“PROTOTYPE X” / Mihai Balko

 

3 octombrie – 5 noiembrie 2013

Curator: Judit Balko

Coordonator Atelier 030202: Mihai Zgondoiu

Vernisaj: joi, 3 octombrie 2013, ora 19.00, ATELIER 030202 (Sala Nouă TC), str. Sfânta Vineri nr. 11, Bucureşti

http://www.atelier030202.blogspot.com

facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/175838962605360/?context=create#

http://mihaibalko.wordpress.com

Prototype X is a scaled model of a bus designed for the salvation of the people. It is an object that comes as an answer to the demands of growing religious tourism industry organized by the Romanian Orthodox Church. I offer an efficient solution to a current and urgent problem. (Mihai Balko)

Mihai Balko’s project Prototype X highlights the immobility and inertia of Romanian religious practice, exploring its dimensions and bringing forth the anachronism of public outpourings of religious sentiment. The artist sees the contemporary pilgrimage as a practice carried out in the symbolic space between the “ecumenical bus” – an air-conditioned coach – and the promise of an afterlife reward, advertised as “the Holly Land for all” for the people embarked on this journey. Thus, the action of the pilgrimage loses its initial importance and meaning and becomes a mere escape from the daily routine, or a possibility to buy one’s salvation through means that recall the Middle Ages’ practice of indulgences. (Judit Balko, curator)

Organizator: ATELIER 030202

Parteneri:Teatrul de Comedie, Clubul UNESCO-Adolescenţii, Asociaţia Euro CulturArt

Sponsor: Murfatlar România SA

Parteneri media: Agentiadecarte.ro, Radio România Cultural, Senso TV, TATAIA, TV City, Cultura, ArtClue, Revista ARTA Modernism.ro

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My wall

 

My wall was created and temporary display in Bucharest in 2012 as a part of Expanded space art program (Expanded space – migration and relocation, 2011; Expanded space – individual and mass, 2012). The program aims to challenge and change the way Romanian public space is perceived, both in terms of its geographical limits and from a conceptual point of view, contributing to its transformation from a space shaped by economic or social grievances into a space of artistic expression.

My wall is about past and present, about the destruction of identities made by the communist regime that continues until today, about the remains of failed lives.

 

Melting

Free Press Square (Piata Presei Libere), Bucharest, 2012, within the framework of Project 1990, initiated and coordinated by Ioana Ciocan.

 May – June 2011

As years pass by, the image of our past becomes blurred, sharp lines become diffuse, the exact and precise description of past actions loses its clarity and exactness, the entire image is outlined in shades of grey, without black or white accents; people’s actions are no longer firmly enrolled by the good/bad categorization.

Melting addresses the issue of Romania recent past and how it is perceived by contemporaries. Too often, for those who lived in the communist era, the communist brutality and the ugliness of the collective past is blurred by fond memories of a personal past. For those who were born after the collapse of the communist regime, the past is nothing else but a sad, closed chapter without connection to the country’s past or future.

Odata cu trecerea anilor imaginea trecutului apropiat se estompeaza, liniile clare devin difuze, definirea exacta si concreta a celor intamplate isi pierde din claritate, din exactitate,  intreaga imagine incepe sa se contureze mai mult intr-un gri cald fara accente clare de alb si negru; faptele si actiunile oamenilor  nu mai sunt atat de ferm inscrise in categorisirea bun / rau. MELTING – aduce in discutie trecutul recent si modul in care este perceput de contemporani. De prea multe ori, pentru cei care au trait in perioda comunista brutalitea si uratenia trecutului colectiv este anulata si estompata de amintirea duioasa a unui trecut personal, a unei tinereti pierdute. Pentru cei care s-au nascut dupa destramarea regimului communist, acesta pare de prea multe ori doar un capitol trist, dar incheiat, din istoria acestei tari, fara legatura cu prezentul sau cu viitorul.

Cleansing

The work Cleansing was created and presented in 2011 within the framework of the art program Expanded space. In the project of 2011, the works addressed the theme of migration and relocation.

The work highlights the idea of redefining one’s image by cleansing one’s past through attempts of removing or eliminating undesirable or inappropriate aspects of one’s life. The apple, a Christian symbol of the original sin, becomes an emblem of a past marked by transgression, a past one desires to be wiped, cleaned. Symbolically the sin and guilt is transferred from one object to the other because nothing can be erased without a trace.

EXPANDED SPACE – MIGRATION AND RELOCATION  project,  8 september – 31 october 2011, Kiseleff Park, Bucharest / Proiectul SPATIU EXPANDAT – MIGRARE SI REASEZARE, Parcul Kiseleff, Bucuresti,

 

the nature of violance

andesite symposium, Carbunari 18 july – 3 august 2011, Maramures, Romania

sunset on the last day of symposium

expo SIT AND EAT, 2010

vernisaj, 30 septembrie, 2010