Past Present. The Archive and The Body | Visual and performative installation | 5-22.11, /SAC @ Malmaison

Present Past. The archive and the body Visual and performative installation 5 – 22 November/SAC @ Malmaison Calea Plevnei 137C, 2nd floor Visiting programme Thursday-Friday 16:00-20:00 Saturday 14:00-20:00 Concept: Ioana Marinescu Filming: Laurențiu Calciu Open Context curator: Alex Radu

In three days the grass will grow here… Performative actions 5, 6, 12, 13 and 17 November, 7.30 pm  Performers: Smaranda Găbudeanu,Iulia Mărăcine, Katia Pascariu, Ana Turos Special guest: Aurelia Anton  Video and sound editing: Cristian Văraru Costumes: Doina Apreotesei

What’s left when there’s apparently nothing left?

Paradoxically, the more time passes, the more we care about the things we no longer have access to. The city of Pompeii is extraordinarily preserved under the lava that covered it in a single day 2000 years ago. The void left in the lava by the disappearance of organic matter has become the matrix of plaster bodies, tangible witnesses of that world. Like an upside-down mirror, the programmatic destruction of Uranus Hill in the 1980s left almost nothing tangible, just a few physical fragments; instead, a community of vivid memories was created.

We propose a pendulation between oblivion and recovery, erasure and reconstruction. We bring spaces, objects and stories from past times into the present, reconfigure them, create experiences that become new archival sources. Become witness to this typical mechanism of subjective archiving.

The project is based on the research of Ioana Marinescu (visual artist and architect) who brings to light the phenomenon of repressed, disappeared histories and forced dislocation of communities.

The visual and performative installation Present Passages. Archive and Body is part of the Open Context curatorial program at /SAC @ MALMAISON of collaborative and transdisciplinary co-productions, research and practices in the visual, performing and scenic arts. The /SAC team that collaborated on the installation: Justin Baroncea (architect), Maria Ghement (architect) and Simona Abagiu (producer).

Project Present Passages. The Archive and the Body is produced by PETEC (Association for Theatre and Books) in co-production with /SAC @ MALMAISON, in partnership with H2Dance (London), CNDB (National Centre for Dance Bucharest), Beaconsfield (London), the community of the Uranus Quarter platform, CESI (Centre of Excellence in Image Studies), Radio Romania Cultural, Igloo.

PETEC is an interdisciplinary platform for production, research and education in contemporary performing arts.

Spațiul de Artă Contemporană – /SAC – is a private independent initiative, a resource context dedicated to the current needs of the producer and the public to establish a direct and formative dialogue through exhibition, research and promotion.

Project co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCN). The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the results of the programme may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the grantee.

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