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Vlad Morariu

Vlad Morariu

area: Theory

© Vlad Morariu

Key Facts

nationality

Romania, Great Britain

area

Theory

residence

London

recommending institution

tranzit.org/ERSTE Stiftung

time period

November 2012 - December 2012

Education experience:

I hold a B.A. from the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University, Iasi, Romania (with a thesis on David Armstrong's philosophy of universals), and an M.A. from the same university (with a thesis on Arthus C. Danto's institutional definition of art). During my M.A. course I have been awarded a 1-year Erasmus studentship at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. Currently I am pursuing a PhD. at the Loughborough University School of the Arts, U.K., with a thesis on institutional critique.

Work Experience

I am currently a PhD. research student at Loughborough University School of the Arts, where I occasionally take teaching duties. Here I lead seminars on New Genre Public Art and The Concept of Precarity in the field of Culture. I was Marius Babias' assistant curator for Periferic 7 Biennial for Contemporary Art / Social Processes Section (Iasi/Romania 2005-2006) and also for L'Europe en devenir. Partie II (Swiss Cultural Institute, Paris, 2007). I curated Beneath the Remains: Translations of Estrangement and the Politics of Survival (arttransponder, Berlin, 2009). Between 2004-2008 I was part of the organisational team of the Periferic Biennial for Contemporary Art. I currently activate as curator within vessel / Bari, Italy, in the frame of which I recently co-curated the “GS1. Enter the Artworld? Marginal establishments, cooptation and resistance” (Bari, june 12-14, 2012) international conference. I also activate in ArtLeaks, where I am involved in the publishing of cases of censorship and exploitation in the arts and in the organisation of working assemblies. I translated from English to Romanian Arthur Danto's Transfiguration of the Commonplace. A philosophy of art (Transfigurarea locului comun. O filosofie a artei, Idea: Cluj, 2012) and from German to Romanian Marius Babias' Die Rückeroberung der Politik (Recucerirea Politicului, Cluj: Idea, 2008, in collaboration with Cristian Cercel). I have also translated a series of theoretical texts for “Vector_ Art and Culture in Context” (I was one of its editors) and for “Idea Art + Society”. I have presented papers in international conferences such as the Third Deleuze Studies Conference (University of Amsterdam, 2010) and held talks, among others, at the tranzit.hu's Free School for Art Theory and Practice (Budapest, 2008). I have published art theory and art criticism texts in “Vector_ Art and Culture in Context”, “Idea Art + Society”, “Boekman”, “Framework. The Finnish Art Review”. I have also published in books such as Crisis, Rupture and Anxiety: An
Interdiciplinary Examination of Historical and Contemporary Human Challenges
(Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012); Romanian Cultural Resolution (Hatje Kantz Verlag, 2011) and Atlas of Transformation (JRP/Ringier 2010).

List of writings (selection):

MORARIU, V. (2012). “Crisis and Critique of Art Institutions in Poststructuralism and Performance Art”, in Jeffery, B & Marino, M. (eds.),
Crisis, Rupture and Anxiety: An Interdiciplinary Examination of Historical and Contemporary Human Challenges, Cambridge Scholars
Publishing, pp. 114-127

MORARIU, V. (2012). “The same old friends: to state, to challenge, to resist. Art and Philosophy, September 3 – October 30, 2011, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein”. IDEA arts+society. 39/2012, Cluj: Idea, pp. 56-75

MORARIU, V. (2011). "Apolityczna kreatywnosc: spektakl laczenia ludzi / A-Political Creativity: the Spectacle of Bringing People Together", in Sowa, J. et. al. (eds.), Wieczna Radosc: ekonomia polityczna spolecznej kreatywnisci. Wolny Uniwersytet Warszawy. Tom 4, Bec Zmiana, pp. 359-384

MORARIU, V. (2010). “Transfiguration“ in Baladrán, Z. & Havránek, V. (eds.), Atlas of Transformation, JRP/Ringier,
http://monumenttotransformation.org/atlas-of-transformation/html/t/transfiguration/transfiguration-vlad-morariu.html

MORARIU, V. & BUDEN, B. (2007). Das Post-Zeitgenössische und die Rekonfiguration des öffentlichen Raums. Ein Gespräch zwischen
Vlad Morariu und Boris Buden, in BABIAS, M. & HENTZSCH, S. (eds.), Public Space Bucharest 2007, Cluj-Berlin: Idea & n.b.k. Publikationen, pp. 85 – 103

MORARIU, V. (2006). "Wirklich – Really. Hans Haacke, works 1959–2006, Akademie der Künste, Berlin",IDEA arts+society, 25/2006 Cluj: Idea, pp. 73-86

Affiliations:

Member of the Politicized Practice Research Group at the Loughborough University School of the Arts
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sota/research/groups/politicised/index.html

Curator at vessel (together with Viviana Checchia, Francesco Scasciamacchia, Anna Santomauro), Bari, Italy
http://www.vesselartproject.org/team-2/

Former member of the Vector Art Association in Iasi, Romania www.periferic.org

Member of the ArtLeaks collective, an online platform which publishes cases of exploitation and censorship in the arts http://artleaks.org/about/

Projectinfo

I consider my residence in Vienna as an opportunity to complete my ongoing research on institutional critique, which I currently pursue within a PhD program in the UK. In Vienna I have two main objectives. First of all, this city represents for me the place which hosts one of the most powerful Occupy Universities movement, where students at the Art Academy have often taken leadership. Since it is my belief that in order to reinvent itself, institutional critique as a practise has to rewrite its vocabulary and engage in transversal alliances with similar movements from neighbouring fields (from the greater struggles against the privatization of universities and national health systems to micro-political struggles in immigrant ghettos), my aim is to contact and discuss with representatives of these movements. Secondly, my research approach has been greatly influenced by the online journal transversal and its published dossiers. This is a project of the European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies, and my intention is to meet and interview the people who have been associated with this platform.

Documentation

Short Review of My Two Months Residency at MQ Vienna

Between November - December 2012 I received a residency at the MuseumsQuartier Wien, within a program supported by tranzit and Erste Foundation. Benefiting from its quiet studios and large work areas and from its challenging and diverse cultural atmosphere, I took this as an excellent opportunity to further develop my ongoing research which focuses on the legacies of institutional critique.  My main aim was to forge connections with representatives of the art and cultural scene and to try to question their take on the connections between art, politics and the market, as shaped by the conditions and possibilities of the Viennese environment. I welcomed, therefore, the chance of meeting and engaging in lengthier discussions with representatives of the Erste foundation and of the Kontakt art collection, with members of the monochrom collective, and with representatives of the European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies and of the Springerin Magazine, with cultural workers from Kunsthalle Exnergasse, and with various other curators and gallerists based in Vienna. At the same time, I have also attended several presentations at the Art Academy. The most challenging encounter that I had in the city was occasioned,  nevertheless, by the discussions that I had with people involved in the Refugee Protest Camp Vienna and with the occupiers of the Votivkirche. I thus took the opportunity to understand the reasons of their struggle and to participate, in solidarity, at their rallies, city walks and demonstrations. I believe that the time spent in the Austrian capital allowed me, thus, to have access and understand a multiplicity of mechanisms which regulate the economy of art and politics of the city: part of the results of my stay will be published, in the form of interviews, in several magazines and journals that I work with. 

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