Three projects by Romanian artists presented at the Venice Biennale

Projects by artists Adina Pintilie, Alexandra Pirici and Eugen Raportoru will be showcased at this year’s edition of the Venice Biennale, set to open on April 23, the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) announced.

Adina Pintilie’s Tu eşti un alt eu - O catedrală a corpului/You Are Another Me-A Cathedral of the Body, selected to represent the country at the 59th Biennale, will open on April 21 at Romania's Pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale. It can be visited by the public between April 23 and November 27.

The project, curated by Cosmin Costinaş and Viktor Neumann, represents “a new phase in the research project on intimacy and corporality, in several languages and artistic disciplines, initiated by Adina Pintilie in 2010 and manifested previously in cinema with the 2018 feature Touch Me Not.”

The project consists of a nine-channel video installation built around the artist’s community of collaborators, coming from various countries, generations, and environments: performers Hermann Müller and Dirk Lange, active in promoting the rights of people with disabilities, actress and acting teacher Laura Benson, transgender activist Hanna Hofmann, joined by Adina Pintilie. The protagonists “explore intimacy together, and connect to one another through conversation, care, dance or touch.”

The second project is Encyclopedia of Relations by Alexandra Pirici, who, alongside more than 200 artists from all over the world, is included in the Biennale’s main exhibition, The Milk of Dreams, curated by Cecilia Alemani.

The third project is Eugen Raportoru: The Abduction from the Seraglio and Roma Women: Performative Strategies of Resistance, curated by Ilina Schileru and commissioned by the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC). It includes the paintings and in situ installations exhibition grouped under the title The Abduction from the Seraglio and other connected events under the headline Roma Women: Performative Strategies of Resistance.

(Photo: You Are Another Me-A Cathedral of the Body, courtesy of Manekino Cultural Association)