The Apartment from The Victory of Socialism Boulevard
intervention in the public space, 2018
Statement
“I recently walked along Bld. Unirii, where I really live in an
apartment. I obtained it from the Romanian state at the beginning
of the 90s, when I settled in Bucharest and obtained Romanian
citizenship. Before I came to Romania, I lived in Leningrad (St.
Petersburg) where I studied monumental sculpture. I had already
been a student at the I.E. Repin Academy of Arts when I watched at
the news (the VREMEA program) images of the Victory of Socialism
boulevard (today Bld. Unirii) in construction, taken from TVR and
transmitted as part of the disconcerting events from December
1989. I could not imagine that, within a few years, I would live
on that boulevard.
The fact that the apartment is located on a boulevard conceived
and built during the socialist era meant a permanent interest in
the investigation of the symbolic meanings, the living standards
and the relationship between residential blocks and the House of
the People. The relationship between the plan of the apartment
(single room) and the House of People (1: 1) is a starting point
for my participation in the seminar and exhibition titled
“Property”. The essential element is the relationship between the
private space of the apartment and the public space of the House
of People, the meaning of which can be changed by overlapping the
plans. The space of the House of People, where the Romanian
Parliament is located, is today restricted for security reasons
and limited to the public, while the space of an apartment can
become public and open to everyone.
The intervention in tranzit.ro space in Iasi is an investigation
of the relationship between the public space and the private
space, thus overlapping the apartment’s plan over the tranzit
space produces tension between the two types of property. “
(Ştefan Rusu, April 2018)
The Apartment from The Victory of Socialism Boulevard is part of “The Property / Proprietate exhibition and seminar coordinated by the artist and curator Noa Treister.
press-release
20/06/–20/08/2018
PROPERTY / PROPRIETATE
Group exhibition with Mona Vătămanu & Florin Tudor, Ștefan
Rusu, Andrei Nacu
20 June - 20 August 2018
Opening: Wednesday, 20th of August 2018, 8 pm
Visiting programme: Monday to Friday, 12 pm
- 4 pm
tranzit.ro/ Iaşi
Al. Lăpuşneanu St. No. 7-9
“The Property / Proprietate exhibition brings
together three works of contemporary art by Mona Vătămanu &
Florin Tudor, Ștefan Rusu and Andrei Nacu. By re-contextualizing
and re-circulating works of art made a long time ago and in
radically different contexts, but also through new commissions,
the current exhibition proposes a new methodology of questioning
the ideological positions assumed by the authors in relation to
the purpose of their action in the public sphere. Property
/ Proprietate aims at initiating a new moment of
reflection, a moment that is encouraged also by the participation
of the invited artists at the homonymous seminar coordinated by
the artist and curator Noa Treister and realized with other
artists, activists or cultural workers.
The workshop will discuss the issue of the relation between
individuality (individual creativity, invention, innovation,
entrepreneurship, authorship) as private property and privileges
(rights) in the form of physical and intellectual property and
creation, knowledge, production as a social relation in the form
of collective property, commons or socially owned property.” (Noa
Treister)
List of works:
Mona Vătămanu & Florin Tudor: Land
distribution, installation, 2010-2014
Ștefan Rusu: The apartment from the
Victory of Socialism Boulevard, intervention in the public
space, 2018
Andrei Nacu: In almost every frame,
artist book, 2016
Curated by Livia Pancu & Florin
Bobu
More info about the project and the exhibition here and here.
The current exhibition is part of DREPTURI, LIBERTĂȚI, PRIVILEGII
(RIGHTS, FREEDOMS, PRIVILEGES), a project organized by 1+1 and
tranzit.ro/ Iași and co-funded by the Administration of the
National Cultural Fund. This project does not necessarily
represent the position of The Administration of the National
Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the
project or how project results can be used. These are entirely the
responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.