Mihai Grecu
area: Media Art
Key Facts
nationality
Romania/Francearea
Media Artresidence
Paris (FRA)recommending institution
VIS Vienna Shorts / ASIFA Austriatime period
May 2014 - June 2014Mihai Grecu was born in Romania in 1981. After studying art and design in Romania and France, he has been pursuing his artistic research at the Fresnoy Studio of Contemporary Arts. Recurring topics such as distress, cloning, hallucination, city life and war articulate the whole of his exploration of mysterious and subconscious beginnings. These visual and poetic trips, mix several techniques and styles and may be seen as propositions for a new dream oriented technology. His work hes been shown in numerous film festivals (Locarno, Rotterdam, Festival of New Cinema in Montreal) and exhibitions ("Dans la nuit, des images" at the Grand Palais, "Labyrinth of my mind" at the Cube, "Video Short list: the Dream Machine" at the Passage du Retz, "Studio" at "Les Filles du Calvaire" Gallery, etc).
FESTIVALS and AWARDS (selected) :
September 2013: Best Experimental Film Award, Message2man Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia
June 2013: MQ Residency Award for “Exland”, Vienna Independent Shorts, Vienna
August 2012:”Best Sound Award”, Sapporo International Film Festival, Sapporo, Japan
May 2012:”Arte Creative Award”, Cote Court Festival, Paris, France
March 2012: Best Aniation Award«Tampere International Film Festival », Tampere, Finland
February 2012/2009: « Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival », Clermont-Ferrand, France
June 2010: SCAM award for the best digital art work, Paris, France
June 2010: Explora Award for Best Experimental Work, Curtocircuito, Santiago de Compostella, Spain
March 2009: « Vidéoformes », Clermont-Ferrand, France, special mention for «coagulate»
January 2012/2010/2009: « International Film Festival Rotterdam », The Netherlands
November 2008: « Festival du Nouveau Cinéma », Montréal, Canada
October 2008: « Oslo Screen Festival », Oslo, Norway, best video award for «coagulate»
January 2008: « Film Festival Rotterdam », The Netherlands, honourable mention for « UNLITh»
August 2007: « Locarno International Film Festival », Locarno, Switzerland
September 2007/2005: « Videobrasil festival», Sao Paulo, Brasil
April 2008/2005 : « European Media Art Festival », Osnabrück, Germany
March 2008/2005: « Vidéoformes », Clermont-Ferrand, France, first prize for «UNLITh»
May 2005: « International Media Award for Science and Art », ZKM/SWR, Karlsruhe, Germany
April 2005: « Filmfest Dresden », Germany
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selected) :
September 2013: Licht Sicht Biennale, Bad Rothenfelde, Germany
April 2013: “Z-Land” and “Bildfrost” exhibitions, Rolf Hengesbach Gallery, Berlin, Germany
March 2013: “Moving Image”, New York, USA
November 2012: ”Catastrophology” Arko Art Center, Seoul, South Korea
October 2011: « Southern Panoramas/ Videobrasil », Sao Paulo, Brasil
May 2011: «WRO media art biennale», Wroclav, Poland
November 2010: «Mois de la Photographie», Paris, France, curated by Jean Luc Monterosso
September 2010: « Invisible Shadows », Marta Herford Museum, Herford, Germany
May 2009: « loop » Art Fair, Barcelona
May 2009: « Maquias de Sonhar» Museum of Contemporary Art Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
December 2008: « Dans la nuit, des images », Grand Palais, Paris, France
October 2008: « The Dream Machine », Passage de Retz, Paris, curated by Jean-Luc Monterosso
June 2008 : « Panorama 8-9-10 », Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, curated by Bernard Blistène
January 2008 : « Studio », Galerie Les filles du calvaire, Paris, curated by Madeleine van Doren
May 20077 : « Sous influences » ADN Galeria, Barcelona + Galerie Magda Danysz, Paris,
May 2006: « Orcaille », collaboration with the Orpaille collective, Maison Rouge, Paris, France
July 2005 : « Speedforce » at the ZKMax, Munich, Germany
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
May 2011: «we'll become oil», solo show, Rolf Hengesbach Gallery, Berlin, Germany
October 2010: «coagulate », solo show, Slash Gallery, Cluj Napoca, Romania
March 2010: «coagulate», solo show, Rolf Hengesbach Gallery, Berlin, Germany
April 2010: «coagulate», solo show, Centre d’Art La Panera, Lleida, Spain
November 2008: «Unlith/coagulate» solo exhibition, gallery Art Claims Impulse, Berlin
September 2005: « Labyrinth of my mind », Le Cube, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
EDUCATION :
2006-2008 :Le Fresnoy Studio National d’Art Contemporain, Tourcoing, France, <link http: www.lefresnoy.net>www.lefresnoy.net
2004-2006 :Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg, France, <link http: www.esad-stg.org>www.esad-stg.org
1999-2003 :University of Art and Design, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Untitled
Video, loop, 5:40
Black oil smoke is a kind of ectoplasm.
Myriads of dead organisms melt during geological ages into this black liquid…
Then it burns and the smoke carries their souls in the air.
It rises from the water, continues its flow in the high atmosphere, but then mysteriously returns into water, in an endless loop, like caught in a spherical universe where vertical and horizontal become circles and merge.