Minister of Culture Hunor Kelemen thinks that the Art Safari is an extremely courageous initiative which, without doubt, is equally necessary for Bucharest and for the entire Romanian society.
Photo credit: (c) George CALIN / AGERPRES PHOTO
‘Art Safari will be an European means to popularize, know and promote Romanian art in its dynamics and in the contemporary European context,’ Kelemen on Thursdays told the press conference on organizing the Art Safari Art Pavilion in Bucharest, which was held in the Ion Heliade Radulescu Assembly Hall of the Library of the Academy.
In the opinion of the Minister of Culture, the creative industries can substantially contribute to the development of the society, but for it, he says, we also need an ‘educated, open, creative, courageous and eager’ audience. The Art Safari initiative is to help ‘visual arts to be brought closer to people.’
‘If music has the George Enescu Festival, if film has the Transilvania International Film Festival and if the theatre has the Caragiale Festival or the Festival in Sibiu [central Romania], if books have the Bookfest, starting this year, the fine arts have the Art Safari Art Pavilion in Bucharest, where the audience will see an unconventional space in the first year and a conventional one in the editions to come, with contemporary creators and art, but also with the art in the patrimony,’ said Hunor Kelemen.
He appreciated that this way they would make ‘an interesting and necessary dialogue for promoting Romanian art and, at the same time, Art Safari plans to be a reference point and a landmark not only for Romania, not only for Bucharest, but also for the East European area.’
Speaking of something else, Kelemen said that, in keeping with the dynamic development of the art market in the past ten years, legislative measures would be necessary, and added that he started a talk with his colleagues in order to amend the current legislation for it to be brought to the level of the 21st century. He made it clear that he referred to the amendment of the Government resolution regulating the area of visual arts and that by June he would present Parliament the Code of the Patrimony.
In the opinion of Diana Dochia, PhD, president of the Association of Galleries of Contemporary Art in Romania and joint manager of the Art Safari Art Pavilion, ‘the first edition of the pavilion will bring together all the players creating and contributing to the making of a professional art market system: museums, galleries, specialist press, the connected services to support and promote the artistic environment.’
“It will be the first time when both the public sector and the private sector will meet in the same event in order to exhibit, debate and unite their cultural offers. Art Safari wants to become in the years to come a regional event, one of the most important ones in the field in Eastern Europe,’ said Dochia.
‘The Deutsche Bank has always supported the talent and the genius of art and we are happy to be able to support such an initiative in Romania. Art can significantly develop when there is a suitable framework for creating a strong connection between the artist, the gallery and the collector, the cultural institution and the art market and this is exactly what Art Safari plans to do,’ said Mihai Ionescu, manager of the representation office of the Deutsche Bank to Romania.
Traian Radu Negrei, manager of the Administration of Monuments and Tourist Patrimony with the Bucharest General City Hall, presented the ‘Magic Eye’ project, which will start on May 17, a prize awarding photo competition devoted to an estimated number of 4,000 participants, which will end with the publication of a photo album that will present Bucharest as Bucharest people see it.
Over May 22-25 they will organize the Art Safari Bucharest, the first professional and public art pavilion of Bucharest, an exhibition devoted to a panorama of Romanian art, from the patrimony one to the currents in contemporary art, which will be organized in the George Enescu Square according to the model of the art pavilions in European capital cities.
The organizers of the above-mentioned project are the Association of Traders in Works of Art in Romania, under the patronage of the Bucharest City Hall, in cultural partnership with the Administration of the Monuments and Tourist Patrimony in Bucharest, with the participation of the Association of the Galleries of Contemporary Art in Romania, and with the support of the Deutsche Bank Romania.
According to organizers, the Art Safari Art Pavilion will contribute to Bucharest being placed again on the East European cultural map together with other important regional capitals such as Vienna, Budapest, Prague and Warsaw. About 100 galleries, museums, cultural institutions, most of them Romanian ones, are invited to attend, but the pavilion will also have guests from Austria, Italy, Germany, France, etc. Aiming especially at an excursion in modern and contemporary Romanian art, the Art Safari will also host museum focuses on some famous Romanian or universal personalities such as Brancusi, Klimt, Grigorescu, Rembrandt, Tonitza, Picasso, Luchian, Renoir, Aman, Chagall, Baba, Degas, Tuculescu, etc.
The pavilion will be divided into six distinct sections: museums and cultural institutions; patrimony art galleries; contemporary art galleries; collection items; design; art business and media.
At the same time, in the section of ‘Art in a Dialogue,’ they will organize a number of conferences, book launches, screenings an performances. The very young audience will not be forgotten as children are to benefit from a centre specially arranged to test and develop their artistic spirit.
The Art Safari Bucharest will be housed by an exhibition specially built for this occasion in the George Enescu Square on the basis of the design made by Professor Dorin Stefan, PhD, an architect, the structure of the pavilion is to be made out of professional materials specific to buildings like the ones that make up the Biennale in Venice, TEFAF ArtShow in Maastricht, Frieze ArtShow in London, etc. AGERPRES
