25 Mar 2013

Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor at Kunsthalle Lissabon

Kunsthalle Lissabon presents I dreamt the work of another artist, Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor's first solo show in Portugal. The Romanian duo's practice has been investigating their critical engagement with defining issues of today such as collective memory and amnesia, the formulation of artistic agency, and the politics of representation and has positioned them among the most compelling and literate interpreters of our contemporary post communist condition, which extends far beyond their native country.

The exhibition is centered around a new installation, I dreamt the work of another artist (2013), specifically developed for Kunsthalle Lissabon's exhibition space. This new work is put into dialogue with a selection of Vatamanu & Tudor's older pieces, allowing for a better understanding of the artists' practice as well as the research they have been developing.

Mona Vatamanu (1968) & Florin Tudor (1974) have been working as a duo since 2000. They live and work in Bucarest. A selection of their recent solo shows includes The order of things, daadgalerie, Berlin (2012); There Will Be Hope, D+T Project, Brussels (2011); Land Distribution, Lombard - Freid Projects, New York (2011); Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor, All Power to the Imagination!, Secession, Vienna (2009); Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor, Surplus Value, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht (2009); Living Units, Mercer Union, Toronto (2006); Unitati de locuit, CIAC, Bucarest (2004); Consuming the City, Kunstlerhaus Buchsenhausen, Innsbruck (2003). Their work has been featured in many group shows: Rites, thoughts, notes, sparks, swings, strikes. a hong kong spring, Para/Site art space, Hong Kong (2012); Untitled (12th Istanbul Biennial), Istanbul (2011); Call the Witness, Roma Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale (2011); Flying Down to Earth, FRAC Lorraine, Metz (2010); Modern Dialect, M HKA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp (2010); Shockworkers of the Mobile Image, 1st Urlal Industrial Biennial (2010); Constructing History: the future life of the past, Kunsthalle Lissabon (2010); Walking the Hinterland, Argos Centre for Art & Media, Brussels (2010); Volando Hacia La Tierra / Flying Down to Earth, MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporanea de Vigo (2010); Bucharest Biennale 4 (2010); Sounds and Visions, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv (2009); 5th Berlin Biennial, When Things Cast No Shadow, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2008); 6th Gyumri Biennial, Transformation of History or Parallel Histories (2008); Like an Attali Report, but different: On fiction and political imagination, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris (2008); 52nd Venice Biennale, Romanian Pavillion, Low-Budget Monuments (2007); Prague Biennale 3, Der Prozess, Collective memory and social history (2007).

Kunsthalle Lissabon is supported by Secretaria de Estado da Cultura/Direção Geral das Artes (DGArtes) and by Teixeira de Freitas, Rodrigues e Associados.