Călin Man // kinema icon (Arad) // Workshop & lecture (skype) (White Box) // 25.10.2017 // 20:00
Curators: Olivia Nițiș and Ciprian Ciuclea
WASP – Working Art Space and Production
67-93 Ion Minulescu 67-93, Bucharest, Romania
Free entrance
The experimental art group was formed in 1970 in Arad/Transylvania/Romania, as a satellite of the local School of the Arts. Later, it became part of the Museum of Art as its Multimedia Workshop. The founding member, George Sabau, was a professor of art philosophy at the High School for the Arts in Arad. Most of the current members of the group are his former pupils, Alumni of the High School of the Arts.
During its first twenty years of activity (1970-1990), kinema ikon created over 60 experimental short films, synchronous with Western art practices: kinetic abstractions, scratch animation, surrealist films, non-figurative dynamic forms painted directly onto film, visual essays constructed from fragments of material reality, etc. Under the Communist regime, these works could be seen almost exclusively as “samizdat.” Although an important presence in the Romanian art scene of the time, kinema ikon was banned from participating in exhibitions abroad by the political, secret police. However, immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall, kinema ikon was able to respond to an invitation to screen a selection of experimental movies at the Centre Pompidou/Cinéma du Musée/ curated by Jean-Michel Bouhours.
The use of the term experimental in relation to our practice is not solely tied to the esthetics of the moving image. It also applies to our interdisciplinary approach, to the transference of creative languages in between multiple fields. The members of our group specialized in visual arts, architecture, philology, music and photography, instead of cinematography. They agreed to partake in the game, creating experimental films the use the vocabulary and grammar of other alternative media.
After the fall of communism, during the next four years (1990-1994) the group focused on video art and video projection installations. In 1994 came a radical change, when a new generation became interested exclusively in digital art, and for the next ten years the group worked primarily on digital support (CD.ROM, DVD) and net.art platforms. Amongst the most important works from this period were Calin Man’s on-line projects (Man is presently the leader of the group), interactive multimedia installations and, also the magazine, Intermedia – the group’s periodical, which includes theoretical texts.
VISUALIZING THE SOUND is a cultural project produced by WASP STUDIOS in co-production with 4Culture.
Partners: UNArte – National University of Arts, Zeppelin, Modernism Punct Ro, kinema ikon, Centrul de Fotografie Contemporană, Iași
This project is financed in the frame of the Cultural Program “Bucharest Participatory City” by the Bucharest County Hall through the Cultural Center of Bucharest – ARCUB.
Visualizing the Sound is a cultural project co-funded by AFCN – National Cultural Fund Administration.
The project does not necessarily represent the National Cultural Fund Administrations point of view. AFCN cannot be held responsible for the contents of the project or for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. These are entirely the author’s’ responsibility.
