CRITICAL REVIEW


          She belongs, with Mircea Cantor, Ciprian Mureşan, Cristi Pogăcean, to the first wave of young neo- conceptualist artists gathered around Plan B Gallery in Cluj. Her international carrier emerged in 2003 when her first personal exhibition took place in France, at Yvon Lambert Gallery. Before leaving for master degree studies in Nantes, she founded, alongside the same Mircea Cantor and Ciprian Mureşan, the Version contemporary art magazine, published in Cluj since 2001.
          Working with the concept of the open work of art in a truly explicit manner, her works are frequently marked by the interaction with the public, who is responsible for a significant part in carrying out the projects designed by Vanga. Moreover, the constancy of her creative approach revolves around a memorizing activity of the stories of different people she makes contact with, becoming so the bearer of an intimate fiction archive, transmitted only by word of mouth.
         The three dimensional shapes in which she chooses to materialize her concerns for storytelling, for the imaginary and for personal histories exceed the boundaries of sculpture. The works vary from object, instalment or environment, to video or documentary action that operates with objects. In 2004, she exhibited in Galerie Public from Paris a conceptual work in which the entire space is subordinated to the idea of gradual disclosure of the work’s meanings. She covered the gallery’s floor with polystyrene beads and she painted a wall with thermochromic ink. The words appeared at the contact with the warmth of human touch and the story narrated there could only be deciphered slowly, with ritualistic gestures. The instalment Every Word I Tell You Keeps Me Alive/ The Door, realized in 2006 in Plan B from Cluj, counted on the active participation of the public too. She mounted a locked door on a wall that rotated even at the slightest touch, creating an unexpected situation for the ones that tried to
open the door. Another work in this exhibition consisted of placing a vertical ladder between two round mirrors, so that, viewed from a certain angle, the ladder would seem infinite.
          There is also a contesting dimension in her creation, visible in a work such as All about... (2010), in which 50 little people made of dollar bills hypnotically march on a suspended transparent board. That was the work chosen by Vanga to be exhibited in 2013 at MNAC, in the Guest Room of Mircea Cantor.

Maria Orosan-Telea (2014)
 


BIOGRAPHY

(Romania, 1977)

Academic studies:
1997 - 2001 - University of Art and Design, Cluj Napoca, Romania;
2001 - 2002 - École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, France;
2002 - 2003 - Le Pavillon / Palais de Tokyo, laboratoire de création, Paris, France.

Residence:
2005 - IASPIS, International Artists Studio Program, Stockholm, Sweden.
 


PROJECTS

Solo exhibitions:
1999 - Viennese dream (Vis vienez), Tranzit Foundation, Cluj-Napoca, Romania;
2001 - Beauty Items, Gad Photogallery, Bucharest, Romania;
2004 - m e s b n p e n u l o i s o d, Galerie Public, Paris, France;
         - Keep it unreal, Miss China, Paris, France;
2006 - Every word I tell you keeps me alive, Plan B Gallery, Cluj-Napoca, Romania;
2001 - Beauty Items, Gad Photogallery, Bucharest, Romania;
2010 - On Blind Faith, Plan B Gallery, Berlin, Germany.

Group exhibitions:
1999 - Untitled, Tranzit Foundation, Cluj Napoca, Romania;
2000 - Say what?, Eforie Gallery, Bucharest, Romania;
         - Voyage d’affaires, Erban, Nantes (with Mircea Cantor), France;
         - Version magazine, founded by Gabriela Vanga, Mircea Cantor, Ciprian Muresan, Nicolae Baciu;
         - Free show, Sindan Foundation, Cluj Napoca, Ro, project with Version members;
         - Artistpoly, Context network Bienale di Venezia, insert in the Romanian Pavillion, (with Version), Italy;
         - Mc Donald’s featuring Brancusi project for Periferic 5 Biennial, Iaşi, project (with Version), Romania;
2002 - 00. Une exposition qui grandit par le millieu, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France;
         - A9 Forum Transeuropa, Museum Quartier, Vienna (with Version), Austria;
         - Version 0.2, issue launched at Espace En Cours, Paris, France;
         - Photographier, Collection Lambert, Avignon, France;
         - Rendez-vous roumain, Espace En Cours, Paris, France;
         - Boundless Borders, Bilboards project in the city of Belgrad, Serbia;
         - Documents 11 young photographers, New Gallery, Bucharest, Romania;
2003 - Launch of the Version 0.4, Bookshop of Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris, France;
         - Intervention at Association Entre-Deux, Nantes, France;
         - In the Gorges of the Balkans, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel (with Version), Germany;
         - Biennial of Prague, Prague (with Version), Czech Republic;
         - Stickers/ GNS exhibition, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (with Version magazine) France;
         - Incomprehension, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France;
         - Preview Kalinderu Medialab /The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania;
         - VERSION conference, Frac Alsace, Sète, France;
         - The map of the world, Lisières, Strasbourg (with Version magazine), France;
         - Workshop in Vietnam, Mekong Delta, Pavillion/ Palais de Tokyo, France;
2004 - Love it or Leave it, 5th Biennale of Cetinje, Montenegro (with Version);
         - The Yugoslav Biennial of Young Artist , Vršac (with Version), Serbia;
2005 - Going Public, Amaze cultural lab, Modena, Italy (with Version);
         - Modern Times, Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro, Italy;
         - Miss China, FIAC, Paris, France;
         - IASPIS, Open House, Stockholm, Sweden;
         - Collaborative Practice, Shedhalle, Zürich (with Version), Switzerland;
         - Radiodays, De Appel, Amsterdam, Netherlands,
         - On Difference, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (with Version), Germany;
         - Continental breakfast, Memory (w)hole, Ljubljana, Slovenia;
        -Text ground, Display Gallery, Praga, Czech Republic;
        - The Storyteller (with Mircea Cantor), Yvon Lambert Gallery , Project Room, Paris, France;
2006 - Neteropia , Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France;
         - Cluj Connection, Haunch of Venison, Zürich, Switzerland;
         - Periferic 7: Focusing Iasi / Why Children?, Iaşi, Romania;
         - Message Personnel, Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris, France;
2007 - Growing Wild, Kontainer Gallery, Los Angeles, USA;
         - The Art of Failure, Kunsthaus Basselland, Switzerland;
         - Across the Trees, David Nolan Gallery, New York, USA;
         - Fairytale, Tirana Institute of Contemporary Art, Albania;
         - Growing Wild, Andreiana Mihail Gallery, Bucharest, Romania;
2008 - Not figment of a madman`s imagination, Romainan Cultural Institure, Madrid, Spain;
         - Une monde sans mesures, Mac de São Paulo, Brazil;
         - Unreliable Witness, Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland;
         - The space between, Konsthall Anna Nordlander, Sweden;
2009 - Lichtzwang, Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel;
         - Invisible body, Conspicuous Mind, Luckamn Gallery, USA;
         - Um Mundo Sem Medidas, Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil;
2010 - Les Elixirs de Panacée, Palais Bénédictine de Fécam, France.
 


BIBLIOGRAPHY


Claire Staebler L’exposition dont vous êtes le hêros. IDEA art+society, Cluj, RO, n° 19.
Keep it unreal, UPstreet magazine n°49, Paris.
Attila Tordai-S, Apperto Romania, Flash Art International, November-December, no 233.
Poster/Publication for Association Entre-Deux, Nantes.
Amiel Grumberg, What if Tom invented Jerry..., IDEA art+society, Cluj, RO, n° 15-16.
Mirrors, insert Balkon n°13.
All or nothing, Number° F, July issue.
Mama used to say Number° E, Information without guarantee March-April issue.
Judit Angel, Rendez-vous roumain, in Praesens.
Jean Max Colard, Nouvelles frontières, in Inrockuptibles n°312.
11 young photographers, insert Balkon n°8.
Alexandru Polgar, Esthetical operations with the camera, Balkon n°6.