROUP EXHIBITIONS2012 – January, ”Artificial Life”, solo show, Gallery of Visualkon-takt art association, Ulm, DE

2011 – December, ”Artificial Life” solo show, Gallery of Visualkon-takt art association, Oradea, RO

2011 – October, Youg Art Show *YAS* group exhibition in House of Art, Piestany, SK

2010 – ’’Life’’, solo show, Laika Gallery, Cluj Napoca, RO

2010 – Collective exhibition with R.I.V.E.R. project artists at The Ark – Bucharest, RO

2010 – Workshop R.I.V.E.R. – Ancona – Rosora, IT

2010 – Workshop in Louvre, Paris, FR

2009 – solo show – ’’Made of...’’, Cluj Napoca, RO

2009 – National Biennale ‘‘Bronze Age’’/‘’Vîrsta de Bronz”, Cluj-Napoca Art Museum, Group exhibition, RO

2007 – Beginning the Master level studies at the University of Arts and Design of Cluj Napoca, RO

2006 – With Erasmus program, studying 5 months at University of Fine Arts in Bilbao, ES

2006 – Cluj Napoca ’’Bronze Age’’ Group exhibition (almost 100 bronze sculptures), RO

2004, 2005 – ‘’Fontana Group” Satu Mare Collective yearly exhibi-tion of local artists, RO

2003 – ‘’InterArt” Satu Mare, Group exhibition, RO

Năsui Private Collection & Gallery @ Preview Berlin 2012 & Berlin Art Week

Năsui private collection&gallery presents carefully selected Romanian contemporary artists and holds the debate ”The Soft Power of the Art Market” (details on www.cosminnasui.com).

Radu Belcin catches attention by new associations of characters, or objects, in a chiaroscuro-painted atmosphere.

Francisc Chiuariu’s lattest series revolutionises the space of the painting, decomposing it in different layers: on the front oils, on the back typographic inks.

Bogdan Rața is a sculptor in search of new human genetic forms. He uses new materials as polystyrene, industrial paint, plaster, synthetic resin.

Aurel Tar is a post-pop visual artist, interested in the subtle mix of the cultural aspects of globalisation.

Radu Belcin & Flavia Pitiș, Faces & Traces - Vellant Publishing House 2012 This book brings together the artworks of two young and emerging artists, offering an inedite perspective of seeing original and simultaneous creations: the artists Radu Belcin and Flavia Pitiș work and live together (in private, they are husband and wife and

have two children). Technical details: hardcover, 176 pages, A4 format, 174 plates, full color

Francisc Chiuariu, monograph - Vellant Publishing House 2012 The creation of Francisc Chiuariu already covers almost a quarter of a century overlaying the temporal coor-dinates of the end of the 80es, the decade of the 90es and the years after 2000. Technical details: hardcover, 168 pages, A4 format, 245 plates, full color

You can find us at booth 54:


St George’s Hall is a Grade 1 listed building at the heart of Liverpool’s cultural quarter, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s widely regar-ded as one of the finest neo-classical buildings

in the world and was described by Nickolaus Pevsner as ‘the finest neo-Grecian building in England and one of the finest in the world.' Former poet laureate Sir John Betjeman listed the building among the 10 he would die for and viewed it as ‘the finest secular hall in England.’

The Hall opened in 1854 as a civic building for the purposes of the law courts of Liverpool and to serve as a venue for the town’s music festivals and other public purposes.

The Hall is the combination of 2 separate buildings: a music venue and a court building that were designed by the same architect, Harvey Lonsdale Elmes.

Elmes laid scale drawings of Birmingham’s New Town Hall and St Paul’s Cathedral in London to display that St George’s Hall would eclipse both in terms of size and design.

Over the years the Hall played host to numerous famous court cases such as the trial of Florence Maybrick (whose husband, James, is a Jack the Ripper suspect) and William Wallace: ‘the man from the Pru’, who has been written about by the likes of Dorothy

Sayers, PD James and Raymond Chandler and was menti-oned in US crime drama CSI.

The Hall has held 100s of events through the years, including Liverpool’s first motor show, dances, bazaars, fairs, ice rinks and sporting events such as boxing matches and squash tournaments.

Famous visitors to the building include Queen Victoria in 1851 who said the building was ‘worthy of ancient Athens’, Charles Dickens who gave a number of public readings in the Concert Room, which he described as being ”the most perfect room in the world” and Liverpool-born 4 times Prime Minister William Gladstone who was given the Freedom of the City in the Hall in 1892.

St George’s Hall also houses the third largest organ in the UK with 7737 pipes.

In 1984, when the law courts of Liverpool were moved to the new Queen Elizabeth II Courts in Derby Square, the Hall was ‘mothballed’ due to a lack of purpose and funding, and fell into a state of disrepair.

However, following a £23m resto-ration project that was completed in 2007, the Hall was reopened on St George’s Day that year by another of its admirers, Prince Charles, and has become a grand focal point for cultural, community, civic, corporate and performing arts activities once more.

St George’s Hall”Colouring the Grey - State of Body” presents seven contemporary artists within the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2012 and is proudly hosted in St. George’s

Hall, Gladstone and Dickens Galleries.

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PARTNERS

DICKENS GALLERY”THE MOST PERFECT ROOM IN THE WORLD”

Charles Dickens gave a number of public readings in the Concert Room, which he described as being ”the most perfect room in the world”.

GLADSTONE GALLERYA STATUE OF GLADSTONE STANDS IN THE GREAT HALL

Liverpool-born 4 times Prime Minister William Gladstone was given the Freedom of the City in the Hall in 1892. A statue of Gladstone, erected in 1872, stands in the Great Hall of St. George's Hall, Liverpool.

The exhibition is accompanied by

“The Soft Power of the Artmarket”, a

debate on systems and mechanisms of

the contemporary art industry.

In brief: The visionaries behind the names



Chapman Taylor is an international practice of architects, masterplanners and interior designers operating from 17 regional offices and with experience of working in over 70 countries around the world.

As a company with an international network of offices we pride ourselves on our ability to effectively balance our knowledge of working internationally with a sensitivity to local experience, environment and culture. Our various regional companies work as a cohesive group and can pool skills and resources as required to provide the best possible

service to our clients while always aiming to produce bespoke design solutions for all our projects.

The mission is to deliver high quality designs and commercially viable schemes that exceed client expectations and provide award-winning sustainable environments that people enjoy.

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Best Communication Media provides services of translation, interpretation, notary legalization, subtitling, DTP etc. in specialized fields of activity. Our activity is defined by receptiveness and flexibility in the relations with our partners. Our services are tailored and perfected so as to suit our customers’ needs.

We perform translations into and from over 30 languages of international and more restricted coverage (English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Irish, Hungarian, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Turkish, Ukrainian, Arab, Chinese, Korean, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Norwegian, Swedish etc.).

We successfully meet our customers’ expectations by observing strict quality control procedures. Our team of translators and specialists always manages to render the content of initial materials taking into account the specific cultural context, without altering their meaning.


Chapman Taylor is an international practice of architects, masterplanners and interior designers operating from 17 regional offices and with experience of working in over 70 countries around the world.

As a company with an international network of offices we pride ourselves on our ability to effectively balance our knowledge of working internationally with a sensitivity to local experience, environment and culture. Our various regional companies work as a cohesive group and can pool skills and resources as required to provide the best possible

service to our clients while always aiming to produce bespoke design solutions for all our projects.

The mission is to deliver high quality designs and commercially viable schemes that exceed client expectations and provide award-winning sustainable environments that people enjoy.

www.chapmantaylor.com


Artists and researchers, inventors and business visionaries, scientific academics and young experimental artists will be brought together to create unexpected art & science works.

FUTURE NOW WORKING TITLE

2013-2014

The curatorial concept gathers synergies from the two fields of creation: art and science. The theoretical framework searches for common grounds for the both, in order to stimulate the contemporary creativity.

ARTISTS & INVENTORS

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The Softpower of the Artmarket

Documents

art institutions

art fairs

art dealer

corrupt art

institutionalized art

art generators

value of art

contemporary global