July 14, 2009, 7 pm




Matei Bejenaru is an artist and initiator of Periferic Biennial in Iasi, Romania (www.periferic.org). Established in 1997 as a performance festival, Periferic transformed into an international contemporary art biennial defined as a platform for discussions on the historical, socio-political and cultural context of Iasi. Together with a group of artists and philosophers from Iasi, Matei Bejenaru founded in 2001 the Vector Association, a contemporary art institution which supported the local emerging art scene to become locally and internationally visible. He is also member of the edito rial staff of Vector – art and culture in context magazine, a publication that mainly analyses the regional artistic and cultural situation of the South East European countries, in the process of transition, and the Middle East region, subdued to the pressures of conflicts.

As an artist, he is engaged in analyzing the way globalization affects postcommunist countries labor force and rapidly changes mentalities and lifestyles. In 2003, for the second edition of the Tirana Biennial he installed a water post in the center of the city offering a free water distribution for Albanian inhabitants. In 2004, he initiated the cARTier project, a socio-cultural project aiming to regenerate a workers district from Iasi. In 2005, he published in the Idea Magazine and later exhibited at Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art in Vienna, a Travelling Guide for Romanian illegal workers. In 2007, he developed the project Impreuna/Together involving the Romanian community from UK and showed it at Tate Modern – Level 2 Gallery. In 2008 he participated in the Taipei Biennial where he presented the video Maersk Dubai, a documentary about the assassination of three Romanian immigrants.

Organizers:

[BLOK > – Local Base for Culture Refreshment & DeLVe | Institute for Duration, Location and Variables

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Micropolitics lecture series is a part of THE ART OF URBAN INTERVENTION, a project by < rotor > association for contemporary art/Graz, University of J. E. Purkyne/ Usti nad Labem, [BLOK > – Local Base for cultural refreshment/ Zagreb, The Blue House Foundation/ Amsterdam, Institute of ContemporaTry Art/ Sofia and NABA – New Academy of Fine Arts/ Milano.

THE ART OF URBAN INTERVENTION is supported by the Culture Programme of European Union.

Micropolitics lecture series is supported by: Ministry of Culture - Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb - City office for education, culture and sports

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Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic,
Subiceva 29, Zagreb