Irina Botea Bucan (Romania)
Irina Botea Bucan (b. Romania) has developed a symbiotic artist-educator-researcher methodological framework that consistently questions dominant socio-political ideas and centralizes human and non-human agency as a vehicle for meaning. Choosing to act in diverse contexts, such as: academic institutions, alternative galleries, museums, art biennials, film festivals and generic community centers; she is currently focusing on the de-centralization of cultural discourses and the possibility of sustaining creative differentiation that arguably exists outside of a dominant hegemonic system of values and critique.
Her intra-disciplinary and immersive approach includes filmmaking, performance, electronic embroideries, writing and installations; wherein reenactment, simulated auditions, translations, and elements of cinéma vérité are combined in a negotiated process in which performers are active participants, while her filmmaker role shifts from an observational to a reflective, participatory and performative mode. Since 2013 she has been collaborating with Jon Dean, and currently she is faculty at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Bucharest University of Arts, and pursuing a PhD at Goldsmiths University in London titled “Unfinishing the Cultural Houses”.
Solo and group shows include: 55th Venice Biennale, International Film Festival Rotterdam, New Museum, New York; MUSAC (Museum of Contemporary Art of Castilia and Leon); Pompidou Centre, Paris; National Gallery Jeu de Paume, Paris; Kunsthalle Winterthur; Reina Sofia National Museum, Madrid,; MUSAC-Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain; Gwangju Biennale, South Korea; U -Turn Quadriennial, Copenhagen; 51st Venice Biennale; Prague Biennale; Kunstforum Vienna; Foksal Gallery, Warsaw; Argos Center for Art and Media, Brussels; MNAC (National Museum of Contemporary Art), Bucharest; Museum of Contemporary Art, Szczecin, Poland; Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowki Castle, Warsaw. Festivals: Artefact Festival, Leuven; Rotterdam Film Festival; Impakt Panorama, Utrecht; Polis Adriatic Europe Festival. Awards: 3Arts Visual Artis Award; Impakt Film Festival Silver Award; International Residence at Recollets, Cite des Arts, Paris.
