CV // Works - Alexandru Patatics / media artist

Alexandru Patatics

media artist

Alexandru is born in 1963 in Timişoara and completes his studies at the Visual Arts Academy in Cluj. Upon his return to Timişoara he teaches at the local Arts Highschool for a brief period. At the same time he participates in the “Zona Est” International Performance Festival curated by Ileana Pintilie in 1993 and in the same year one of his projects is selected for the first Romanian exhibition of video-installations “Ex Oriente Lux” organized by the SCCA (Soros Centre for Contemporary Arts) in Bucharest under the artistic patronage of Călin Dan, where he is awarded one of the project’s prizes by an international jury.

Alexandru Patatics ‐ Titleless („no title” ‐ fragment) / Ex Oriente Lux, Sala Dalles, Bucureşti, 24.11‐20.12.1993

Starting with 1994 he participates in numerous exhibitions and projects dedicated to video art and new media and technology – Minima Media ’94, Medienbienalle Leipzig, Germany (where he is awarded a short span scholarship for the conception of his project at the ZKM, Zentrum für Künst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe with the aid of the renowned theorist, curator and media art critic Dieter Daniels.

Work in progress / MedienBiennale Leipzig '94 / Kunsthalle Buntgarnwerke – Leipzig, Germania, 22.10‐01.11.1994

In 1995 he is invited to the “Spotkania Krakowiskie – Krakowian Meetings”, BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Krakow, Poland, then he participates in a project called “Unter Anderen – Among Others” which took place in Dortmund, Germany and Gent, Belgium.

Sound environment – (montage) / Among Others, Kunstlerhause – Dortmund, Germania, 18.06.1995

Sound environment / Among Others, Kunstlerhause – Dortmund, Germania, 18.06.1995 In 1996 he takes part in the “XXIII São Paulo Bienalle” in São Paulo, Brazil with a project financed by the SCCA, The Soros Centre for Contemporary Arts in Bucharest.

Transitions / XXIII Sao Paulo Bienalle, Sao Paulo – Brazil, 05.10 ‐ 08.12.1996

Insignificant events / Ad Hoc, Ludwig Museum Budapesta ‐ Ungaria ‐ 16.10‐16.11.1997

In 1997 he participates with a video-installation project at the “Ad Hoc – Romanian art today” exhibition at the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, Hungary with the help of Art Expo in Bucharest.

During the very same year another one of his media video-installation projects functionally incorporating the medium of computer networks (Internet, that is) is proposed by the critic and media curator Keiko Sei for the media biennial exhibition in Tokyo. The project was finalized and exhibited during the “ICC Biennale ’97” in Tokyo at the Intercommunication Center in Japan.

Step to word... / video mix ‐ ICC Bienalle '97, NTT InterCommunication Center Tokyo ‐ Japan ‐ 25.10‐07.12.1997

Owing to the fact that this was one of the most elaborate objectual media installations of the artist, the work was noticed by Jeffrey Shaw an artist, critic and media curator, the manager of the ZKM, Karlsruhe at the time, who subsequently proposes that the work should be showed at the “Net_Condition” exhibition as well between 1999 and 2000 at the ZKM, Zentrum für Künst und Medientechnology, Karlsruhe in Germany.

In 1998 he takes part in the “SEAFair ‘98” workshop organized by the Soros Center of Contemporary Arts in Skopje, Macedonia. At a exhibitional level he participates with a mixed-media video installation (real time and pre-taped) in the project “Trans(it)formation” organized by the Tranzit Foundation in Cluj, Romania.

insignificant events (II) / Trans(it)formation, "Transit Foundation" ‐ Cluj ‐ Romania 01.10‐02.10.1998

In 1999 he contributes a video exhibit to the “Biennale di Venezia 48” a show at the Instituto Romeno di Ricerca e Cultura Umanistica in Venice curated by Horea Avram.

In 2000 he participates in two national exhibitional projects: in the “Periferic 4” festival in Iaşi and “Transitionland” a project of the National Art Museum in Bucharest. His international contributions of the same year include the presentation of a video installation on 5 screens in Berlin at the IFA Galleries, a collaboration in the “Communication Front 2000” project in Bulgaria and another media exhibit project in Skalice, Slovakia called “MEDZI” (between) curated by Keiko Sei.

“Teaspoonful (video tape installation)” ‐ Skalice, 2000, Slovak From 2000 onwards he launches an interactive communication channel for the Romanian contemporary art in the form of nettime-ro, a debate list and information source on the Internet aimed at artists, critics and curators alike in collaboration with the European nettime lists enlisting the aid of the renowned Dutch media artist Geert Lovink. At the same time he sets up the F O R M A T foundation in order to have an institutional basis for launching various visual projects some aimed at students and some at young artists.

Nettime home page (www.nettime.org)

In 2001 he is the winner of the curatorial contest for a Romanian participation in the 49th Biennial in Venice organized by the Romanian Ministry of Culture. This project was called “CONTEXT” and the artist has managed to invite an important group of artists from Romania and abroad to participate in a collaborative media exhibit at Romania’s Pavilion in Venice.

Alexandru Patatics – insert CONTEXT ‐ 2001, Romanian pavilion in Venice ‐ 49 International Exhibition

KISSPAL Szabolcs – insert Context ‚Dance’ ‐ 2001, Romanian pavilion in Venice ‐ 49 International Exhibition

From 2002 onwards he directs his artistic activity and interests towards the development of other collaborative projects. Some of them involve the students at the Audiovisual Art Faculty in Timişoara with whom he organizes the exhibition “Night Shot Series” – at the 2/2 Bastion gallery, a project with several experimental shows every night over a two-week timespan.

In 2003 he participates with a video work in the project <personal places> in Venice; the installation is also exhibited in Romania at a workshop and exhibitional project organized in Târgu Mureş.

In 2004 he organizes two visual projects directed towards artistic fruition of an experience with introspective psychological connotations, deeply personalized in character. The two projects are called “Black-Out” – installed at the “point gallery” in Timişoara together with the artist Sorin Vreme; “Black-Out” is afterwards presented in Bucharest at the “Galeria Nouă” as a personal exhibition only comprising the artist’s projects themed in this particular way and two short videos intended for DVD purposes are added to this project.

“Black‐Out” – installation “point gallery” Timişoara

In 2004-2005 he becomes assistant professor at the National Beaux Arts University in Bucharest in Photo-Video Arts Department and he moves to Bucharest. In parallel with his academic activity and in close relation to it he develops a few interdisciplinary collaborative projects involving students. “RuBiK” is a project initiated for creating a video section for the collaborative-collective novel of the same title launched by the writer Simona Popescu for the students at the Faculty of Letters in Bucharest, which ultimately involved a group of students from the Photo-Video Arts department of the National Beaux-Arts University in Bucharest. The project never materialized in an independent full-length movie format but has produced numerous video and multimedia materials that were used at the book launch of the novel.

He undertakes another visual project with the help of the Pro Helvetia Foundation at the National Dance Center in the form of an experimental workshop V_BODY_GENERATOR which was presented as a public video performance show 1/2/3/4. The programme of this project proposed a collaborative effort of a mixed group of dancers, choreographers and visual artists reunited under the aegis of creating a performative action disseminated in parallel in real time and on pre-taped and mixed segments during the show.

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 ‐ Poster of the show

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 ‐ video‐performance, Ronda hall TNB, National Dance Center

In 2007 another experimental project follows, “T_A_K_E_S” is built along the lines of a mixed team of artists (with the participation of students), a team not unlike a “set team”, in a studio-set situated in a performative location.

This project has been publicly presented in its first embodiment at TestPoint, a club in Bucharest, then it received one of the Promocult grants offered by the Romanian Ministry of Culture in Bucharest. The project toured various locations abroad at the Millenaris Jovo haza/ Cultural Center in Budapest, Hungary, then it was presented at the Hochschüle für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, Germany and in a DVD documentary video format it went to Kunsthøgskolen i Bergen Akademiet KHIB in Bergen, Norway.

T_A_K_E_S ‐ image from the program of the experimental filming for the project

T_A_K_E_S ‐ poster of the project / Millenaris , Budapesta

T_A_K_E_S ‐ the poster of the event / Millenaris , Budapesta

In 2008, the artist curates the video exhibition of the Romanian artists selected by the Romanian Ministry of Culture to show their works at the “Bed” Beijing during the Romanian Cultural Olympics “Romania Week Beijing 2008”.

The artist personally participates at this event with a HD-video installation called “P.O.V. (point of view)” made for a Blu-Ray Disk format.

Alexandru Patatics, 3 channel HD video project

“P.O.V. (point of view)”, frame capture – HD video / Blu-Ray Disk

“P.O.V. (point of view)”, single channel frame capture – HD video / Blu-Ray Disk The work was conceived and shot during the NATO SUMMIT 2008 in Bucharest, when extremely security measures were taken. The University of Arts, and other institutional buildings located in the city center were closed or had supervised entrances. The nearby streets and backyards went through a strange period of acalmy due to a feeling of ‚being supervised’ .. I tried to explore with the camera those ipotetic P.O.V.s (point of view)* * A point of view shot also known as POV shot or a subjective camera is a short film scene that shows what a character (the subject) is looking at (represented through the camera). In literature and storytelling, a point of view is the related to the experience of the narrator — not that of the author. (Wikipedia)

The policy of a neutral point of view, usually caused disputes which may simply depend on the balance of points of views.

Alexandru Patatics