“The Romanian dream in its very raw shape”

For Vlad Nancă the House of the People in Bucharest, Ceauşescu’s former palace, is a building that represents the trauma of an entire population. So he, a child of the 1989 Central Eastern European revolutions, proposed to add some cupolas and crosses to it in order to turn it into the cathedral of national redemption a lot of people apparently crave for in contemporary Romania.

Vlad would have liked to see the feeling grow that the palace, which was build on the blood and tears of so many of his compatriots, is symbolically given back to the people. Albeit decisions were taken in a different way, Vlad never tires to think about and voice new cultural expression in public space. Find out about his art, which he creates in recurrent personal trips to the past.

Watch
Part 1 and Part 2 of the interview by Barbara Lubich.

Learn
how project artists discuss the exhibition in Bucharest.

See
the report of the project visit to Bucharest in December 2007.

Exhibition catalogue to download

This is the catalogue of an exhibition that I curated and took place at Galeria Noua in Bucharest for 4 days in November 2007.

Because the show only lasted for three days and many people didn't have the chance to see it, now there is a pdf catalogue.

Catalogue design: Dragos Platon

Download here.

Back to the future / Cu spatele la viitor

7.11 – 10.11 2007, Galeria Noua

Anca Benera
Daniel Gontz
Cezar Lazarescu
Vlad Nanca
Mircea Nicolae
Dragos Platon
Tudor Prisacariu
Sonokolor (Ciprian Dicu si Sergiu Doroftei)



The exhibition brings together young artists whose works investigate the Romanian social and cultural context from a historical perspective. The title of the exhibition, same as the 1980’s SF film (and its literal and somewhat ironic translation in Romanian), is synthesizing the spirit of the show – an exploration of the present, keeping in mind the recent history of Romania and thus proposing a cautious approach to future.




Curator: Vlad Nanca


The exhibition was supported by the Swiss Cultural Program in Romania

European Newcomers in Berlin

Social Cooking Romania

15 December 2007 – 27 January 2008
Opening: 14 December, 19h

Artistic and theoretical works broach the issue of developments in Romanian society by focussing on the subject of „food“. The conjunction of art and food or nutrition offers the possibility of analysing everyday life and the life styles as well as social and political coherences. The focus here lies on the years after the political turnaround in 1989, the fall of the „Iron Curtain“, and the developments connected to it- until January 2007 when the country accessed the EU.

The exhibition “Social Cooking Romania” shows current works of young Romanian artists that are complimented by a selection of artistic positions since the 70s and 80s. Furthermore a documentary section gives insight into past artistic projects and exhibitions on the subject.


After accomplishing a project workshop in Bucharest, Vlad Nanca is now coming to Berlin.

Here you can see the artists' work descriptions.

Ulf Göpfert (Dresden)
Harald Hauswald (Berlin)
Pinczehelyi Sándor (Pécs)
Zbyněk Benýšek (Prague)
Aleksander Marek Zyśko (Wrocław)
Silvestro Lodi (Venice)
Michele Zaggia (Venice)
Mirela Dauceanu (Bucharest)
Vlad Nancă (Bucharest)
Zbigniew Czop (Cracow)

For images of the artworks see posts below.

The Exhibition - Vlad Nancă (Bucharest)

I do not know what union I belong to anymore 2003

Visit his webpage: http://vladnanca.blogspot.com/