Young Artists? Biennial, AWOL/Absent Without Leave ? opening October 14 2006, Bucharest

YOUNG ARTISTS? BIENNIAL BUCHAREST - second edition

AWOL, Absent Without Leave

October 12 ? November 16, 2006

Meta Cultural Foundation in partnership with Goethe-Institut Bukarest are

inviting you to attend the opening of the second edition of The Young Artists?

Biennial, AWOL, Absent Without Leave, which will take place on Saturday,

October 14, 19.00 at the Brătianu Palace, 6 Visarion St. (Piaţa Romană),

Bucharest.

The Young Artists? Biennial is Bucharest?s first large periodic event in the

domain of visual arts which aims at displaying and promoting the art of young

contemporary artists in a regional and international context. The project was

designed to combine theoretical and artistic discourses and will bring together

artists, curators, art critics, journalists, cultural operators, researchers,

visual culture theoreticians.

?AWOL is a term which refers to someone who has deserted their post without

permission - the person is somewhere else, with thoughts and needs beyond and

in opposition to the central point, the institution. In accordance with this,

the biennial and artists? work aim to investigate and create alternative spaces

and situations for presenting and experiencing art. The exhibition will

include works that critique the ?institution?, projects that engage with the

politics and communities of a particular site, and work that engages with the

emotionalism of someone who is AWOL.

Above all, AWOL allows for the possibility of art arising out of unexpected

discoveries, or unlikely juxtapositions for both artists and audience. By

creating the opportunity where ideas of ?here? and ?somewhere else? can be

explored, the Biennial aims to begin to distinguish the European identity of

the capital based on such an exploration of creativity through proposals of

alternative spaces for expression, experience, reflection and dialogue?

(curators? statement)

SCHEDULE

October 13, 2006, UNAgaleria (10 General Budişteanu St.):

ROUND TABLE on the topic Defying gravity ? geopolitical and structural (dis)

advantages of being young ? 10.00-10.30

Round Table participants: Rael Artel (critic and curator, Rael Artel Non-profit

Space, Estonia, appointed curator for the International Biennial, Estonia,

2007), Ami Barak (curator, president, IKT/International Association of

Curators of Contemporary Art, Paris), Dave Beech (journalist, Art Monthly

magazine), Giuliana Carbi (director, Trieste Contemporanea, Italy), Kim Sukie

Dhillon (jurnalist, Frieze, Londra), Jaroslaw Lubiak (art historian, art critic

and a curator, Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz/Poland), Duncan MacLaren (art critic, Map

Magazine, Scottland), Jane Neal (journalist, Art Review, London), Nevenka

Sivavec (curator at the Center for Contemporary Arts Celje/Likovni salon), Ron

Sluik (artist, curator and publisher at the AoRTa Art Centre Chisinau), Carol

Soutar (adviser - Cultural Enterprise Office, Dundee Contemporary Arts,

Dundee), Yeb Wiersma (artist, member in the Trans Artists Foundation,

Amsterdam).

Art critics, curators, journalists and gallerists coming from Romania as well

as the team of curators of this year?s exhibition will also be present at the

round table.

PRESS CONFERENCE - 13.00-13.30 pm

ROUND TABLE ? part II ? Conclusions

followed by THE PORTFOLIO REVIEW WORKSHOP - part I

October 14, 2006:

PORTFOLIO REVIEW WORKSHOP - part II - 10.00 am -13.00 pm, UNAgaleria, 10

General Budişteanu St.

OPENING of the international exhibition AWOL, Absent Without Leave,

will take place at 19.00 pm, Brătianu Palace (6 Visarion St. /Piaţa Romană)

Curators: Jenny Brownrigg (curator at Dundee University, Exhibition Department,

Great Britain), Branko Franceschi, curator and executive director, Museum of

Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka, Croatia), Irina Grabovan (director and

curator, Artcentre AoRTa Chisinau, Republic of Moldavia), Simona Nastac (art

critic and curator, Romania), Oana Tanase (independent curator and art critic,

Romania).

Artists: Anca Benera (Romania), Miranda Blennerhassett (Great Britain), Orsolya

Bagala Larsen (Hungary, resides in Copenhague), Olga Bersan (Republic of

Moldovia), Alejandro Cesarco (Uruguay, resides in New York), Marcus Coates

(Great Britain), Simona Denicolai (Italy) & Ivo Provoost (Belgium), Marjan

Denkov (Macedonia), Matthias Deumlich (Germany), Will Duke (Great Britain), Duo

van der Mixt (Romania), Igor Eskinja (Croatia), Mandy Gehrt (Germany), Guy

Gormley & Jack Stubbs Wormell (UK), Per H�ttner (Sweden, resides in Paris),

Ivana Jaksic (Serbia), Miha Knific (Slovenia),Yuri Lonkoff (Republic of

Moldavia, USA), BenoMaire (France), David Maljkovic (Croatia), Mamabart

(Belgium), Ioana Marinescu (Romania, resides in London) & Robert Fearns ( UK),

Victor Man (Romania), Gili Mocanu (Romania), Nicoleta Mocanu & Marius Stoica

(Romania), Ivan Moudov (Bulgaria), Flᶩa M�ller Medeiros (Brazil, resides in

London), Ciprian Muresan (Romania), Stuart Murray (Great Britain), Kader Muzaqi

(Kosovo), Lucia Nimcova (Slovakia), Svitlana Oleshko (Ukrain), Oksana Pasaiko

(Ukraine), Olivia Plender (Great Britain), Marion Porten (Germany), Louisa

Preston (Great Britain), Lala Rascic (Bosnia and Herzegovina ), Ulf Saupe

(Germany), Gentian Shkurti (Albania), Tobias Sternberg (Great Britain), Ed

Templeton (Los Angeles), Alexander Tinei (Republic of Moldavia), Florin Tudor &

Mona Vatamanu (Romania), Nikola Uzunovski (Serbia and Montenegro, resides in

Venice and Helsinki), George Vasilache (Romania), Alexander Valchev & Stefania

Yanakieva (Bulgaria), Alejandro Vidal (Spain), Borjan Zafirovski (Macedonia),

Alexander Zika (Germany), Yoke & Zoom/Gavin Wade (Great Britain), Jordan

Wolfson (New York/Berlin), Veronika Zapletalova (Czech Republic).

November 10/11:

ART CRITIQUE WORKSHOP under the direct guidance of the art critic Jan

Verwoert, member in the consultative commitee of Kunstverin M�nchen and

associate professor of Contemporary Art and Theory at the Ume堁cademy (Sweden).

An event under the High Patronage of Romania?s President, Mr. Traian Băsescu

Partners: Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe through the Ministry of

External Affairs of the German Federal Republic, Bucharest City Hall through

ArCuB - the Center for Cultural Projects of Bucharest Municipality, Romanian

Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs, Administration of National Cultural

Found, The Swiss Cultural Program in Romania, Romanian Cultural Institute.

With the support of: Ion I. Br㴩anu Cultural Foundation, Scottish Arts

Council, Glasgow City Council, Czech Center, UNAgaleria, Moderna Museet

Stockholm, British Council, Arts Council England, Polish Insitute in Bucharest,

New Europe College, Artluk, National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC),

American Cultural Center, MCL Glasgow, University of Dundee, project # (DSBA),

Patrick Painter Ink., Union of Architects of Romania.

Main sponsor: Flamingo Computers

Media Partners: Cotidianul, TVR, Banii nostri, Forum Invest, aLtitudini,

Suplimentul de cultura, Omagiu, 24-FUN, Radio Guerrilla, Igloo, Feeder.ro,

AnticArt.

Meta Cultural Foundation

61-63 Luiggi Galvani St. , district 2 Bucharest

tel.:(0040) 722 381 243

e-mail: metacult@gmail.com

web page: www.metacult.ro

Goethe-Institut Bukarest

Str. Henri Coanda nr. 22

RO-010668 Bucuresti

Tel: +40/21/312 0231, 311 9762, 311 9782

Fax: +40/21/312 0585

E-mail: programm@bukarest.goethe.org

www.goethe.de