Today we’ll have a presentation with

Stefan Rusu

about his work starting at 19:00 in BOEM* Gallery.

 

Flat Space project

http://www.rhiz.eu/artefact-49172-en.html
FLAT SPACE project is a functional replica of a socialist apartment designed by Stefan RUSU commissioned by Oberliht Artist Association to represent the identity of KIOSK project.
The point of departure for the design of the FLAT SPACE project was to publicly display the private space of a flat limited by the standards of the socialist society, which is a strong visual element within the contemporary urban and social landscape of East European countries.

Initially the project was conceived as a structure with multiple meanings and functions. Given that architecture comes with a specific kind of well-defined functionality and aesthetics, I was initially concerned with overcoming the idea of fixed functionality.
This choice to replicate an apartment is informed by my interest in the spaces and contexts that define this region and community, which have emerged in their current form as a result of socialist modernization. The entire society of the MSSR (Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic) adapted to Soviet social standards—including the ideal of creating a new man and the cultivation of values that underscored the family as the building blocks of a homogeneous society. The designers and architects carried that policy forward, and thus typified habitats were created, in which a man and his family would live productively.
Another aspect motivating the project is an increasing factor of local gastarbeiters who work temporarily (some of them legally, but most of them illegally) either in Russia or in EU countries (Spain, Italy, Portugal, etc.). This employment situation is very common among the populations of other East European countries, and it drives the tendency of such workers to have a higher social status and possess their own living space in the city, regardless of size. For most of the population acquiring a flat is the most efficient financial investment they can make, and it rapidly become a sign of economic stability in the post-transition period.
The FLAT SPACE project is a functional replica of a one-room apartment that comprises the basic components of a typical socialist living space: the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, and the balcony. The transparency and openness of the structure is an important feature of the project, since the apartment has no external walls (with the exception of the façade), and the flat interior is exposed to the public. The furniture and other installments in the apartment are directly on the floor as a technical sketch.
The project is a sample of architecture born from urban planning—a living area extracted from a typified socialist building block and placed in public space, where it will function as an open space/platform. Finally, the primary material for the FLAT SPACE project was the reinforced concrete used in the fabrication of typified blockhouses. Although many modern technologies and materials were equally common in the socialist and capitalist systems, concrete and metal rebar were widely used in both Eastern and Western societies during the period of post-war modernization.

CHISINAU – Art, Research in the Public Sphere

http://www.art.md/2010/sfera_publica_en.html
The project aim is to explore the dominant institutional and political discourses that have shaped the society and the urban landscape of the city of Chisinau in the course of its recent history. CHISINAU – Art, Research in the Public Sphere is a cross-disciplinary platform that will investigate the connections between political and cultural symbols and propaganda and its impact on the urban environment, the interference between personal narratives and imported ideologies and cultural discourses in relation to the public sphere. The project components, theoretical seminar, practical workshops, interdisciplinary conference, will look deeply into the recent changes that have shaped the social and cultural environment in the 20 years following the fall of the Berlin wall and the demise of the socialist system. At regional policy level the project will create an opportunity for cross-cultural exchange and cooperation between contemporary art practitioners and experts from various fields (architects, designers, sociologists, culturologists) and between countries in the Balkans and around the Baltic Sea. The project participants will discuss former cultural differences and new realities, and will present their own challenges, to artists, cultural workers and the open public. Invitations will be extended to participants from the Balkan (Romania, Serbia, Macedonia) and Baltic (Lithuania and Estonia) countries, as well from other EU countries (France, Austria, Germany, Poland, The Netherlands) that experience or have experienced similar social and cultural processes and phenomena.
Final project presentation+Exhibition GUIDE:
http://www.art.md/2010/sfera_publica_prezentare_en.html

Stefan Rusu – artist, curator

(born in Kâietu, Moldova) based in Chisinau and Bucharest.

Stefan’s artist and curatorial agenda is closely connected to undergoing processes and changes occurred in the post-socialist societies after 1989. Among his preoccupations are the aspects of mass-manipulation techniques, political engineering strategies (political engineering), forms of colonization and culturalization that culminated in some cases with the construction of artificial entities, as it is the case of Republic of Moldova. Rusu was trained as visual artist and later extended his practice to curating, managing and fundraising projects, editing TV programs, producing experimental films, TV reports and documentaries.

Starting from the year 2000 he is involved in the evolution of KSAK Center for Contemporary Art from Chisinau in the frame of which he develops curatorial projects and art initiatives. In 2005/2006 he attended the Curatorial Training Program at Stichting De Appel from Amsterdam where he co-curated Mercury in Retrograde (http://mercuryinretrograde.deappel.nl/). In 2010 he was artist in residence at Centre International d’Accueil et d’Echanges des Récollets, Paris where he initiated curatorial research project – Drifting Identity Station, in the same year he was awarded a CEC Artslink Fellowship and completed the residence at Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice of California College of the Arts from San Francisco. His most recent curatorial project (completed in 2011) is CHISINAU – Art, Research in the Public Sphere – a cross-disciplinary platform that investigated the connections between political and cultural symbols and propaganda and its impact on the urban environment, the interferences between personal narratives and imported ideologies and cultural discourses in relation to the public sphere. The project aim was to explore the dominant institutional and political discourses that have shaped the society and the urban landscape of the city of Chisinau in the course of its recent history. (http://www.art.md/2010/sfera_publica_prezentare_en.html)

links to stefan: http://www.rhiz.eu/person-10677-en.html + http://vimeo.com/user1816220Today we’ll have a presentation with

Stefan Rusu

about his work starting at 19:00 in BOEM* Gallery.

Flat Space project

http://www.rhiz.eu/artefact-49172-en.html
FLAT SPACE project is a functional replica of a socialist apartment designed by Stefan RUSU commissioned by Oberliht Artist Association to represent the identity of KIOSK project.
The point of departure for the design of the FLAT SPACE project was to publicly display the private space of a flat limited by the standards of the socialist society, which is a strong visual element within the contemporary urban and social landscape of East European countries.

Initially the project was conceived as a structure with multiple meanings and functions. Given that architecture comes with a specific kind of well-defined functionality and aesthetics, I was initially concerned with overcoming the idea of fixed functionality.
This choice to replicate an apartment is informed by my interest in the spaces and contexts that define this region and community, which have emerged in their current form as a result of socialist modernization. The entire society of the MSSR (Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic) adapted to Soviet social standards—including the ideal of creating a new man and the cultivation of values that underscored the family as the building blocks of a homogeneous society. The designers and architects carried that policy forward, and thus typified habitats were created, in which a man and his family would live productively.
Another aspect motivating the project is an increasing factor of local gastarbeiters who work temporarily (some of them legally, but most of them illegally) either in Russia or in EU countries (Spain, Italy, Portugal, etc.). This employment situation is very common among the populations of other East European countries, and it drives the tendency of such workers to have a higher social status and possess their own living space in the city, regardless of size. For most of the population acquiring a flat is the most efficient financial investment they can make, and it rapidly become a sign of economic stability in the post-transition period.
The FLAT SPACE project is a functional replica of a one-room apartment that comprises the basic components of a typical socialist living space: the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, and the balcony. The transparency and openness of the structure is an important feature of the project, since the apartment has no external walls (with the exception of the façade), and the flat interior is exposed to the public. The furniture and other installments in the apartment are directly on the floor as a technical sketch.
The project is a sample of architecture born from urban planning—a living area extracted from a typified socialist building block and placed in public space, where it will function as an open space/platform. Finally, the primary material for the FLAT SPACE project was the reinforced concrete used in the fabrication of typified blockhouses. Although many modern technologies and materials were equally common in the socialist and capitalist systems, concrete and metal rebar were widely used in both Eastern and Western societies during the period of post-war modernization.

CHISINAU – Art, Research in the Public Sphere

http://www.art.md/2010/sfera_publica_en.html
The project aim is to explore the dominant institutional and political discourses that have shaped the society and the urban landscape of the city of Chisinau in the course of its recent history. CHISINAU – Art, Research in the Public Sphere is a cross-disciplinary platform that will investigate the connections between political and cultural symbols and propaganda and its impact on the urban environment, the interference between personal narratives and imported ideologies and cultural discourses in relation to the public sphere. The project components, theoretical seminar, practical workshops, interdisciplinary conference, will look deeply into the recent changes that have shaped the social and cultural environment in the 20 years following the fall of the Berlin wall and the demise of the socialist system. At regional policy level the project will create an opportunity for cross-cultural exchange and cooperation between contemporary art practitioners and experts from various fields (architects, designers, sociologists, culturologists) and between countries in the Balkans and around the Baltic Sea. The project participants will discuss former cultural differences and new realities, and will present their own challenges, to artists, cultural workers and the open public. Invitations will be extended to participants from the Balkan (Romania, Serbia, Macedonia) and Baltic (Lithuania and Estonia) countries, as well from other EU countries (France, Austria, Germany, Poland, The Netherlands) that experience or have experienced similar social and cultural processes and phenomena.
Final project presentation+Exhibition GUIDE:
http://www.art.md/2010/sfera_publica_prezentare_en.html

Stefan Rusu – artist, curator

(born in Kâietu, Moldova) based in Chisinau and Bucharest.

Stefan’s artist and curatorial agenda is closely connected to undergoing processes and changes occurred in the post-socialist societies after 1989. Among his preoccupations are the aspects of mass-manipulation techniques, political engineering strategies (political engineering), forms of colonization and culturalization that culminated in some cases with the construction of artificial entities, as it is the case of Republic of Moldova. Rusu was trained as visual artist and later extended his practice to curating, managing and fundraising projects, editing TV programs, producing experimental films, TV reports and documentaries.

Starting from the year 2000 he is involved in the evolution of KSAK Center for Contemporary Art from Chisinau in the frame of which he develops curatorial projects and art initiatives. In 2005/2006 he attended the Curatorial Training Program at Stichting De Appel from Amsterdam where he co-curated Mercury in Retrograde (http://mercuryinretrograde.deappel.nl/). In 2010 he was artist in residence at Centre International d’Accueil et d’Echanges des Récollets, Paris where he initiated curatorial research project – Drifting Identity Station, in the same year he was awarded a CEC Artslink Fellowship and completed the residence at Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice of California College of the Arts from San Francisco. His most recent curatorial project (completed in 2011) is CHISINAU – Art, Research in the Public Sphere – a cross-disciplinary platform that investigated the connections between political and cultural symbols and propaganda and its impact on the urban environment, the interferences between personal narratives and imported ideologies and cultural discourses in relation to the public sphere. The project aim was to explore the dominant institutional and political discourses that have shaped the society and the urban landscape of the city of Chisinau in the course of its recent history. (http://www.art.md/2010/sfera_publica_prezentare_en.html)

links to stefan: http://www.rhiz.eu/person-10677-en.html + http://vimeo.com/user1816220