URBAN AMBIENT at Sibiu

Meta Cultural Foundation invites you to Sibiu, between 22nd -24th of June, for the opening of the project “Urban Ambient”, financed by the ministry of Culture and religious Affairs, organized within the program “Sibiu, European Capital of Culture 2007”.

The purpose of this project is to investigate the relation of art with the public field, to start a dialogue between urban space and visual arts, patrimonial architecture and contemporary, unconventional artistic forms, up to gesture, attitude, contextual art, environment interventions with inflatable, sonic, electronic sculptures, moving images etc.

It won’t be about the traditional sculptures, the classical glorification or commemoration monuments, made in bronze or stone, which we see in almost all Romanian cities, but about rethinking the urban perspective, by the visual artists, who are manipulating the performance strategies, the landscape and the contemporary technology. The urban perspective is approached in its environmental, visual, sonic, social aspects etc., the accent being laid upon the way in which these elements interact with each other and influence the human presence.

What we propose isn’t just some decorative elements, but artistic interventions that can reshape a public square, a street, a city wall. There are works made from unconventional materials, which fit into an active space, in a fluidic way, participating spontaneously to every day life.

The artists involved in this project are: Alina Buga, Franc Purg , Matthias Deumlich, Romelo Pervolovici, Mirela Dauceanu, Irina Botea, Cosmin Moldovan, Eva Pervolovici, Cristina David, Raluca Spataru, Lea Rasovszky, Nicoleta Mocanu, Duo van der Mixt, David Maljkovic (Croatia), Kader Muzaqi (Kosovo), Alejandro Vidal (Spain), Simona Denicolai (Italy) & Ivo Provoost (Belgium), Jakrawal Nilthamrong (Thailand), Martin Veldhoen, Wayne Horse (Holland), Douwe Dijkstra (Holland), Chok Wah Man (Holland), Guilherme Marcondes (Brazil), Seth Scriver (Canada).

ALINA BUGA – The Balloon People (inflatable sculpture), opening: June 22nd, 6 pm, str. N. Balcescu - Piata Mare – ONLINE OPENING, on the web site HYPERLINK "http://www.sibiu2007.ro/" \t "_blank" www.sibiu2007.ro, Sibiu 5 Web-Cams Live, cameras 1 and 3

The Balloon People are plastic objects meant to escape from the conventional exhibition room, to invade the urban space, to interact, provoke and generate different reactions. The Balloon People, colored spheres with small anthropomorphic interventions, impose themselves in a tonic visual way and create beauty; dozens of this kind of people will fill the street that runs into the Piata Mare, they will escort the passers, available to be carried away from one place to another or they can simply lie on the street. The artist plays with „meditation bubbles”, with „hyperbula in spherical thought”, generating spontaneity, immediate reaction, interactivity in a primary way.

FRANC PURG - Urban Sound Installation (sound sculpture) – opening: June 22nd, 6:30 pm, the interior courtyard of the History Museum

The project of the artist Franc Purg consists of unexpected sound installations placed within the town; the manner in which the sound operates in the social space isn’t new, but the way the artist makes use of the unexpected sounds is new, introducing the surprise element, the unusual, inserting a strange touch in every day life. In the interior courtyard of the History Museum one can listen to the sound made by the sea waves, the new created “sonic space” (Mc.Luhan) permitting the metaphoric cancellation of existing coordinates, replacing them with new ones. The sonic space, that outlines a territory, a region, permits a relocation of marine expansion, the sound bearing the reconfiguration sign, relocation of a territory.

MATTHIAS DEUMLICH - Lighting City (electronic sculpture), opening: June 23rd, 6 pm, Piaţa Huet

The modules which are situated between two brightly lit milky glass panes are stacked against each other to a column whose shape recalls Brancusi's endless pillar. The lights can be controlled - when they are turned off the milky glass panes change into a transparent state and give view to a mirror. In the reflections the glass column lengthens infinitely. The work combines elements of sound, light, optical mirage, reflection, acoustic spectrum, that offers to the viewer the passing toward new means of contraction and dilatation of the imagine.

COFFEE BREAK – collective project of video works and experimental movies, opening: June 23rd, 9 pm, Amber Coffee, Piata Mare no. 14

Irina Botea (Romania), Cristina David (Romania), Simona Denicolai (Italy) & Ivo Provoost (Belgium), Douwe Dijkstra (Netherlands), Wayne Horse (Netherlands), David Maljkovic (Croatia), Chok Wah Man (Netherlands), Guilherme Marcondes (Brazil), Duo van der Mixt (Romania), Nicoleta Mocanu (Romania), Cosmin Moldovan (Romania), Kader Muzaqi (Kosovo), Jakrawal Nilthamrong (Thailand), Eva Pervolovici (Romania), Lea Rasovszky (Romania), Seth Scriver (Canada), Raluca Spătaru (Romania), Alejandro Vidal (Spain).

A group of young artists will present to the public a number of video works and experimental movies, with different themes. The projections will take place in a coffee house downtown Sibiu (Amber). The curators are Arjon Dunnewind, director of Impakt Festival (Utrecht) and Romelo Pervolovici, director of Young Artists’ Biennial, (Bucharest).

ROMELO PERVOLOVICI - Meduza (interactive electronic sculpture), opening: June 23rd, ora 23.00, Piata Mica ONLINE OPENING, on the web site HYPERLINK "http://www.sibiu2007.ro/" \t "_blank" www.sibiu2007.ro, Sibiu 5 Web-Cams Live, camera 4

The large electronic sculpture, made from unconventional materials – resin, glass fiber, electronic equipment, computers, presence sensors, microphones, software equipment etc. - Meduza combines a three-dimensional form with moving images, activated by the human presence and voice; the images are trying to correlate a visual vocabulary with a linguistic one. Through the direct interpellations, the public can determine the Meduza’s “reactions”, visible in shifting shapes and colors according to the speaker’s state of mind. The sculpture is almost „dematerialized” during the night, when the moving images are enveloping the volumes in a transparent, blazing way. The work brings into discussion the concept of artificial intelligence, visual vocabulary, communication relations etc. ROMELO PERVOLOVICI - Meduze (inflatable sculptures), opening: June 24th, 10 am Str. N. Balcescu ONLINE OPENING, on the web site HYPERLINK "http://www.sibiu2007.ro/" \t "_blank" www.sibiu2007.ro, Sibiu 5 Web-Cams Live, camera 3

The project proposes a type of inflatable sculptures shaped like jellyfish (forms filled with helium), made by modules, as an alternative to the classical terrestrial model of traditional sculpture. The inflatable jellyfish emphasize the playful dimension, reminding of the colored kites lifted by children in the sky. The work also makes a correlation with Romania’s adhesion into the EU.

MIRELA DAUCEANU - Natural Sound Around (sound sculpture), opening: June 24th, 11 am, Turnul Sfatului passage

The artist proposes a new sound ambience for the transit areas within the town by using a tape that renders the recording of a cricket “concert” in a glade. The sound intervention reveals the concepts of natural / artificial, vegetable space / urban space, bringing the nostalgia of the cricket concerts that used to be listened to in the yard / garden / park / glade, in a zone of human presence having a routine activity. The acoustic space created by this installation integrates in the concrete and stone space of the city, like a realm of dreams in a metaphor that opposes the corporal and the visible.

The program Sibiu European Capital of Culture 2007 runs under the high patronage of the President of Romania The program is organized by the Association Sibiu European Capital of Culture 2007 in collaboration with Sibiu Town Hall, The Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs and Sibiu County Council, with the support of the Prime Minister of Romania and of the European Comission.

URBAN AMBIENT
Project at Sibiu
Organisation: Meta Cultural Foundation

mit Alina Buga, Franc Purg , Matthias Deumlich, Romelo Pervolovici, Mirela Dauceanu, Irina Botea, Cosmin Moldovan, Eva Pervolovici, Cristina David, Raluca Spataru, Lea Rasovszky, Nicoleta Mocanu, Duo van der Mixt, David Maljkovic, Kader Muzaqi, Alejandro Vidal, Simona Denicolai & Ivo Provoost, Jakrawal Nilthamrong, Martin Veldhoen, Wayne Horse, Douwe Dijkstra, Chok Wah Man, Guilherme Marcondes, Seth Scriver