Apparatus 22 - Positive Tension (on curating)

Can a party, a marathon and an alternative school be squeezed as one in a small paper bag?

Apparently it is possible and we will unfold it at tranzit.ro in Bucharest on June 21 starting with 3pm within
the framework of CURATORIAL FUTURE programme of French curators association C-E-A.

Here comes Apparatus 22’s Positive Tension (curating kit): a brown bag with several hundreds of the
probably biggest confetti ever produced plus a set of instructions both serious and hilarious.

All these lay the prerequisite for a party Apparatus 22 – Positive Tension (on curating) - a
celebration with a twist since the confetti in eye candy colors are inscribed with over one hundred
questions about curating.

More precisely there are 130 questions of various kinds – from fundamental to not-good-for-
school irreverent, from analytical to intuitive, from abstract to very precise - on countless topics (including
myths, taboos and rules) about curating and relations with audience, artists, institutions, legacies, ethics,
new modes of working in arts, future etc. turning the work | party into a marathon of critical thinking.

Ready for party? for marathon?

***

June 21
at tranzit.ro | Strada Gazelei 44, Bucuresti | map here
starts at 3pm and will continue through the evening

RSVP
The performance is by invitation only
For further information and RSVP until June 15 please contact Isabelle Henrion |
henrion.isabelle@gmail.com

***

Positive Tension (curating kit) is an Apparatus 22 work featuring questions by Apparatus 22 with extra
contributions from Geir Haraldseth, Levi Easterbrooks, Matt Hanson & Ludovica Parenti, Alen Ksoll,
Tereza Jindrová and KILOBASE BUCHAREST.

Positive Tension (on curating) durational performances took place until now at Stedelijk Museum with De
Appel CP (Amsterdam), Villa Empain (Brussels), YARAT Academy (Baku), Domino (Cluj), at DuParc
Residence (Turin), Salonul de Proiecte (Bucharest) in collaboration with KILOBASE BUCHAREST.,
ArtPort (Tel Aviv), The Bellas Artes (Manila), /ecm – educating/curating/managing | Universität für
angewandte Kunst (Vienna) etc.

The work is part of Positive Tension series in which Apparatus 22 uses questioning as a strategy in
triggering critical thinking. It made its debut in 2012 with Positive Tension (In the air): five enormous
explosions spreading over the large courtyard of MuseumsQuartier in Vienna hundreds of thousands of
large colorful confetti bearing twelve questions which tackled issues related to fashion: consumerism,
authentic vs. fake, value of newness, fashion designer’s status, role of technology in distributing fashion
etc.
Apparatus 22 would like to thank for kind support to Rogaland Kunstsenter, KILOBASE BUCHAREST,
Temad and add.
Apparatus 22 - short bio

Apparatus 22 is a transdisciplinary art collective founded in January 2011 by current members Erika Olea,
Maria Farcas, Dragos Olea together with Ioana Nemes (1979 - 2011) in Bucharest, Romania. Beginning
with 2015 they are working between Bucharest and Brussels.

They see themselves as a collective of dreamers, researchers, poetic activists and (failed) futurologists
interested in exploring the intricate relationships between economy, politics, gender studies, social
movements, religion and fashion in order to understand contemporary society. A recent topic of research
and reflection in their practice is SUPRAINFINIT universe: a world-making attempt to use hope critically in
navigating present and future.

In their very diverse works - installations, performances, text based-shapes, reality is mixed
with fiction and storytelling and all merge with a critical approach drawing knowledge & experience
from design, sociology, literature and economics.

Apparatus 22 work was presented in exhibitions and festivals at La Biennale di Venezia 2013, MUMOK,
Vienna (AT), Brukenthal Museum Contemporary Art Gallery, Sibiu (RO), MAK, Vienna (AT), Steirischer
Herbst, Graz (AT), Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (DE), Salonul de Proiecte, Bucharest
(RO), Museion, Bolzano (IT), TIME MACHINE BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART, D-0 ARK
UNDERGROUND, Konji (BIH), TRAFO Gallery, Budapest (HU), Futura, Prague (CZ), Ujazdowski Castle
– Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw (PL), Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (DE),
Contemporary Art Museum (MNAC), Bucharest (RO), KunstMuseum Linz (AT), Osage Foundation (Hong
Kong), Progetto Diogene, Turin (IT), Drodesera Festival, Dro (IT), Young Artists Biennial, Bucharest
(RO), Oberwelt, Stuttgart (DE), Galeria Nicodim, Bucharest (RO), Nieuwe Vide, Haarlem (NL), Nest, Den
Haag, (NL), Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles (BE), CIAP, Hasselt (BE), Barriera, Turin (IT),
De Appel (NL). KUNSTHALLE WIEN (AT), SUPRAINFINIT Gallery, Bucharest (RO), La Triennale di
Milano (IT), Bozar, Brussels (BE) etc.;

The collective also works beyond institutions via performances in public spaces, interventions in private
spaces and other hybrid forms.
tranzit.ro / București

tranzit.ro was founded in 2012 at the initiative of ERSTE Foundation, becoming thus the fifth member of
tranzit.org, a network of independent, non-profit organisations in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary
and the Slovak Republic.

tranzit.ro has the particularity of being itself a network, activating in three permanent spaces in the cities
of Iasi, Cluj and Bucharest. Through a wide range of activities, experimenting different methodologies of
working and collaborating, tranzit.ro aims at establishing itself as an innovative platform dedicated to
contemporary art.

Founded by a collective of curators and artists from Romania (Matei Bejenaru, Livia Pancu, Lia
Perjovschi, Attila Tordai-S, Raluca Voinea), tranzit.ro aims at encouraging contemporary art practices
developed in Romania within different local socio-cultural contexts, through a wide range of activities.

Since the beginning of 2018 tranzit.ro/București launches a more complex program. You can find more
info here :
http://ro.tranzit.org/en/project/bucuresti/2018-03-01/the-experimental-research-station-for-the-
environment-technology-and-society-of-the-future
C-E-A (French Association of Curators)

http://c-e-a.asso.fr/en/

The association C-E-A (French Association of Curators) was founded in 2007, to

facilitate the conception, promotion and organization of activities around curatorial
practices and the professional identity of curators.

C-E-A aims to spearhead activities that can help define the profession and determine its
unique needs and operations. With these findings, the association can more efficiently
support projects and information campaigns through residencies, research grants,
project production aid, resources, and networking. Another central aspect of C-E-A’s
mission is to advocate for the legal and social recognition of the curatorial profession in
France and abroad, through the development of a regional, national and international
network.

CURATORIAL FUTURE 2017 SWIZTERLAND, Basel @Salts

CURATORIAL FUTURE 2018

CURATORIAL FUTURE 2018 (Spain, Romania, Netherlands, Scotland) is a research

programme organised by the French association of curators C-E-A and supported by
the Institut Français.
Curators, artist-curators and art professionals are invited to discuss issues related to
curatorial practices in the French and Romanian context.

Taking place in Bucarest, this programme aims to benefit from the effervescence of the
Romanian artistic scene and to reflect the diversity of profiles and personalities with
very distinct aspirations and careers that evolve in various professional contexts.

This approach allows us to note that, if diversity there is, the profiles are porous.
Curators can move from the status of independent to institutional and vice versa, or
cumulate activities. Curators share commonalities that form the basis of their activity,
practice and thought: a privileged relationship with artists; a critical and forward-looking
view on the issues of the contemporary world; an educational background that brings a
precise knowledge of art, its history and its systems; a role in support of artistic and
emerging creation; let us also note the capacity of many curators to work in an
environment with constrained means and without benefiting from the financial aura of
the art market to which it is often assimilated.

CURATORIAL FUTURE will feature several debates in English on the issues of

professionalisation of curatorship. In order to confront different perspectives on the
status of the curator and the artist as curator, and more specifically on the status of the
curator as author.

C-E-A wishes to thank for their support :