Artistic Residence 110

The project is based on a specific partnership between the Iași institution, Galeria Artep Association, and the Berlin institution, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures), aimed at deepening the exploration of body politics in contemporary art. Through the interaction of Romanian artists with visual arts specialists from Berlin, and by inviting a Berlin curator to Iași for a residency program where he will hold a specialized conference for local professionals, the project aims to promote Romanian artists both nationally and internationally. This residency will also lay the groundwork for future collaborations and set the stage for direct interactions benefiting Romanian contemporary art.

Artists benefiting from the Berlin-Iași exchange experience include:
Claudiu Ciobanu is part of the young generation of artists from Iași, a graduate of the Faculty of Visual Arts and Design at the George Enescu National University of Art in Iași. He pursued painting studies through the Erasmus program at the University of Salamanca, Spain, where he discovered experimental painting and drawing techniques. His studies in Spain concluded with an exhibition project of drawings that was later selected in 2009 for the Young Romanian Art 10 exhibition, "Slightly bored", curated by Mircea Nicolae at the New Gallery, Romanian Cultural Institute in Venice. He has participated in various national and international projects, being featured in exhibitions in Israel, Washington, Berlin, and Vienna. In 2022, he presented at Galeria Artep, SOLARIS, an art installation curated by Cristian Nae, and in 2023, Memento Vivere, an art exhibition curated by Cristiana Ursache hosted at ICR Vienna. Claudiu Ciobanu, born in 1984, lives and works in Iași.

Andrei Gavrilița is a visual artist specializing in photography. His artistic practice is characterized by projects that explore the photographic medium conceptually, as well as by series of documentary and direct photography. Andrei uses the photographic medium as a tool in his artistic explorations, attempting to understand the world and himself. His conceptual projects present an experimental and didactic perspective that challenges and pushes the boundaries of photography, while his works of direct photography are anchors in the physical world, explorations of intimacy, and expressions of the artist's sensitivity and his relationship with his context. Andrei Gavrilița was born in 2001 in the Republic of Moldova, but studies and works in Iași.

Invited curators for an exchange experience on the theme of body politics as the central subject of analysis are:
Daniel Neugebauer is an educator, curator, and cultural manager living in Berlin. He coordinated the communication and cultural education departments at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) from 2018-2022. In 2023, he joined the HKW curatorial team coordinated by Bonaventure Ndikung. Neugebauer was the first Connected World Senior Fellow at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 2022-2023, where he worked on the theme of the relationship between the university and the students' bodies. He edited four volumes of the HKW Das Neue Alphabet series (2020-2023) about body politics and their poetics. Previously, he was an educational coordinator at the Romanian Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 59th edition, 2022, alongside Adina Pintilie; head of marketing, mediation, and fundraising at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2012-2018. He coordinated the marketing activities of Documenta 14 (Kassel/Athens) in 2016-2017. His training began at Kunsthalle Bielefeld, where he worked from 2006-2012, and he obtained a diploma in cultural gerontology in 2012. Since 2018, he has been a member of the Berlin Arts Council, as a volunteer.

Cristiana Ursache is a curator at Galeria Artep in Iași. She completed her bachelor's and master's degrees at the George Enescu University of Arts in Iași, in Art History and Theory and Theories and Practices in Visual Arts. She is currently conducting research within the doctoral school of the same university, focusing on curatorial practices in Romania between 2000-2023. She attended courses at universities in Spain and Switzerland, at Escuela de Arte de Sevilla through the Erasmus+ Study Scholarships program, and at Zurich University of the Arts, deepening the course The Emancipated Audience – Experiential Curatorial Knowledge Production. She has curated exhibitions in Romania and abroad featuring artists such as Ștefan Câlția, Sorin Ilfoveanu, Claudiu Ciobanu, and Miruna Radovici. In the summer of 2022, she served as a cultural mediator at the Romanian Pavilion during the 59th Venice Biennale.

Since 2018, Galeria Artep has been presenting the Iași public with some of the most appreciated Romanian visual artists, in installations of painting, sculpture, and photography coordinated by passionate curators, installations correlated with author films, research, and a convergent approach to the field. Galeria Artep has introduced an impressive array of visual artists to the Iași audience, including Felix Aftene (2018, 2020), Ștefan Câlția (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022), Virgil Scripcariu (2019), Mark Verlan and Ghenadie Popescu (2020), Matei Bejenaru (2021), Nicu Ilfoveanu (2021), Claudiu Ciobanu (2022, 2023 at ICR Vienna), Miruna Radovici (2022), Sorin Ilfoveanu (2022/2023), Radu Carnariu (2023), and Andrei Gavrilița (2023).

The project does not necessarily represent the position of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or for how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.