TOUCH NATURE - Selected Exhibition Views
TOUCH NATURE
curated by Sabine Fellner & Alex Radu
with an exhibition design by Justin Baroncea & Maria Ghement
Artists | Uli Aigner, Matei Bejenaru, Floriama Candea, Codruța Cernea, Adriana Chiruta, Ciprian Ciuclea, Larisa Crunțeanu, Anna Dumitriu & Alex May, Michael Endlicher, Thomas Feuerstein, Peter Hauenschild, Barbara Anna Husar, Nona Inescu, Kitty Kino, Aurora Kiraly, Alexandra Kontriner, Ana Maria Micu, Nicoleta Mureș, Klaus Pichler, Monika Pichler, PRINZpod, Oliver Ressler, Gregor Sailer, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Hans Schabus, Ramona Schnekenburger, Marielis Seyler, Paul Spendier, Oana Stanciu, Mircea Suciu, Dan Vezentan, Judith Wagner, Nives Widauer, Laurent Ziegler
1st Part of the Opening | 30 April 2024, 18:00-19:30, /SAC @ Berthelot, 5 Gen. H. M. Berthelot Street, Bucharest, RO
2nd Part of the Opening | 30 April 2024, 19:30-21:00, /SAC @ Malmaison, Calea Plevnei 137 C, Corp B Floor 2, Atelierele Malmaison, Bucharest, RO
Visiting schedule | 9 May - 29 June 2024, Thursday-Saturday, 16:00-20:00
Guided tour | 9 May 2024: first part 18:00 at /SAC @ Berthelot (Str. Gen. H. M. Berthelot, nr. 5), second part 20:00 at /SAC @ Malmaison (Calea Plevnei 137 C, Corp B Etaj 2, Atelierele Malmaison).
Artists talk - Anna Dumitriu & Alex May | 21 May 2024, 19:00 at /SAC Berthelot (Str. General H. M. Berthelot 5)
Guided tour of the Touch Nature exhibition, featuring artists from the group show: Anna Dumitriu & Alex May, Oliver Ressler, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Floriama Candea, Codruța Cernea, Ciprian Ciuclea and Aurora Kiraly | 22 May 2024, 19:00, starting at /SAC Berthelot (Str. General H. M. Berthelot 5) and will continue at /SAC Malmaison (Calea Plevnei 137C, Atelierele Malmaison, 2nd floor).
Two artist talks: with Elisabeth von Samsonow starting at 19:00, and with Oliver Ressler starting at 20:00 | 23 May 2024, /SAC Berthelot (Str. General H. M. Berthelot 5)
Guided tour with Justin Baroncea, Maria Ghement and Anne Lolea | 13 May 2024: first part 18:00 at /SAC @ Berthelot (Str. Gen. H. M. Berthelot, nr. 5), second part 19:30 at /SAC @ Malmaison (Calea Plevnei 137 C, Corp B Etaj 2, Atelierele Malmaison).
Finissage with performance | Saturday, 29 June 20024, georgia elza & d. sargan will perform „skillful hands but cannot hold water” at /SAC @ Berthelot, at 6PM. The two exhibition spaces (/SAC @ Berthelot – Str. Gen. H.M. Berthelor no. 5 & /SAC @ Malmaison – Calea Plevnei 137C) will be open from 5PM to 9PM.
Team /SAC | Andreea Chircă, Iulian Cristea, Lidia Dobrea, Anne Lolea, Elena Maxemciuc
Graphic design | Irina Radu
The exhibition is organised by /SAC Bucharest and the Austrian Cultural Forum, with the support of the Austrian Federal Ministry of European and International Affairs.
CURATORIAL STATEMENT
"Nature must be experienced through feeling."
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) ,
the father of climatology, ecology and oceanography
The continuous, unrestricted exploitation and increasingly market-driven economy of the resources and the widespread intervention of society upon the biologic, geologic and atmospheric processes of the Earth have not only led to a constantly expanding loss of unspoiled nature as an emotional resource but to the destruction of vital spaces, the extinction of species and to humanitarian, political and economic crises as well.
It has been a considerably long time that artists have dealt in their works with the interference between human beings and their environment, having visualised the fundamental and irreversible changes of our planet, the terrifying consequences of the Anthropocene. Numerous exhibitions are nowadays reacting on an international level to this urging problem of our times, trying to elucidate the fact that the subject matter of the environment has arrived in the contemporary art scene for a considerable period of time by now. In this context, “Touch Nature” is asking questions and seeking for answers to the fact that art has developed as being confronted with the increasing destruction, but also as a consequence of the escalating menace that nature represents for mankind.
In “Touch Nature” at /SAC, the works of Austrian and Romanian artists engage in a dialogue proposing a critical look at the profound transformation of our planetary ecosystem in the Anthropocene and examining the ecological crisis from different perspectives. Through specific artistic mediums, each contribution formulates its opposition against the exploitation of man and nature on a global level or projects hopeful visions regarding new human–non-human dynamics/compositions. Introspectively, the exhibition-installation becomes an immersion in the spectral diversity of attitudes, experiences and psycho-emotional reactions related to the devastating effects of the ecocidal Anthropocene: from activism to climate anxiety, solastalgia, melancholy, shadowtime, depression, abandonment, and back to imaginings of innovative sustainable solutions. Demonstrating through documentation, formulating protests and conceiving possible-but-which-may-seem utopian scenarios represent the fundamental methods of this artistic confrontations at /SAC.
The “Touch Nature” project, initiated by the Austrian Cultural Forum, with a concept proposed by the curator Sabine Fellner, is an itinerant exhibition approach presented in 11 countries in Europe and the United States. It brings forward an exploration of the role of art in questioning the increasingly severe ecological crisis through works by contemporary artists from Austria and each host country, always in an original, site-specific format adapted to each individual cultural context.
Part of the international journey of one of the largest and most challenging itinerant curatorial endeavours of its kind, the “Touch Nature” exhibition acquires in Bucharest a new interface between external and local contributions. Continuing a specific type research at /SAC, that of the (group) exhibition (space) as an medium in itself and meeting place implicitly approached collaboratively, the “Touch Nature” mise-en-scène is different from the practices/paradigms of white-cube, thus the exhibition design is conceived as an installation in itself, with its narratives connected to curatorial intentions. The exhibition takes place in both locations of /SAC, Berthelot and Malmaison – distinct spaces both in terms of architecture and context. Each setting/medium has a different story and (re)contextualises the works in the discourse, while still keeping a continuity between them, but also a surprising contrast. At Berthelot, we become residents of a standard house from an imagined future, while at Malmaison we get lost in a laboratory-archive – a mutation in the evolution of the wunderkammer and collector's room concepts – with countless artistic curiosities (perspectives) from a past that has become today's present.
/SAC @ Berthelot
The setup of a standard home is a deeply evocative portrait of the societal structure in a chosen moment of time, and how that period has moulded the human way of living. You are now an inhabitant in an anthropocenic home comprising 130 sqm in 5 General H. M. Berthelot Street, Bucharest, Romania. You may start to look for ways to build liveable environments within closed walls, environments that will function with the use of bacteria and plants, and our own bodies as resources.
/SAC @ Malmaison
Malmaison dormitory: exhibition / aggregation space for leaves and objects assembled from white profiles; support for a profile sketch of a new kind of everyday reality: the Anthropocene. 185x90x40 white modules arranged by a grid of washed cement, mixing system for approximately traditional expression mediums. Art flower shop or green gallery with 21 curiosities and a TV, among 192 plants taken 4 per shelf. One mention: do not pull the doorknob (it’s not interactive), the entrance is in the living room, through the backdoor.
MEDIA REFRENCES
Mihaela Ion, Contemporary Arts in Romania: Between remembering socialism and the images of reconstruction, Arte e Critica, ano XXI- no. 71, September 2024, ABCA- Associação Brasileira de Críticos de Arte
Raluca Oancea, Nature as Affect and Touch: A Collaboration Between Romanian and Austrian Artists, MOST Magazine, September 2, 2024
Raluca Oancea, Nature as Affect and Touch, 27 June 2024, Revista ARTA
Daria Ghiu, Arte frumoase. 18 mai 2024. Invitat: curatorul Alex Radu despre „Touch Nature”, Radio România Cultural
Cristiana Scarlătescu, „touch nature“ – „Natur muss man fühlen“, 24 May 2024, Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung für Rumänien
Marius Constantinescu ( with Suzana Dan, Dorothee Hasnaş, Maria Ghement, Alex Radu and Cristina Vainer as guests), Intrare liberă - "Degete Verzi" (la Rezidenţa9) și "Touch Nature" ( la /SAC), 14 Mai 2024, TVR CULTURAL - cultural channel of the Romanian Television
“Touch Nature” | Group show at /SAC @ Berthelot & @ Malmaison, 9 May 2024, empowerartists.org
Touch Nature la SAC, Spațiul de Artă Contemporană București (with Alex Radu as guest), 30 April 2024, 14:04, Radio România Cultural
Bogdan Stănescu (with Alex Radu and Andrei Popov as guests), Jurnal Cultural, 29 April 2024, TVR CULTURAL - cultural channel of the Romanian Television
Event by Forumul Cultural Austriac București
Touch Nature @ /SAC Bucharest | 35 de artiști români și austrieci în dialog despre un posibil viitor al planetei noastre, 23 April 2024, igloo.ro
Liana Ion, Touch Nature, explorare a rolului artei în abordarea crizei ecologice, în spațiile galeriei /SAC, 17 April 2024, curatoral.ro
curated by Sabine Fellner & Alex Radu
with an exhibition design by Justin Baroncea & Maria Ghement
Artists | Uli Aigner, Matei Bejenaru, Floriama Candea, Codruța Cernea, Adriana Chiruta, Ciprian Ciuclea, Larisa Crunțeanu, Anna Dumitriu & Alex May, Michael Endlicher, Thomas Feuerstein, Peter Hauenschild, Barbara Anna Husar, Nona Inescu, Kitty Kino, Aurora Kiraly, Alexandra Kontriner, Ana Maria Micu, Nicoleta Mureș, Klaus Pichler, Monika Pichler, PRINZpod, Oliver Ressler, Gregor Sailer, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Hans Schabus, Ramona Schnekenburger, Marielis Seyler, Paul Spendier, Oana Stanciu, Mircea Suciu, Dan Vezentan, Judith Wagner, Nives Widauer, Laurent Ziegler
1st Part of the Opening | 30 April 2024, 18:00-19:30, /SAC @ Berthelot, 5 Gen. H. M. Berthelot Street, Bucharest, RO
2nd Part of the Opening | 30 April 2024, 19:30-21:00, /SAC @ Malmaison, Calea Plevnei 137 C, Corp B Floor 2, Atelierele Malmaison, Bucharest, RO
Visiting schedule | 9 May - 29 June 2024, Thursday-Saturday, 16:00-20:00
Guided tour | 9 May 2024: first part 18:00 at /SAC @ Berthelot (Str. Gen. H. M. Berthelot, nr. 5), second part 20:00 at /SAC @ Malmaison (Calea Plevnei 137 C, Corp B Etaj 2, Atelierele Malmaison).
Artists talk - Anna Dumitriu & Alex May | 21 May 2024, 19:00 at /SAC Berthelot (Str. General H. M. Berthelot 5)
Guided tour of the Touch Nature exhibition, featuring artists from the group show: Anna Dumitriu & Alex May, Oliver Ressler, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Floriama Candea, Codruța Cernea, Ciprian Ciuclea and Aurora Kiraly | 22 May 2024, 19:00, starting at /SAC Berthelot (Str. General H. M. Berthelot 5) and will continue at /SAC Malmaison (Calea Plevnei 137C, Atelierele Malmaison, 2nd floor).
Two artist talks: with Elisabeth von Samsonow starting at 19:00, and with Oliver Ressler starting at 20:00 | 23 May 2024, /SAC Berthelot (Str. General H. M. Berthelot 5)
Guided tour with Justin Baroncea, Maria Ghement and Anne Lolea | 13 May 2024: first part 18:00 at /SAC @ Berthelot (Str. Gen. H. M. Berthelot, nr. 5), second part 19:30 at /SAC @ Malmaison (Calea Plevnei 137 C, Corp B Etaj 2, Atelierele Malmaison).
Finissage with performance | Saturday, 29 June 20024, georgia elza & d. sargan will perform „skillful hands but cannot hold water” at /SAC @ Berthelot, at 6PM. The two exhibition spaces (/SAC @ Berthelot – Str. Gen. H.M. Berthelor no. 5 & /SAC @ Malmaison – Calea Plevnei 137C) will be open from 5PM to 9PM.
Team /SAC | Andreea Chircă, Iulian Cristea, Lidia Dobrea, Anne Lolea, Elena Maxemciuc
Graphic design | Irina Radu
The exhibition is organised by /SAC Bucharest and the Austrian Cultural Forum, with the support of the Austrian Federal Ministry of European and International Affairs.
CURATORIAL STATEMENT
"Nature must be experienced through feeling."
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) ,
the father of climatology, ecology and oceanography
The continuous, unrestricted exploitation and increasingly market-driven economy of the resources and the widespread intervention of society upon the biologic, geologic and atmospheric processes of the Earth have not only led to a constantly expanding loss of unspoiled nature as an emotional resource but to the destruction of vital spaces, the extinction of species and to humanitarian, political and economic crises as well.
It has been a considerably long time that artists have dealt in their works with the interference between human beings and their environment, having visualised the fundamental and irreversible changes of our planet, the terrifying consequences of the Anthropocene. Numerous exhibitions are nowadays reacting on an international level to this urging problem of our times, trying to elucidate the fact that the subject matter of the environment has arrived in the contemporary art scene for a considerable period of time by now. In this context, “Touch Nature” is asking questions and seeking for answers to the fact that art has developed as being confronted with the increasing destruction, but also as a consequence of the escalating menace that nature represents for mankind.
In “Touch Nature” at /SAC, the works of Austrian and Romanian artists engage in a dialogue proposing a critical look at the profound transformation of our planetary ecosystem in the Anthropocene and examining the ecological crisis from different perspectives. Through specific artistic mediums, each contribution formulates its opposition against the exploitation of man and nature on a global level or projects hopeful visions regarding new human–non-human dynamics/compositions. Introspectively, the exhibition-installation becomes an immersion in the spectral diversity of attitudes, experiences and psycho-emotional reactions related to the devastating effects of the ecocidal Anthropocene: from activism to climate anxiety, solastalgia, melancholy, shadowtime, depression, abandonment, and back to imaginings of innovative sustainable solutions. Demonstrating through documentation, formulating protests and conceiving possible-but-which-may-seem utopian scenarios represent the fundamental methods of this artistic confrontations at /SAC.
The “Touch Nature” project, initiated by the Austrian Cultural Forum, with a concept proposed by the curator Sabine Fellner, is an itinerant exhibition approach presented in 11 countries in Europe and the United States. It brings forward an exploration of the role of art in questioning the increasingly severe ecological crisis through works by contemporary artists from Austria and each host country, always in an original, site-specific format adapted to each individual cultural context.
Part of the international journey of one of the largest and most challenging itinerant curatorial endeavours of its kind, the “Touch Nature” exhibition acquires in Bucharest a new interface between external and local contributions. Continuing a specific type research at /SAC, that of the (group) exhibition (space) as an medium in itself and meeting place implicitly approached collaboratively, the “Touch Nature” mise-en-scène is different from the practices/paradigms of white-cube, thus the exhibition design is conceived as an installation in itself, with its narratives connected to curatorial intentions. The exhibition takes place in both locations of /SAC, Berthelot and Malmaison – distinct spaces both in terms of architecture and context. Each setting/medium has a different story and (re)contextualises the works in the discourse, while still keeping a continuity between them, but also a surprising contrast. At Berthelot, we become residents of a standard house from an imagined future, while at Malmaison we get lost in a laboratory-archive – a mutation in the evolution of the wunderkammer and collector's room concepts – with countless artistic curiosities (perspectives) from a past that has become today's present.
/SAC @ Berthelot
The setup of a standard home is a deeply evocative portrait of the societal structure in a chosen moment of time, and how that period has moulded the human way of living. You are now an inhabitant in an anthropocenic home comprising 130 sqm in 5 General H. M. Berthelot Street, Bucharest, Romania. You may start to look for ways to build liveable environments within closed walls, environments that will function with the use of bacteria and plants, and our own bodies as resources.
/SAC @ Malmaison
Malmaison dormitory: exhibition / aggregation space for leaves and objects assembled from white profiles; support for a profile sketch of a new kind of everyday reality: the Anthropocene. 185x90x40 white modules arranged by a grid of washed cement, mixing system for approximately traditional expression mediums. Art flower shop or green gallery with 21 curiosities and a TV, among 192 plants taken 4 per shelf. One mention: do not pull the doorknob (it’s not interactive), the entrance is in the living room, through the backdoor.
MEDIA REFRENCES
Mihaela Ion, Contemporary Arts in Romania: Between remembering socialism and the images of reconstruction, Arte e Critica, ano XXI- no. 71, September 2024, ABCA- Associação Brasileira de Críticos de Arte
Raluca Oancea, Nature as Affect and Touch: A Collaboration Between Romanian and Austrian Artists, MOST Magazine, September 2, 2024
Raluca Oancea, Nature as Affect and Touch, 27 June 2024, Revista ARTA
Daria Ghiu, Arte frumoase. 18 mai 2024. Invitat: curatorul Alex Radu despre „Touch Nature”, Radio România Cultural
Cristiana Scarlătescu, „touch nature“ – „Natur muss man fühlen“, 24 May 2024, Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung für Rumänien
Marius Constantinescu ( with Suzana Dan, Dorothee Hasnaş, Maria Ghement, Alex Radu and Cristina Vainer as guests), Intrare liberă - "Degete Verzi" (la Rezidenţa9) și "Touch Nature" ( la /SAC), 14 Mai 2024, TVR CULTURAL - cultural channel of the Romanian Television
“Touch Nature” | Group show at /SAC @ Berthelot & @ Malmaison, 9 May 2024, empowerartists.org
Touch Nature la SAC, Spațiul de Artă Contemporană București (with Alex Radu as guest), 30 April 2024, 14:04, Radio România Cultural
Bogdan Stănescu (with Alex Radu and Andrei Popov as guests), Jurnal Cultural, 29 April 2024, TVR CULTURAL - cultural channel of the Romanian Television
Event by Forumul Cultural Austriac București
Touch Nature @ /SAC Bucharest | 35 de artiști români și austrieci în dialog despre un posibil viitor al planetei noastre, 23 April 2024, igloo.ro
Liana Ion, Touch Nature, explorare a rolului artei în abordarea crizei ecologice, în spațiile galeriei /SAC, 17 April 2024, curatoral.ro
MY WORKS WITHIN THE PROJECT
Ana Maria Micu, "To Heal You, I Hardly Know What to Do", 2023, installation of drawing and animation
Venue | /SAC @ Malmaison, Calea Plevnei 137 C, Corp B Floor 2, Atelierele Malmaison, Bucharest, RO
Opening | 30 April, 19:30-21:00 | opening /SAC @ Malmaison
Guided Tour | 9 May, 20:00 | Doi Joi at /SAC @ Malmaison
Guided tour of the Touch Nature exhibition, featuring artists from the group show: Anna Dumitriu & Alex May, Oliver Ressler, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Floriama Candea, Codruța Cernea, Ciprian Ciuclea and Aurora Kiraly | 22 May 2024, 19:00, starting at /SAC Berthelot (Str. General H. M. Berthelot 5) and will continue at /SAC Malmaison (Calea Plevnei 137C, Atelierele Malmaison, 2nd floor).
This installation of drawing and animation is inspired by a concrete situation I faced, of needing to discard a surplus of soil, accumulated as a result of practicing composting, within the limited space of a regular balcony in a block of flats. When I came to decide that I could not take it anywhere but to a forest, that was the moment when I was able to notice that the practical as well as moral implications, once considered, became overwhelming compared to the natural and direct relationship that we could have with a few lumps of fertile soil.
I decided to call my project "To Heal You, I Hardly Know What to Do". It is an expression I have been keeping written down for a long time, and now it seemed appropriate. It equates the physical action of emptying a bag that seems full of dark matter with the metaphor of eliminating negative emotions. I like the aspect that everything that is discontinuous and lacking sufficient structure, coming from the technique of animating with observational drawings, is explained, as if it were a confusion, by the obscure way in which I conduct myself, because I do not see a clear method to self-regulate.
The animation is obtained from successive sketches that I executed superimposed on the background representing the natural scene in which the action took place. To orient myself in reproducing the movement, I looked at stills from the film I recorded in the forest. After I finished photographing an instance, I deleted that sketch each time, completely or partially, depending on the rendering requirements of the next instance. The last frame in the animation is the drawing that I exhibit next to it. I see in this working method a way to search and find a specific image. The animation film documents the search process, which can always be accessed in parallel with the contemplation of the result. A reverse analysis, starting from the final drawing, reveals that it has a past, that it has a personal history, that something happened to it. And this implicates a future for the image as well, a complete personification that opens the work to a life of its own, beyond what I am able to do.
Ana Maria Micu, "To Heal You, I Hardly Know What to Do", 2023, installation of drawing and animation
Venue | /SAC @ Malmaison, Calea Plevnei 137 C, Corp B Floor 2, Atelierele Malmaison, Bucharest, RO
Opening | 30 April, 19:30-21:00 | opening /SAC @ Malmaison
Guided Tour | 9 May, 20:00 | Doi Joi at /SAC @ Malmaison
Guided tour of the Touch Nature exhibition, featuring artists from the group show: Anna Dumitriu & Alex May, Oliver Ressler, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Floriama Candea, Codruța Cernea, Ciprian Ciuclea and Aurora Kiraly | 22 May 2024, 19:00, starting at /SAC Berthelot (Str. General H. M. Berthelot 5) and will continue at /SAC Malmaison (Calea Plevnei 137C, Atelierele Malmaison, 2nd floor).
This installation of drawing and animation is inspired by a concrete situation I faced, of needing to discard a surplus of soil, accumulated as a result of practicing composting, within the limited space of a regular balcony in a block of flats. When I came to decide that I could not take it anywhere but to a forest, that was the moment when I was able to notice that the practical as well as moral implications, once considered, became overwhelming compared to the natural and direct relationship that we could have with a few lumps of fertile soil.
I decided to call my project "To Heal You, I Hardly Know What to Do". It is an expression I have been keeping written down for a long time, and now it seemed appropriate. It equates the physical action of emptying a bag that seems full of dark matter with the metaphor of eliminating negative emotions. I like the aspect that everything that is discontinuous and lacking sufficient structure, coming from the technique of animating with observational drawings, is explained, as if it were a confusion, by the obscure way in which I conduct myself, because I do not see a clear method to self-regulate.
The animation is obtained from successive sketches that I executed superimposed on the background representing the natural scene in which the action took place. To orient myself in reproducing the movement, I looked at stills from the film I recorded in the forest. After I finished photographing an instance, I deleted that sketch each time, completely or partially, depending on the rendering requirements of the next instance. The last frame in the animation is the drawing that I exhibit next to it. I see in this working method a way to search and find a specific image. The animation film documents the search process, which can always be accessed in parallel with the contemplation of the result. A reverse analysis, starting from the final drawing, reveals that it has a past, that it has a personal history, that something happened to it. And this implicates a future for the image as well, a complete personification that opens the work to a life of its own, beyond what I am able to do.
To Heal You, I Hardly Know What to Do, 2023, oil-based charcoal on toned canvas, 100 x 175 cm.
To Heal You, I Hardly Know What to Do,
47 frames animation made with charcoal and chalk, observational hand-drawn and erased on the same background,
13s, 3840x2160px, no audio, 2023
AP from Edition: 3 + AP
47 frames animation made with charcoal and chalk, observational hand-drawn and erased on the same background,
13s, 3840x2160px, no audio, 2023
AP from Edition: 3 + AP