<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The month of September this year saw the 7th
\nedition taking place, of an eagerly-awaited event: the Bucharest Art Pavilion -
\nArt Safari. The event draw to a close two months ago, and the other day we sat
\ndown and spoke to the Art Safari director, Ioana Ciocan. Ioana had a look back
\nat the event, offering us several conclusions. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As an absolute first in the history
\nof the event, the Bucharest Art Pavilion – Art Safari was held on two separate
\npremises: the Victoria Tower, an impressive building located on Victoria Road,
\nat the heart of Bucharest, and in the AFI Cotroceni Mall, which was an
\nextremely surprising space. We picked AFI Cotroceni because we thought it was
\neasier, it was more accessible for us to take art particularly where people
\nare. If people are in the mall, then the decision we took was quite natural,
\nthat of having an art pavilion in the mall. So we built a satellite there, with
\nall sorts of artistic, interactive installations, made for the entire family,
\nwhere, of course, access was free. Another interesting thing about Art Safari
\nwas that it could also be visited at night. So, night after night, from
\nSeptember 11 and all through to September 27, small groups of visitors enjoyed
\nguided tours as well as musical performances. This year, given the trying circumstances
\nwe’ve been through, we had to take into account a couple of measures that are
\npart of the new normality already: social distancing, wearing the ear-loop mask
\nand there was something else, something very important, access to Art Safari
\nwas granted to small groups of people. Practically, for the Victoria Tower’s
\n11,000 square meters surface area, we allowed no more than 175 people to visit Art
\nSafari. We complied with the recommendation we got from the Ministry of Culture
\nand the Healthcare Ministry as we wanted to make sure the visits to the Art
\nSafari Museums were completely safe. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ioana Ciocan gave us detailed info on the two
\nexhibitions that were part of Art Safari, which enjoyed the greatest success with
\nthe visitors – the Sabin Balasa Pavilion and the Gheorghe Petrascu Pavilion. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ioana Ciocan:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After the lockdown we had to comply
\nwith earlier this year, we realized how much we missed cultural events. We were
\nhappy because, under these very difficult circumstances, we were able to mount
\nthe 7th edition of Art Safari. The pavilion bearing the name of Sabin Balasa, a contemporary painter who was
\nfamous before but also after the anticommunist revolution, was laid out in the
\nentire surface area of a floor of the building. Each of Sabin Balasa’s
\ncanvasses was some sort of incursion into a quite uncanny cosmic universe,
\npeopled with feminine and masculine beings captured in initiatic journeys of
\nvarious kinds. We got a loan from Romania’s Chamber of Deputies, a valuable
\none, which was also a one-of-a kind loan, eight of Sabin Balasa’s big-size canvasses
\nwere offered on loan by them. We very much wanted Ceausescu’s and his wife’s
\nportraits to be included in Art Safari, we couldn’t get them, unfortunately, it
\nwould have been relevant for visitors to know it was not only a blue cosmic
\nuniverse Sabin Balasa painted, but also propaganda works. On the first floor of
\nthe building in Victoria Road, the museum pavilion was entirely dedicated to
\nGheorghe Petrascu, one of Romanian fine art’s most popular painters, a great
\nmaster, whose works were last put together in an exhibition in 1972. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Art Safari came up with a surprise exhibition for the
\nEastern-European space. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ioana Ciocan: <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In 2020, the International Pavilion
\nwas dedicated to a form of rebel art brought over from the US: Guerilla Girls.
\nThe group of feminists was founded in New York in 1985, while for its
\nrepresentation in Bucharest, Guerilla Girls curated a historic exhibition, an
\nexhibition comprising the fine art group’s most famous and most relevant works,
\ndated 1985, but also works form the 1990s and the year 2000. The group was set
\nup as a form of protest against gender differences in the museums across USA,
\nand not only there, this year at Romania’s National Art Museum we saw an
\nexhibition including all-male works. So the 1985 Guerilla Girls protest has not
\nreached Bucharest yet, that’s why we were happy we had the privilege to host that
\nhistoric group as an absolute first, not only in Romania, but in this part of
\nEurope as well. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The visitors’ reaction to the interactive exhibition
\noffer as well as to Art Safari’s offer for the little ones was extraordinary,
\nthe art-loving kids, that is. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ioana Ciocan: <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The ‘Bucharest School’ pavilion,
\ncurated by Silvia Rogozea, sought to offer a complete picture of the last 30
\nyears of Bucharest fine art. For their works to be selected for the exhibition,
\ntheir authors needn’t have been Bucharesters, born and bred, or educated in
\nBucharest, but at a crucial point in their lives, the artists need to have had
\na close connection with Bucharest. It was an eclectic exhibition, very popular
\nwith the visitors, photographs of the exhibition were taken on a large scale. An
\nArt Safari hashtag on the Instagram gives us access to the most successful
\nangles of the ‘Bucharest School’ exhibition. The exhibition also had an audio
\ninstallation, jointly made with Ana Banica, an artist the visitors loved very
\nmuch, especially the younger public. The Children’s pavilion was something
\nunique in Art safari. We asked the little ones to send us works they made
\nduring the lockdown we had earlier this year. We found it absolutely
\nfascinating to receive their works, on paper, canvas, collages, photographs,
\nmagazine clips – for the children, it was a universe which took shape at a time
\nwhich was very difficult for them. But it was all the more delighting for us to
\nsee the little the ones coming at Art Safari and seeing their works on display
\nin a museum as an absolute first. So we would like to continue with the
\nchildren’s pavilion in the 2021 edition as well. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ioana Ciocan: <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The team’s tremendous effort to mount
\nArt Safari against the backdrop of the pandemic was warmly rewarded by the
\nvisitors’ enthusiasm. We were once again happy when we saw people queuing up
\nfor art, just as it happens in all renowned international exhibitions. Bucharesters,
\nand not only them, were queuing up for Art Safari just as they do when
\nthey visit the great international museums. So we were happy to have been able
\nto offer lovers of art a contemporary visiting experience, perfectly adapted to
\nthe times we live in. It was a collection edition, indeed, and I should like to
\ntake this opportunity and invite you to be part of Art Safari. This year we had
\nmore than 80 youngsters who opted for doing volunteer work in the field of art,
\nwith Art Safari, it was a team of volunteer high-school students from
\nhigh-schools in Bucharest, they are definitely a source of inspiration for the
\nyounger generations. So we invite you to visit Art Safari, but also to do
\nvolunteer work as part of such a great cultural project.<\/p>\n
(Translation by Eugen Nasta)<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
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