In May last year the National Museum of
\nContemporary Art in Bucharest launched a performing arts programme coordinated
\nby director Ioana Paun. To what extent was this undertaking necessary? Here is
\nIoana Paun herself with more details:<\/p>\n
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There are many such initiatives in Bucharest
\nand in many cases their organisers can’t find venues to stage them. They are
\nhybrid projects, sometimes mixing political arts with lectures, other times
\nmovement or more intimate forms, such as ‘one-on-one’ performances. We needed a
\nvenue that should bring these initiatives together, everything that performance
\nart means. The Contemporary Art Museum is a space of the new arts, contemporary
\nart, sometimes the art of the future. So any emerging form of art, hybrid or
\nexperimental art, is most welcome in this museum, especially if the project is
\nbacked by artists and performers. Whereas the National Dance Centre often
\nshowcases performance projects, there are no other venues in Bucharest devoted
\nto this type of art.<\/p>\n
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Ioana Paun’s interest for performance art goes
\nback to the years she took up special classes, working with various Romanian
\nartists:<\/p>\n
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For
\nquite a long time I needed to support these kind of initiatives coming from the
\nfield of theatre, which nevertheless involve artists doing visual art. So I
\ntoyed with this type of art starting 2010, when I took an MA in performance art
\nat the Goldsmiths Faculty in London. This provided me with a whole different
\nperspective on the practice of performing arts. So I came to Bucharest and
\nstarted organising performance workshops at the Academy of Theatrical Arts and
\nCinematography. Attending were students, but also people from outside the
\nfaculty, musicians, anthropologists, people who were eager to explore
\nperformance art. Performance art is still uncharted territory in Romania. Every
\nyear I’ve been trying to organise a new workshop, discover new artists, tell
\nthem everything I’ve learned… And since there are so few festivals devoted to
\nperforming arts, I often looked for a venue that should bring such efforts
\ntogether. Because of these workshops I’ve surrounded myself with artists,
\nwho’ve become autonomous and who started working together. I was used to work
\nwith this kind of art, as it doesn’t have a story, as in theatre, or a text it
\nis based on, as we’re used to seeing in most theatre plays, and is thus harder
\nto receive by the audience.<\/p>\n
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Through this project, Ioana Paun proposes a
\nmonthly programme at the National Museum of Contemporary Art: <\/p>\n
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In principle, there are three events every
\nmonth. Every big opening is marked with a performance unfolding throughout the
\nwhole evening. The schedule is available on the museum’s web page and Facebook
\npage. We usually have performances that have already been created, but which
\nare very delicate and fragile and which do not yet have a venue to be presented
\nto the audience, so we invite them to the museum. Such an example is In
\nBetween Two Pills, Cinty Ionescu’s show on depression, which combines video
\nart with live performance. Then, there is another event happening at the same
\ntime, which is more difficult to set up. It is entitled Nocturnal and it is
\nat its third edition. It is a dedicated evening during which we listen to
\neither digital or acoustic vanguard music. So far there have been two events
\nthat have enjoyed great success with music lovers, and the most recent one was
\nbroadcast live. Music events are held once every two months or every 45 days.
\nTickets are available online and at the Museum’s ticket office.<\/p>\n
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This year, the
\nNational Museum of Contemporary Art will host the first performances included
\nin the Free Territories programme, which inaugurates a new space of the museum
\ndedicated especially to performances. Here is Ioana P\u0103un with details: <\/p>\n
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These performances
\nwill feature artists from Bucharest, from other cities of Romania and we also
\nhave two foreign groups. They will bring something new, because they were
\nproduced with much dedication to correspond to the artists’ expectations. We
\nwill make a public call in early February and artists will be able to sign up
\nduring the whole month of February. I’m trying to curate their ideas in line
\nwith what they want. That is why the performances will not be held in the new
\nhall by all means. They can be held anywhere in Bucharest, in other spaces, in
\nthe public space or in other spaces of the museum, online or on the radio. This
\nwill happen during the entire year, I intend to have some 8 such projects
\nproduced.<\/p>\n
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The first premiere
\nof 2018 at the National Contemporary Art Museum will take place on February 8th.
\nA free adaptation of the book The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion,
\nthe performance entitled NOK!NOK! was written and directed by actress Nicoleta
\nLefter and features actress Flavia Giurgiu. Ioana P\u0103un is next at the
\nmicrophone to talk about the performing arts programme of the month of
\nFebruary: <\/p>\n
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In February we’ll
\nhave one of the nocturnes, and the premiere of the show NOK!NOK! by Nicoleta
\nLefter, which talks about the experience of finding out that someone has died,
\nof how one comes to terms with and overcomes this. There will also be some
\nperformances for couples. Artist Ruxandra Hule has already made such performances.
\nThe show is called Us Against Us. It is a context, which the artist
\ncreates for couples, not necessarily life partners. The couples may consist of
\nsiblings, mothers and sons or daughters, or very close friends. For one hour,
\nthese couples will be working together with her by means of various artistic
\ninstruments in order to touch upon those sensitive aspects in their
\nrelationship that they never talk about. Many people have already been to this
\nshow, they have acquired all sorts of experiences, some more profound and
\nothers more amusing. The artist uses writing, pottery, and text messages to
\nwork with the couples; it is a very personal approach. We’ll also start
\nperforming the show entitled White Horse, which was also produced in the
\nmuseum and which is about communist torturer Ioan Ficior. We intend to have a
\nmore humane approach, through art, of the economic, political and social issues
\nwhich we are faced with every day.<\/p>\n
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Less than one year
\nsince its launch, the performing arts programme of the National Contemporary
\nArt Museum has attracted quite an audience. Ioana P\u0103un says that there are very
\ndifferent people coming to the show, who somehow expected that to happen.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In May last year the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest launched a performing arts programme coordinated by director Ioana Paun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":161915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44685],"tags":[44902],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-161914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-of-culture","tag-contemporary-art-museum-bucharest"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n