8.6 - 20.7. & 19.8. - 7.9.2013, 2013
Opening speech by David Horvath and Alexander Pfeffer, Südwind

Participating artists:
Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan, Swaantje Güntzel, Markus Jeschaunig,
Folke Köbberling & Martin Kaltwasser, Ivan Moudov

Curated by:
Margarethe Makovec & Anton Lederer

The presently dominating model of human "management" of planet Earth has reached the end of the line. It is becoming more and more apparent that we have reached a dead end and many of us are deeply thinking about viable alternatives. We'll have to save the world by ourselves, each and every one of us. To critically examine your own position is the starting point for this, to analyze how your own work affects the world around you.
Apart from creating utopias - or nowtopias - art can first and foremost communicate responsibility and permanent protest against the status quo. As from March < rotor > will present artistic positions from this thematic field in 2013.

www.rotor.mur.at

April-June, 2013
together with Anca Benera

5 April – 5 June 2013
solo exhibition at tranzit.ro/Bucharest
Str. Gazelei nr. 44, sector 4

We were so few and so many of us are left / Am fost atat de putini si atat de multi am ramas
Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan
curator: Raluca Voinea

opening: Friday, 5 April 2013, 7 PM
www.tranzit.org.ro

"Anca Benera and Arnold Estefán analyse the nation-state where this touches the verge of the fictional; they use the rigid and apparently immutable frames which the nation-state created in order to legitimize itself (laws, language, history) and take them literally, thus underlining their limits, given by their formal and contextual character. The two artists research documents, treaties, official statements, media reflections, years and facts, statistics, agreements, renegotiations, deciphering within the propaganda, reminding of forgotten promises, bringing face to face, to mirror each other, the contradicting versions, pushing to the extreme their logical consequences." Raluca Voinea

‘Kunstvlaai: Festival of Independents’ is a multi-disciplinary arts festival, which – ever since its inception in 1997 – has been the largest non-commercial exhibition of Visual Arts in the Netherlands. The upcoming edition is marked by a new festival venue and includes the participation of international arts initiatives from all over the world. Across 10 days, over 70 independent art institutions, art schools and artist-led initiatives will gather to present exhibitions, film screenings, live arts, archival presentations, lectures and workshops.

DIAGRAMS IN SPACE is a multi-layered showcasing of commissioned works, process-based projects and exhibitions created by participating institutions that present the work of over 350 artists, art students, independent publishers and theorists based in the Netherlands and abroad.

Participants based in the Netherlands:
1646; ADA (Area for Debate & Art); Amsterdam Dinner Movement; Amsterdams Grafisch Atelier; Apiece For Artists; Attraction of the Opposites; Baracca; Berm Collective / Stichting Berm; Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory; De Fabriek; De Service Garage; DEFKA; de Appel Curatorial Programme; Dutch Art Institute / MFA ArtEZ in association with If I Can't Dance, I Don't Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution; Casco; Van Abbemuseum & guests; Extrapool; Fam. Ruim; Foam Lab; Frank Mohr Institute; Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Architectural Design Department); Goleb, HorizonVerticaal; HMK (HotelMariaKapel); Kees Koomen; Kunsthuis SYB; Kunsttraject; KUS; Location Z; Lost Painters; Lost Property; MaHKU (Utrecht Graduate School of Visual Art and Design); KABK (Master Artistic Research, Master ArtScience); Sandberg Instituut (all departments); Piet Zwart Institute (Master of Fine Arts); St. Joost / AKV (Master of Fine Arts); Metropolis M; MILK; MOIRA; Nest; Nieuwe Vide; NP3; Onomatopee; P.art of Your Life; P/////AKT; Pietmondriaan.com; Plan B; Planet Art; Polly's Picture Show; PrintRoom; Public Space with a Roof; RC de Ruimte; Rhizomatic; Roodkapje & WORM; Salon Sur+; San Serriffe; Sign; TAAK; Teto Projects & W139; Urban Living Room; The One Minutes; Trendbeheer; Upominki; Werkplaats Typografie; Whatspace; Wild-C; MU with KOP-Breda; Kunstpodium T; CBK 's- Hertogenbosch and Landkunst (BKKC); WORM.FilmWerkplaats; and Zet Foundation.

International Participants:
98Weeks (Beirut), After the Butcher (Berlin), AIT (Tokyo), Amit Charan & Laura Preston (Wellington), Arbour Lake Sghool (Calgary), Atopia (Oslo), Arrow Factory (Beijing), Britto Arts Trust (Dhaka), CEIA (Belo Horizonte), Centre for Visual Introspection (Bucharest), CHIOŞC / KIOSK (Chisinau), First Floor Gallery (Harare), Green Papaya Art Projects (Quezon City), Indonesian Visual Art Archive – IVAA (Yogyakarta), JAAGA (Bengaluru), Instituto Buena Bista (Curacao), Komplot (Brussels), Más Arte Más Acción (Bogota), Mumbai Art Room (Mumbai), (Or Nothing), Partizaning (Moscow), Platform Open Place (Kiev), Red Shoes (Paris), Society (Sydney), The Institute of Wishful Thinking (New York), and The Reading Room (Bangkok), among others.

Curators: Natasha Ginwala (IND) and Fleur van Muiswinkel (NL).

www.kunstvlaai.nl

September 20–Ocotber 25, 2012
Knoll Galerie, Vienna

Days of Labour, Nights of Leisure
Curator: Simina Neagu
Artists: Anca Benera&Arnold Estefan (RO), Olga Chernyseva (RU), Berry Patten (UK), Antje Peters (DE)

www.curatedby.at

Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan
Friday 24 August 2012, 12:00 PM
Kassel, Hauptbahnhof, Railway Lecture Hall

Invited within the project Winning Hearts and Minds, by Critical Art Enesemble.

Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) is a collective of tactical media practitioners of various specializations, including computer graphics,
wetware, video, photography, text art, book art, and performance. Formed in 1987 in Tallahassee, Florida, CAE focuses on the
exploration of the intersections between art, critical theory, technology, and political activism. CAE has authored six books on cultural
production and political economy.

11-12 June, 2012





11-12 June: launch of tranzit.ro in Iaşi and presentation of Hard Fact, coordinated by Livia Pancu;

11 June – 18:00h – lecture by Canadian curator Jesse McKee, followed by screening of a recent video and text work by Montreal based artist, Sophie Bélair Clement. The event takes place at the tranzit.ro space in Iaşi.
12 June – throughout the day – propaganda trips in the city, for Anca Benera, Arnold Estefan, Cezar Lăzărescu and Jesse McKee.

ro.tranzit.org

20 April - 26 August
Le Palais de Tokyo, Paris

http://www.latriennale.org/en/artists/anca-benera-arnold-estefan

Artistic Director: Okwui Enwezor
Associate Curators: Mélanie Bouteloup, Adbellah Karoum, Émilie Renard, Claire Staebler

In the spring of 2012, the 3rd edition of the contemporary art triennial exhibition will move from the nave of the Grand Palais into the open galleries of the Palais de Tokyo and other neighbouring institutions along la Colline de Musées. Through the concept of “Intense Proximity”, La Triennale will investigate what it means to be active as an artist working today, in the context of a globalized and diverse French art scene.
[more]

http://www.latriennale.org/en/artists/centre-visual-introspection

Anca Benera & Estefan Arnold
Performance
19.03.2012
Teatru spalatorie, Chisinau, Moldavia

www.spalatorie.md

February 23rd – April 8th 2012
Salonul de proiecte, Bucharest

Artists: Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan, Tudor Bratu, Cristina David, Sebastian Moldovan, Ghenadie Popescu,
Anca Munteanu-Rimnic, Cristian Rusu


The equitable principle, mixed media installation, Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan

Salonul de Proiecte has invited several young artists who are active on the international art scene to bring to concretization some ideas they have recently reflected upon. The resulting works address in a performative manner several themes whose common denominator is the exploration of various geographic, social and political spaces. At their intersection lies the identity of art in a globalized world. The stakes of art are being redefined today by its critical engagment with the contemporary condition which is being shaped by a complex interconnection of worlds, temporalities and places. Some of the artistic projects presented in this exhibition are linked to Romania’s geographic positioning and its tense relationships with the neighboring countries, while others address the dilemmas and prospects faced by the artists when negotiating their positions, caught in the dynamic interplay between local and international values and concerns.

Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan’s work reflects the current state of their involvement with a subject that condenses a series of obsessions which have been active in the collective consciousness, obsessions which are linked to the history of the Cold War and Romania’s geopolitical position: the artists investigate the historical controversies and the territorial disputes around the Snake Island. The filmed performance presented in the exhibition took place on the shore of the Black Sea and it staged the “symbolic recovery” of the marine area that was reverted to Romania after the 2009 decision adopted by the International Court of Justice in the Hague. This summer the action will be completed through a second phase, when the artists will document their trip on the Snake Island. The performance is part of a complex installation which acts as a conceptual mapping that diversifies the positions and intensifies the contradictions linked to the minuscule territory in the Black Sea. Tudor Bratu conceives an installation which recreates and examines – through a structure representing the spatialized version of a future artist-book – the experience of a six-months artistic residency in China. The installation uses a variety of media: photography, video and text, assembling interviews, essays and text contributions by other artists – building a constellation of themes which are situated at the intersection of art, politics and ethics. Bratu evinces a critical attitude towards the accelerated globalization of contemporary China – a process which triggers enormous economic and social discrepancies, where capitalism walks side by side with the “absence of democracy.” Against this backdrop a series of autobiographical, cultural and intellectual references are being invoked, forming together – like the pieces of a puzzle – the artist’s fractured identity. Cristina David examines the way in which – in the context of personal experiences – her passion for scientific objectivity is undermined, contradicted or transformed by the intrusion of subjectivity. In this case, Cristina David explores, among other things, the relationship between mathematical terms and the common language in order to develop an interdisciplinary dialogue with the Norwegian choreographer Brynjar Bandlien, drawing the spectators into a codified interaction with herself.


Exhibition view, Salonul de Proiecte, Bucharest  (photo © Stefan Sava)

In his work entitled “2012” Sebastian Moldovan alters the meaning of mass-media messages, amplifying the apocalyptic scenarios and controversies associated with recent political decisions, and bringing into discussion the “disinformation as a working method.” Through a site-specific installation which uses garbage bags as material, Moldovan comments on the resource administration policies and puts into practice his view of “invasive solutions.” Ghenadie Popescu reflects on the politically charged border relationships between Moldavia, Transnistria and Romania. His performances – which often take place in public spaces – address the precarious condition of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova, drawing the attention to visa application procedures that continue to demand proofs of financial resources for each “ordinary” applicant, proofs which are both humiliating and discriminatory. In many of this works, objects and performances, the artist uses the signs of the local cultural identity and material culture that are taken everywhere with him. On this occasion, Ghenadie Popescu was invited to make two performances, one programed to take place at the opening, and the other presented as a documentation of a public action which took place several days before the opening. Anca Munteanu-Rimnic presents a filmed performance – her medium of choice – in which she uses as pretext an episode from her biography in order to stress (in a pathetic and self-ironic manner) the lack of options and the restrictive situations faced by those who want to settle permanently in another countries, countries which impose various legislative barriers for foreign citizens. Cristian Rusu proposes a critical revisitation the ideology, history and esthetics of the public space, commenting on the issue of public monuments. His work consists of a model which deconstructs the academic, „pre-modern” and anachronic genre of the equestrian statue – a type of monument that continues to be promoted even today by conservative cultural policies seeking to project triumphalist versions of historical narratives. Rusu is also the author of a site-specific intervention, “The Ghost Geometry 2”, which aimes to optically destabilize the architectural parameters of the space and to (re)stabilize a sensible order through which the geometry and the energy of the imediate space are being discovered.

These works discuss the possibilities and at the same time the limits of the global communication, pointing at common concerns and exchanges of information that defy spatial and geographical boundaries, attempting to formulate, tentatively, questions and problems which resonate with us all.

salonuldeproiecte.ro

Bucharest International Experimantal Film Festival
17th-20th November, Scala Cinema


film still from QUESTIONS FROM A WORKER (2’, 2011, Romania)
Directors: Arnold Estefan, Anca Benera

www.bieff.ro

Peter Weibel -  Marina Gržinić/Aina Šmid
October 20, 2011, 7PM



Theoretical reflection and critical practice both meet in the works of Austrian Peter Weibel and Slovenian duo Marina Gržinić/Aina Šmid, coupled with an investigation of the video medium through its own means. One could trace a line of historical development between their practices, but despite the obvious similarities, their positions radically diverge on the problem of (re)writing history. Or, to paraphrase the title of Peter Weibel’s 1992 exhibition, it’s a question of “identity and difference”. The term “retro-avant-garde”, coined by Weibel in the ‘90s (but initially employed by the Slovenian collective Neue Slowenische Kunst in 1983), tries to describe the art production of the former socialist states. Whereas for Gržinić/Šmid, Weibel’s attempt at culturally delineating the so-called “former East” points out an important issue: who is entitled to write history in post-socialism? By placing their works in a dialogue, we will further observe if these issues are resolved or, rather, intensified.

The 1:1 series is a project of the Centre for Visual Introspection. This session is curated by the AAA+ Collective.

18th September - 18th December, Thessaloniki

Self Publishing in Times of Freedom and Repression publication is currently included in the project Inventory by Archive Berlin within the frame of  3 Thessaloniki Biennale.



Inventory - Archive (Francesca Boenzi, Paolo Caffoni, Chiara Figone, Ignas Petronis)
Description: the Inventory is a representation of a research journey in the form of an archive of publications and printed matter. Starting from a central position in Europe (Berlin), the trip develops toward Eastern and Middle Eastern regions through cities like Poznan, Prague, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, Sofia and Istanbul, ultimately reaching Thessaloniki. In this journey we took into consideration the changes and movements currently taking place in Arabic countries and Greek regions, and saw their impact on cultural, economical, political and social structures as a possibility to question European cultural establishments and their “patriarchal” archives. The project tried to dig deep into the recent past of these regions and into their heritage, in order to record an inventory of anomalies, heresies, anarchism and feminism. What have we seen?

The resulting Inventory, built with the contribution of a diverse range of people involved with all aspects of the publishing production cycle (artists, archivists, collectors, journalists, designers, editors, schools, underground publishers, anarchist book fairs, feminist associations, distributors and printers), represents an act of exploration as well as a source of information for researchers. Both a temporary archive and a bookshop, the comprehensive collection thus established is displayed at the 3rd Thessaloniki Biennale as a freely accessible curated library, whose materials are also available for purchase. Inventory includes books, magazines, booklets, posters, pamphlets, newspapers, archival material as well as video and audio documentation of our journey.

solo show (Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan)
MAGMA Contemporary Art Exhibition Space, Saint. George, Romania
09-30 september, 2011





The Department of Temporary History* is based on a curriculum of analytical and performative research, which includes several strategies of action:
1) Applied Engineering for N.F.C.I. (New Forms of Censorship Investigation).
2) Methodology, Evidence and Cognitive Competence Fundamentals. This section investigates C.H.T. (the confiscated historical truth) and I.H.M (the use of manuals and media to mediate, interpret historical moments).
3) Biomaterial Force & Resources. This subdivision studies the elimination of C.B.P. (collective body proroduction) and deals with the study of socio-political transition of contememporary workers. The C.B.P. is affiliated with E.S.I. (emeremergency situations instruction).
4) Fictional History Mechanics. It studies R.I.H. (Reinventing Official History) and S.A.E. (Subjective Archives Expertise).

History is the sum of subjective pieces of truth, turned into an archive with limited objective guarantee. We are not interested in great historical events, great battles and brave rulers but to the extent that we can value their fragility and contradictory reception. We are interested in "short stories'' of vulnerable moments created by those ordinary people, remarkable in their historical daily life uncovered by any kind of books. History is not what you already know but what you are learning right now. Tomorrow you will learn, perhaps, otherwise.

*history is temporary because it always rewrites itself

publication
24 pages, 1000 edition

The publication takes its premises from the complex history of independent publications in Romania which is still insufficiently acknowledged and researched. Under Ceausescu dictatorship, the ideologically imposed state regulation over the cultural and artistic realm was extremely harsh, the production of independent publications increasing only in the early ‘90s. In times of “freedom”, ideological censorship has been replaced by new constraints. Publishing as a means of self-expression and samizdat as a form of it, born in specific oppressive conditions, might shed a new light on the meaning of self-publishing, its forms and challenges today. What are the new forms of censorship today? What are the limits and means of self-expression / self-censorship and freedom of speech? What is the role of printed matter in the age of internet and social networks?

more info here

Exhibition and newspaper
editorial concept: Anca Benera, Arnold Estefan and Alina Serban

WORKSHOP AND PUBLIC LECTURES
curators Anca Benera, Arnold Estefan
19 - 23 April, 2011

Workshop imparted by Marco Balesteros & Sofia Goncalves (Portugal)
Artists: Renata Catambas (Portugal/NL), Rafaela Drazic (Croatia), Elenora Farina (Italy), Ward Heirwegh (Belgium), Tzortzis Rallis (Greece/UK), Katarina Sevic (Serbia/Hungary), Golie Talaie (Iran/NL), Paul Wiersbinski (Germany)
Lectures by: Lia Perjovschi (Romania), Piotr Rypson (Poland), Vasile Ernu (Romania), Olga Zaslavskaya (Rusia/Hungary)

Self-publishing in Romania has a complex and still insufficiently researched and publicized history. Publishing as a means of self-expression and samizdat as a form of it, born in specific oppressive conditions, might shed a new light on the meaning of self-publishing, its forms and challenges today. What are the new forms of censorship today? What are the limits and means of self-expression / self-censorship and freedom of speech? What is the role of printed matter in the age of internet and social networks?

"HEATED HEADS" ARCHIVE 13-15 JUNE 1990
curators Mihaela Michailov, David Schwartz [18 March - 11 April 2011]



13-15 June 1990 is a project of research and performance of recent history, initiated by Mihaela Michailov and David Schwartz in December 2009. The project is based on the process of documentation, carried out through different methods, and consists of interviews with witnesses, written press articles, reports drawn up by various institutions and organizations, public discussions, workshops etc., focused on the events which took place in Bucharest between 13 and 15 June 1990. The first stage of the project consisted of two parts: the achievement of a documentary theatre show and the creation of an informal audio-video archive containing interviews with the actors in those events: demonstrators, people who were injured or arrested, miners, workers, pensioners, leaders of the “Piaţa Universităţii” movement, political leaders, prosecutors who investigated the case, anthropologists, journalists.

Several interviews from the archive will be screened in full; debates will be organized on certain issues related to the 13-15 June events which were less discussed during the show; the Making off of the show – the personal archive of the artists will be presented; a space for self-recording will be made available, where each visitor may record his/her own testimony or opinion about 13-15 June 1990.

CNDB, WHAT’S THE MATTER?
curator Manuel Pelmus [10 March - 15 March 2011]

The Bucharest National Dance Centre (CNDB) is relocating! However, not willingly. Concurrently with this forced relocation, CNDB has been invited by the Centre for Visual Introspection (CIV) to take part in its project entitled “Making of”. For six days, we shall be taking our clothes, objects and ideas to CIV’s premises.
The program I propose during these six days does not wish so much to be a retrospective of CNDB as to address the present moment while still integrating certain stances taken by CNDB over time, and which I consider important. Without glorification, but also trying to evoke, at least symbolically, the remarkable things which took place during these last five years. And there were many of them!
To me, CNDB meant discourse, research, debate, attitude and a platform-space, which hosted and undertook a string of projects and delicate stances which could not find any other place where to assert themselves. We hereby invite you to attend six days rich in presentations and debates.
The last and also the first!

(Manuel Pelmus)

Interview

X-RAYING THE LANDSCAPE OF OUR SUBZISTENCE: THE CENTER FOR VISUAL INTROSPECTION
An Interview with Anca Benera, Arnold Estefan, Catalin Rulea and Alina Serban by Daria Ghiu.
www.idea.ro/revista/
www.pplus4.ro

Book - 2011

"Matter&History" is an artist book by Anca Benera - a research project investigating the path of public monuments that have disappeared from Bucharest public space; case studies accompanied by theoretical text, photographs, maps, and an audio-work. The publication is a fictional journey through the afterlife of Bucharest public monuments of the interwar and socialist times. Launching of the book is scheduled by the end of January 2011.