- Pictures
- Video
Ana Kun is a visual artist from Timișoara, a city in today's Romania, also called "little Vienna". Since November, she has been living and working in cooperation with tranzit.org / ERSTE Foundation as an Artist-in-Residence at MuseumsQuartier Vienna, presenting part of her artistic research in an online talk on the 16th of December, at 6 PM.
During her stay in Vienna, she explores the way Timișoara and the Banat region were presented in the capital of the Habsburg Empire, through various objects from imperial collections that are now exhibited in local museums, private archives and personal histories. The questions to be answered are the following: Was Timișoara/Banat part of the imperial propaganda? Is "Timișoara, Little Vienna" just an unproblematic heritage, a local infatuation or a city branding? What is missing in this image? To what extent is it all still relevant today?
The lecture and Q&A session will be in English.
Zoom-Link: https://bit.ly/31WEJRI
Meeting-ID: 841 7253 6206
Code: 046240
“I wish to explore Vienna in relation to my hometown Timisoara, dubbed “Little Vienna” during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As someone who’s born and lives in Timisoara, I feel this identity mark shaped my relationship to both Timisoara and Vienna in ways I am yet to understand. I want to use this opportunity to look into it, critically.
Is this sentimental name perpetuated in my town in the last hundred years just an unproblematized legacy, local infatuation, or city branding? In what ways does the capital of Austria have a connection to a town at the edge of its former empire, a link in people’s consciousness, or popular culture? How is the 18th century colonization and annexation by the former empire being viewed by people living nowadays in its capital? Is the art produced at the time in Vienna in any way related to the mythos of my hometown? But it's not just old water under the bridge that interests me, I wish to look into nowadays migration, by getting in contact with Romanians (and others) living or working in Vienna. I expect most of the subjects will develop while I’m there. I am interested in todays’ sentiments towards the old empire and its old plagues, both literal and figurative. I plan to do this exploratory research both formally and informally, and produce a collection of drawings and texts, not aiming at a unifying statement but more at presenting a dated and sentimental issue in a way which is both critical and humorous.” (Ana Kun)
About the artist:
Solo Exhibitions:
2021: ”Metreage, performance with a drawing”, White Cuib (artist run space), Cluj-Napoca, RO
2020: ”← FRAGIL →, Indecis” (artist run space), Timișoara, RO
2019: ”Guten Tag! Mugur Călinescu”, collaboration with TypopassageTM, Typopassage Type Museum, Tinereții Bridge Passage, Timișoara, RO
2017: „Mulți oameni, multe lucruri” („Many People, Lots of Things”), Studio Alert (artist run space), Bucharest, RO
2016: ”Pa&Pu” („Goodbye & Goodluck”), Pygmalion Gallery, Timişoara, RO
2015: ”The Absolute Pig and the Healing Map of Circus Dreitausend”, Circus Dreitausend (artist run space), Karlsruhe, DE
2014: ”IS THIS A PICTURE OR AM I SUPPOSED TO READ IT?”, Luis Leu (artist run space), Karlsruhe, DE
Balamuc group projects:
2019: ”AER” (”AIR”, collective zine), ArtEncounters Biennial (the Publication Platform section), Timişoara, RO
2018: ”Norma Globulară” (”The Globular Norm”), Mad(e) in Romania Political Festival, Pygmalion Gallery, Timișoara, RO
2017: ”În Linii Mari // Caiete de Schițe” (On Broad Strokes // Sketchbooks), ArtEncounters Biennial, as Independent Guest, Balamuc studio, Timișoara, RO
2017: ”Norma d’Lux” (”The Norm Deluxe”, book and show), Pygmalion Gallery, Timișoara, RO (ISBN 9786067260625)
2014: ”Micul Dejun al Supereroilor” (”The Breakfast of Superheros”), Balamuc studio, Timișoara, RO
Zephyr group project:
2019: ”Suggestion for the (Next) Day”, ArtEncounters Biennial, Corneliu Miklosi Museum of Transport, Timişoara, RO
Group Exhibitions:
2021: ”The apocalypse of the white elephant”, curators Mălina Ionescu, Denise Parizek and Mirela Stoeac-Vlăduți, Garrison Command Timișoara, RO
2021: ”I feel something, don’t know what”, curators Magda Kardasz and Diana Marincu, Zachęta Project Room, Warsaw, PL and Art Encounters Foundation, Timișoara, RO
2021: ”Show & Tell, no 1”, curator George Roșu, Artă Non Stop (artist run space), Sibiu, RO
2020: ”Collecting Dust” (”S-alege prafu’”) as part of Double Decker, an online project by Sandwich II, Bucharest
2020: ”Jurnal de Virus” (”Virus Diary”) by Dan Perjovschi with Alina Andrei, George Roșu, Ana Kun and guests, White Cuib (online), Cluj-Napoca, RO
2019: ”Deserted. What happened before might happen again by Maria Trabulo”, curator Pieternel Vermoortel, invited as guest artist, Galeria Municipal do Porto, Porto, PT