[Nettime-nl] Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor, Surplus Value at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht

["PR BAK, basis voor actuele kunst" <pr@bak-utrecht.nl>]

*Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor *
Surplus Value
6 September-9 November 2009

Opening: Saturday 5 September
16.00--19.00 hrs

BAK, basis voor actuele kunst,
Lange Nieuwstraat 4, Utrecht
www.bak-utrecht.nl


From 6 September to 9 November 2009 BAK, basis voor actuele kunst 
presents the exhibition Surplus Value by Romanian artists Mona Vatamanu 
and Florin Tudor.

The most comprehensive overview of the artist duo's work to date, 
Surplus Value investigates their critical engagement with defining 
issues of today such as collective memory and amnesia, the formulation 
of artistic agency, and the politics of representation. Vatamanu and 
Tudor's broad-reaching practice has positioned them among the most 
compelling and literate interpreters of our contemporary post-communist 
condition, which extends far beyond their native Romania. The exhibition 
centers upon a number of major new productions that reflect on the 
current global situation and are grounded in the discourse articulated 
by the artists throughout the past decade. The new productions on view 
include Calea [The Path], an installation consisting of tons of rusted 
shredded metal spread onto the exhibition floor and Lingouri de rugina 
[Rust Ingots], a pile of ingots produced from shredded metal, both 
poignant meditations on the vagaries of profit and value, accumulation 
and loss. Plus valoarea [Surplus Value], a new film that gave the name 
to and set the tone for the exhibition, documents the whittling down of 
a piece of metal to nothing. These works are put into dialogue with a 
selection of Vatamanu and Tudor's older pieces, among which Vacaresti 
(2006), Das Kapital [Capital] (2007), and August (2004--2007) and with 
the series Intalnire cu Istoria [Appointment with History], 2007--2009, 
which includes new paintings made for this exhibition. Surplus Value is 
curated by Cosmin Costinas.

On the occasion of the exhibition, BAK presents the first monograph on 
the artists' work, Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor, published by BAK and 
post editions, Rotterdam. This major publication includes extensive 
images of their work since 2000 and four newly commissioned texts by 
Cosmin Costinas (writer and curator BAK, Utrecht), Vivian Rehberg (art 
historian and art critic, Paris), David Riff (art critic and artist, 
Moscow), and Georg Schöllhammer (curator and editor-in-chief of 
Springerin, Vienna). The publication also contains an in-depth interview 
between the artists and Bucharest-based independent curator and writer 
Mihnea Mircan. The monograph is edited by Cosmin Costinas and Jill Winder.

Surplus Value is the first research exhibition within the long-term 
project Former West, an international research, education, publishing, 
and exhibition undertaking (2008--2013). For more information, please 
visit www.formerwest.org.

Mona Vatamanu (born 1968) and Florin Tudor (born 1974) work together 
since 2000. Their artistic practice spans diverse media including film, 
photography, painting, performance, and site-specific projects. Their 
work has been included in numerous international exhibitions including 
(selection): Blind Spots, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Vienna, 
2009; 5th Berlin Biennial, Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, 
Berlin, 2008; Like an Attali Report, but different. On fiction and 
political imagination, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, 2008; Since we last 
spoke about monuments, Stroom Den Haag, The Hague, 2008; and Low-Budget 
Monuments, 52nd Venice Biennial, Romanian Pavilion, Venice, 2007. Among 
other exhibitions and projects this fall, Vatamanu and Tudor will have a 
solo presentation at the Graphisches Kabinett, Secession, Vienna. On the 
occasion of the Surplus Value exhibition and the monograph the artists 
took part in BAK's Research-in-Residence program. Vatamanu and Tudor 
live and work in Bucharest.


BAK Opening hours:
Wednesday-Saturday 12.00-17.00 hrs
Sunday 13.00-17.00 hrs


For further information please contact:
BAK, basis voor actuele kunst
Lange Nieuwstraat 4
3512 PH Utrecht
t: +31 (0)30 2316125
f: +31 (0)30 2304866
e: info@bak-utrecht.nl

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BAK, basis voor actuele kunst
postbus/P.O. box 19288  3501 DG Utrecht NL
bezoekadres/visiting address: Lange Nieuwstraat 4, 3512 PH Utrecht NL
T: +31 (0)30 2316125 F: +31 (0)30 2304866
E: info@bak-utrecht.nl  URL: www.bak-utrecht.nl

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