Special

FOCUS NAG 2017

“Journey to the Navel of the Earth”
6 octombrie – 05 noiembrie 2017

Special NAG is a project produced especially for the White Night of the Art Galleries focusing each year on a topical subject.

Starting this year, Petrila will be included exceptionally in the White Night of the Art Galleries line-up, due to the cultural projects brought to life by the consistent efforts of the past ten years of a group of artists, architects, writers, poets, musicians and actors whose involvement has helped save one of Romania’s most important industrial monuments – the Petrila mine – from being torn down.

With this special occasion, the White Night of the Galleries Focus Exhibition `Petrila` is being shown in Bucharest.

 

The rooms of the BRD Rezidența Scena 9 will be hosting, over a month, installations and interventions whereby the visitors will discover three unique museums: The Mother’s Museum, the Museum of the Romanian Plumber and the Petrila Literary Colony (the I. D. Sîrbu House Museum), a show that can only be viewed by flashlight or an impressive photography archive included in the structure of an interactive show. `A Journey to the Navel of the Earth` is an exhibition coordinated by artist Ion Barbu, whose interventions will be complemented by those of his guests: Mihai Barbu, Cătălin Crețu și Andrei Dăscălescu.

Over a month’s period, the focus exhibition housed by the BRD Rezidența Scena 9 will include a dynamic line-up of events, guided tours for the various audience categories, children’s workshops, views and debates. The aim of the focus exhibitions is to mark the adding of a new town on the event’s map and to help various types of audience become acquainted with the phenomenon of Romanian contemporary culture.

PEOPLE AT NAG FOCUS

Ion BARBU
Petrila, Romania
Ion Barbu was born in Petrila. He worked in the mine as a topographer engineer for 15 years. He is one of the most appreciated Romanian cartoonists, but not only: he founds magazines and publishing houses, organizes festivals, discovers young talents and inspires other artists. He is a member of the Union of Plastic Artists in Romania, president of the Cultural Foundation “Romanian Condition” in Petroșani, organizer of Autumn Salon of Humour (Petroșani), of “Bad Man” Festival and of Underground Theater Festival (Petrila). Currently, he is an editorial cartoonist at “Cațavencii”, “Dilema Veche”, “Observator Cultural” and “Suplimentul de Cultură”. Ion Barbu was an illustrator before and after the communism and is one of the toughest critics of this political regime; he took part in over 400 national and international exhibitions, won over 50 awards, wrote and co-wrote over 30 books.
LINKS www.facebook.com/thebarbu.ro/ www.thebarbu.ro
Mihai BARBU
Bucuresti, Romania
Mihai Barbu is a journalist and photographer. In 2009 he left to Mongolia on a motorcycle, with the help of a funding campaign: people could donate him money worth of 500 km. This meant that everything that was happening to Mihai along those kilometers and all the photographs he took were received by the person donating the money. This is how his episodic blog, mongolia.ro was born, and, later on, the book ”Selling Kilometers”. He was one of the subjects of the Discovery Tv Show ”Discover the hero inside you!”, and he received the title The Best Photography Blog at Roblogfest, 2010. He worked for the newspapers Evenimentul zilei, România liberă, and Reuters, he colaborated with the press agencies European Pressphoto Agency (EPA) and Associated Press (AP). Since 2012 he opened the photography studio Photoliu (with Bogdan Baraghin). In 2015 he left again for a new trip, planning on visiting 41 countries, this time along with his family.
LINKS www.facebook.com/photoliu.ro/ www.mongolia.ro
Andrei DĂSCĂLESCU
Piatra Neamt, Romania
Andrei Dăscălescu is a director, monteur and sound editor. He was born in Piatra Neamț and studied “Multimedia: film editing-sound editing” at National University of Theatre and Film “I.L.Caragiale”. He worked as a film and sound editor for many movies, including “Youth Without Youth”, by Francis Ford Coppola; he produced and directed “Fly”, a 2-minute short movie that was selected for 12 international festivals and won two awards. He created and organized “Filmul de Piatra” film festival which celebrated its 10th edition this year. Most recently, he wrote and directed “Planet Petrila”, the documentary about Petrila mining town. A former miner who became an artist and activist – Ion Barbu – makes use of art and absurdity to stop the local authorities from demolishing the historical buildings of the oldest mine in our country. The movie won the Audience Award at Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2017.
LINKS www.facebook.com/andrei.dascalescu www.facebook.com/PlanetaPetrila/
Cătălin CREȚU
Bucuresti, Romania
Cătălin Crețu is one of the illustrative contemporary composers of Romania. He was born in 1971, followed the courses of University of Petroșani (Bachelor of Electromechanical Engineering), and of the National University of Music, Bucharest, where he also earned a PhD. in Multimedia composition. Furthermore, he graduated the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Hamburg. His work focus includes chamber music, orchestra, classical and electronic music, and his works are strongly related to the multimedia area. He is one of the few romanian composers specialized in electroacoustic music. He is the founder and former Executive Director of InnerSound International New Arts Festival, member of Society of Romanian Composers and Musicologists (UCMR), and founding president of OPUS Association. In 2015 he published the book ”From Sinus Sound to the Anatomy of the Shadow. Technological views in new music”.
LINKS www.facebook.com/catcretu www.catalincretu.ro/
© 2017 ASOCIATIA EPHEMAIR