<\/p>\n
I<\/span>A year ago, a
<\/span><\/b> We started out
At the
We
Since the
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<\/span>Attending the opening of the Art Safari
This
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new step towards a network of art galleries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":63831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42520],"tags":[33513,28915],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-134874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inside-romania","tag-art-safari","tag-bucharest"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nbig tent in George Enescu Square in Bucharest invited people to attend the
\nfirst edition of the Art Safari Fair. The first edition brought together over
\n70 art galleries, institutions and venues in a single space in downtown
\nBucharest, specially designed for the event. This year, Art Safari will be
\nhosted by the Ciclop building, the first multi-storey car park in Bucharest,
\nset up <\/span>in the first half of the 20th<\/sup>
\ncentury. The second edition of Art Safari aims to create dynamic relations
\nbetween art galleries, art aficionados and collectors, as well as public
\ninstitutions. The Art Safari Fair 2015 held over May 13th<\/sup>-17th<\/sup>
\nwill give an overall image of contemporary and modern art. Ioana Ciocan, an
\nindependent curator and director of the Art Safari Fair gives us details about
\nthe participants in the Fair:<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span>
\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nthe project optimistically; however we didn’t expect so many galleries to
\nconfirm their participation. We also have an extremely important international
\npresence: Trapez from Hungary and Larm Galleri from Denmark. I’m glad to say
\nthat a lot of galleries are attending the fair this year, including Plan B,
\nLateral, Baril and so on. This year, we had to turn down the offer of certain
\ngalleries. First and foremost, we wanted to showcase quality contemporary art
\nand not to sell stands to cover the exhibition space. Such quality exists and
\nwe believe in it. The galleries we rejected did not comply with our curatorial
\nplan meant to lend unity to the space. The first storey features heritage art,
\nthe second storey illustrates art from the 60s to 1995 and the upper floor
\nplays host to what we call ultracontemporary art from 2015 included. Although
\nit is an art fair, we believe that there must be a strong connection between
\nthe quality of works and their price.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nmoment, the Art Safari Fair is the first professional fair in Romania and its
\norganizers plan to turn it into a major fair in the region, as Silvia Rogozea,
\nthe cultural manager of the Art Safari project tells us:<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nmeasure up with the Istanbul Fair, which is also open to the Middle East. In
\nRomania, we’d like to develop a landmark in Eastern Europe in 2016, trying to
\ninclude galleries from Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and thus develop in
\nthe region. The contemporary art works on the third and fourth storeys are for
\nsale. Visitors can talk to gallery managers, art critics, curators and artists
\nat the stands; they can interact with them, get in touch with the exhibitors.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\norganizers of the fair were very strict about the curatorial plan this year, on
\nthe Art Safari.ro website, there was a registration form which art galleries
\nhad to fill in. The form included the CV of the artist whom the gallery wanted
\nto promote, a short history of the gallery and pictures of the works to be put
\non view. Art critic Ruxandra Garofeanu was in charge of selecting the works
\nreflecting socialist realism:<\/span><\/p>\n
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\n
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\nworks have a generous theme, which for the time being, is not illustrated in
\nour museums; they date back to 1950-2000 and belong to great artists like
\nVintanu, Nicodim, Almasanu or Iacob, who are not exhibited anywhere, not even
\nin a contemporary art museum. You’ll get to know the Socialist Realism Epoch as
\nmirrored in the works of authentic artists. Works from a museum in Ramnicu
\nSarat, the Museum in Galati, the Museum in Baia Mare, the Museum in Targu
\nMures, the Museum in Pitesti are on display. I’ve found some works of an
\nextraordinary freshness by Henri Catargi, which I didn’t know where they were
\nexhibited in the country and which will for the first time be on show here.’<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
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\nFair, writer Horia Roman Patapievici called for a better use of the Ciclop
\nParking building, a witness of past vicissitudes that has found another
\ndestination now:<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nspace in downtown Bucharest can be used in a creative manner blending the
\nbeauty of the past with our attempts to live in a normal present. A normal
\npresent means that an artist shouldn’t make a name for himself or herself only
\nabroad. Heritage works are on view here brought over by national heritage
\nmuseums since we aim to bridge the gap between the heritage art housed in
\nmuseums, subject to forced nationalization, destroyed by private collectors, by
\nthe Romanian communist state, a situation that still exists, and contemporary
\nart, which is very much alive, very special, an art which the state has not
\ngrabbed yet and which develops in full freedom. We don’t want to extend this
\ngap between heritage art and contemporary art; they are brought together in
\nthis venue, in the Ciclop parking building.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\nThe Art Safari Fair 2015 is open for five days and one
\nnight, May 16th<\/sup>, Museum Night.<\/span><\/p>\n