Second Edition of Art Encounters Timișoara & Arad Announced

View of Pavel Brăila, New Year’s Dissections, 2017
Photo: Miluță Flueraș
Courtesy of EASTWARDS PROSPECTUS

Art Encounters 2017: Life a User’s Manual
September 30 – November 5, 2017
Preview: September 29, 2017
Opening Events: September 30 – October 1, 2017
http://www.artencounters.ro/en/home_en

Art Encounters 2017 is pleased to announce its second edition this year, and to unveil the first list of artists, including: Francis Alÿs, Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan, Michel Blazy, Irina Botea Bucan, Pavel Brăila, Corneliu Brudașcu, Dora Budor, Cristina David, Camille Henrot, Mary Reid Kelley, David Maljković, Victor Man, Olivia Mihălțianu, Roman Ondak, Miklós Onucsan, Julien Previeux, Anri Sala, Mircea Suciu, Mona Vătămanu & Florin Tudor. The initial selection of artists is now available at: www.artencounters.ro

Art Encounters 2017 lies at the intersection between an experimental art festival and a contemporary art biennial, focusing on the Romanian art scene, as well as an extensive selection of international artists. Titled Life a User’s Manual, the exhibition curated by Ami Barak and Diana Marincu surveys and compiles everyday life fragments, as seen in both current artistic practices, and in historical art projects from the 1960s onwards.

On an international level, this year’s biennial is expanding its program dedicated to the dialogue between the local and global scenes. On a regional level, the biennial aims at strengthening its ties to artists in close geographical proximity to Romania. The biennial brings together a group of international artists who will engage in meaningful dialogues with the region’s artistic communities. The exhibition will be embedded across several venues in Timișoara and Arad, and will highlight the ways in which artists reflect on many day-to-day realities that are now becoming increasingly unstable. Like in Georges Perec’s novel, La Vie mode d’emploi, the exhibition will present characters, situations and contexts—stories that span not only a day, but also a lifetime. As the Fluxus artist Robert Filliou said, “art is what makes life more interesting than art.”

Alongside the main exhibition, Art Encounters 2017 will provide a close examination of the Romanian independent art scene by inviting a comprehensive selection of art organizations which provide critical support and opportunities for contemporary art in Romania.