Experimental Project

About IEEB5 at Café critique (Bucharest, Club A, May 10th, 2012)

Cafe critique proposed on 10th of May a presentation of the 5th edition of the International Experimental Engraving Biennial (IEEB). The guests of the evening were the curator of the main exhibition of the Biennial, the British critic Richard Noyce and Adrian Guţă, the curator of the Romanian exhibition of IEEB5. The entire program of the IEEB5 was presented by the Biennial team: Ciprian Ciuclea, director of IEEB and president of EPA, Olivia Niţiş, curator and vice president of EPA, Andreea Micu, projects manager & communication IEEB.

Host: Ion Bogdan Lefter

OMV, the main sponsor of IEEB5

For the first time OMV supports contemporary art in Romania
Move and more. In its role as an international, integrated oil and gas company, OMV adheres to this mission statement not only by securing tomorrow’s energy supplies, but also by assuming social responsibility – through sponsorship activities in sports and culture as well as in supporting corporate sustainability projects. In cultural sponsorship, OMV focuses on cultural exchange between its core markets Austria, Romania and Turkey, in the field of contemporary fine arts.
The International Experimental Engraving Biennial IEEB5 is an ambitious art project that focuses on young art by presenting art positions from Central and Eastern Europe faced with North America and Western Europe. Amongst others, special attention will be given to contemporary Austrian art, which will be shown at the Victoria Art Center in Bucharest. As the main sponsor of IEEB5, OMV looks forward to contribute to this dialogue.
Further information: www.omv.ro/sponsorizari

IEEB 5 Concept

IEEB chose to focus until now on the general aspects of experimental printmaking with an extended vision even from the geographic point of view. This was meant to answer to the imperative needs of making a statement as a reaction to the current status of printmaking around the world, seen by far as a traditional technique and unintegrated to the contemporary art movement.
After 4 fulfilling editions, with positive reactions from artists, curators and theoreticians, we have decided that a more focused edition in terms of concept and of a well-defined geographic area could provide important results on the analysis of the role of experimental printmaking and experiment with the use of printmaking within a certain cultural and socio-political context.
Therefore the 5th edition of IEEB will pay attention to Central and Eastern Europe contemporary printmaking faced with its Western counterpart (North America and Western Europe).

IEEB5 will address a few important questions:

• What are (if there are) the conceptual and aesthetic differences and similarities between these areas reflected through the well-known West-East paradigm?
• Does contemporary printmaking reflect its socio-political past and does the westernization of Eastern Europe after the fall of the communist regime contribute to the definition of a new cultural identity?
• Does the complex of being a former communist society influence the relationship between Eastern and Western artists?
• How is printmaking in Eastern Europe still linked to its useful function of multiplying and spreading information in favor of a political system or against it?
• Is the utilitarian function through technique, even considering its subversive message, responsible for cutting off printmaking from the mainstream?
• Seen merely as a technique why is printmaking less important than the other techniques of contemporary art, which are in fact not regarded as such?

Spaces:

Mogosoaia Cultural Center
• the Main Exhibition (curator: Richard Noyce)
• Romanian Experimental Printmaking (curator: Adrian Guta)
Victoria Art Center, Bucharest
• 3 Country Pavilions (Austria, Poland, Hungary), curator Olivia Nitis (RO)
Atelier 030202, Bucharest
• Digigraphic Studio (new techniques in printmaking)
Contemporary Art Gallery of the National Brukenthal Museum in Sibiu
• Contemporary artists

Period:

December 8, 2012 - February 28, 2013 

Biennial Guidelines:

IEEB presents a useful reflection on the current situation of graphic arts with an accent on experiment in the image multiplying techniques and also on the innovation of graphic expression and its place in contemporary times. Following the process of the previous editions, IEEB will present works of serial art made by mechanical, digital reproduction, classic but re-contextualized printing techniques, computer based technologies, video interventions linked to the printing process, printed objects, book objects, installations or video actions/performances of new ways of printing, multiplying, deteriorating or modifying images. Seriality and reproducibility are key notions. Woodcut, metal printing techniques, linocut, silkscreen and so on will receive a special attention only when connected to a conceptual, experimental discourse, with substance and ideas. We promote and sustain the experiment in printmaking, new printing solutions and techniques, the dialogue with the three-dimensional or with the creation of objects through printmaking techniques, serial works, installations with the use of engraving and/or engraved objects. Combinatory techniques, unconventional supports, objects and ready-mades with print interventions, engraving collages, digital prints and other possible printing methods, approaching engraving three-dimensionally, process video-recordings form concept to printed result are all encouraged. Printmaking as an instrument of documenting the social experiment, scientific or interdisciplinary areas, is welcomed.

Richard Noyce (UK) - the main curator of IEEB5

Born 01/09/1944, Chichester, England. Graduated with Honours, Leeds College of Art 1968.

Richard Noyce is well known as a writer and speaker on the contemporary arts, with an emphasis on printmaking. He has over the past thirty or more years written reviews and features on artists and exhibitions for a number of British and European magazines, and in addition four books, including two well received books, ‘Contemporary Painting in Poland’ (1995) and ‘Contemporary Graphic Art in Poland’ (1997), and two successful books on international contemporary printmaking, ‘Printmaking at the Edge’ (2006, reprinted 2008) and ‘Critical Mass - Printmaking Beyond the Edge’ (2010), which together feature the work of 95 international artists. In addition he commissioned and edited a major part of the 2008 Grapheion Yearbook involving contributions from 52 artists from all over the world. He is currently researching for his next book, ‘Printmaking Off the Beaten Track’, for publication in 2013. He has participated as a juror in major printmaking and drawing competitions in the UK, Poland, the Czech Republic, Greece and Spain, and has lectured widely at universities, colleges and print centres in the UK, North America, Europe and South-East Asia. He has also participated in a large number of international printmaking conferences in Europe and North America, as an individual speaker, a panel member and a panel chair. In 2011 he was the selector for the Wrexham Print International in North Wales, one of the guest selectors for BITE in London, and the Curator for the 4th International Print Exhibition in Istanbul. In 2012 he will be the Curator for the main exhibition of the 5th International Experimental Engraving Biennial in Mogosoaia, Romania. In addition he has in the past exhibited his own drawings and photographs, and has curated a number of exhibitions of contemporary printmaking. He is currently working (when other commitments allow) on digital prints.

Richard Noyce lives in Wales.

Adrian Guta (RO) - the curator of Romanian parallel exhibition of IEEB5

Adrian Guţă, PhD, is an art historian and critic. As associate professor, he is the Dean of the Faculty of Art History and Theory of the National University of Arts from Bucharest, Romania (2001–2004 and since 2008). An editor-in-chief of Arta (New Series), a review edited by the Fine Artists’ Union of Romania (2000–2001). A co-curator of the Romanian presence at the Venice Art Biennial (1997). He published the volume Generaţia ’80 în artele vizuale / 80s Generation in the Visual Arts (2008). He writes studies, essays reviews and articles on Romanian contemporary art, issued in art publications, cultural periodicals, books and catalogues printed in Romania and abroad (since 1980).