IEEB5
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?
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.
Spaces:
Mogosoaia Cultural Center
• the Main Exhibition
• Romanian Experimental Printmaking
Victoria Art Center, Bucharest
• 4 Country Pavilions, 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
Soon we will announce the curators of IEEB5
