Virus Journal Biennial | Cryptic Strains (Lineages) aims to explore the mutations and connections that have occurred in society as a result of the outbreak of the health crisis and, at the same time, to facilitate dialogue between artists, theorists, curators, and the public.
The exhibition event has as its starting point the international experiment “Virus Diary” which took place in the first weeks of the lockdown in 2020 and can be considered a response of the artists involved in the project, to the restrictions imposed by the health crisis.
Initially, the Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi was going to hold a solo exhibition at the White Cuib Gallery in Cluj-Napoca. As the exhibition could not take place physically due to pandemic limitations, White Cuib Gallery’s online networks presented, for nine weeks, a series of visual interpretations. The artists involved in the project were from Romania, Germany, Spain, USA, Great Britain, Austria, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Uruguay, Indonesia, Colombia, France, Malaysia, China, Japan, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Hungary, and Montenegro.
After the end of the restrictions caused by the pandemic, the project was exhibited in Madrid, Satu Mare, New York, Iasi, Brașov, Târgu Mureș, Timisoara, Heraklion, Braunschweig, Reșita, Vienna, Piatra Neamț, Cologne and Nuremberg.
Although the group’s original core remained constant, there were several collaboration formulas with various other artists and curators. These repeated exposures determined mutations in the project. From the desire to transform the first edition of the Jurnal de virus Biennale into a space for dialogue about the new socio-cultural paradigms imposed by the pandemic and post-pandemic period, the four curators involved, Alina Andrei, Magdalena Pelmus, Luciana Tămas, and Silvia Trăistaru, invited new artists to present works suitable to the current context – radically different from that of the restrictions during the lockdown. These contributions complement the old formula in which “Virus Journal” has been presented until now.
Being an international experiment, with representative names of the art scene, the curators consider the project valuable for the whole community, because it brings back to the collective memory an episode of recent history, which determined a different positioning in front of sanitary challenges and created the conditions for the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. The generic title of the new formula was specifically chosen to reflect the idea of mutation – valid both in the case of the coronavirus and in the social body.
The Biennale can be visited until July 28 in two art spaces in Bucharest: Diptych Art Space and Atelier Silvia Trăistaru: Room 30 within Malmaison.
Artists: 3 137 | Sabina Aldea (Minitremu) | Cristian Alexa | Zara Alexandrova | Silvia Amancei & Bogdan Armanu | Alina Andrei | Daniel Andújar | Florin Arhire | Alrun Aßmus | Isa Balog | Ion Barbu | Lucian Barbu | Bartha Jozsef | Bartha Sándor | Beagles & Ramsay | Lola Gabriela Belecciu | Andra Beligan (Minitremu) | Benedek Levente | Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan | Naomi Bildea | Brent Birnbaum | Alex Bodea | David Böhm & Jiří Franta | Daria Borsa (Minitremu) | Răzvan Botiş | Luchezar Boyadijev | Vlad Brăteanu | Michele Bressan | Cosmin Bumbuţ | Cătălin Burcea | Cathy Burghi | Dan Burzo | Aurelian Busuioc | Frank Bz | Radu Carnariu | Squeak Carnwath | Andra Cati (Minitremu) | Dana Catona | Delia Călinescu | Banu Cennetoğlu | Simion Cernica | Ramona Chirica | Hans D. Christ |Ciprian Ciuclea | Eduard Constantin | Larisa Cont (Minitremu) | Răzvan Cornici |Oana Coșug | Mihail Coşuleţu | Alicia Crasiuc (Minitremu) | Lavinia Creţu | Ştefan Radu Crețu | Anton olius | Suzana Dan | Dăruieşte Viaţă | Megan Dominescu | Andrei Dosa | Latifa Echakkh | Farid Fairuz | Julian Faulhaber | Alexandru Faur (Minitremu) | Diana Filimon | Andrei Flocea (Minitremu) | Cristina Gagiu | Dora García | Julien Gardair | Cristi Gaspar | Bogdan Gârbovan | Bogdan Georgescu | Zoran Georgiev | Jan Gerngross | Aldo Giannotti | Diana Grigorescu (Minitremu) | Shani Ha | Cosmin Haiaş | Andreea Harabagiu |
Jonas Hellborg | Olivier Hölzl | Gergely Hory | Ovidiu Hrin | Mihai Iepure-Gorski | Lucian Indrei | Susanna Inglada | Pravdoliub Ivanov | Tadija Janicic | Quentin Jouret | Rie Kawakami | Robert Maximilian Keller | Kispál Ágnes | Attila Kispál | Szabolcs KissPál | Takehito Koganezawa | Jadranka Kosorcic | Dana & Eva Koťátková | Levente Kozma | Ute Krafft | Mischa Kuball | Karolina Kubik | Ana Kun | Raphael Larre | Cezar Lăzărescu | Eirini Linardaki | Oana Lohan | Gloria Luca | Cosmin Manolescu | Natalia Marc (Minitremu) | Andreea Mare (Minitremu) | Tincuţa Marin | Alina Marinescu | Adreea Medar | Vincent Meyrignac | Alex Mihăileanu | Hortenisa Mi Kafchin | Milan Mikulastík | Isola Milano | Minitremu | Lala Misosniky | Alexandra Mocan | Bianca Mocan | Emilian Mocanu | Niţă Mocanu | Eliodor Moldovan | Vlad Moraru | Ivan Moudov | Alexandru Munteanu | Tudor Mureşan (Minitremu) | Simona Nastac | Cătălina Neculai | Mona Nicoară | Tuan Nini | Cătălina Nistor | Oberliht Association | Yuko Okumura | Miklós Onucsán | Christoph Ortega | Andrei Pacea | Adrian Paci | Eugen Palagub | Daniela Pălimariu | Vincent Parisot | Ana Patan | Tudor Pătraşcu | Bogdan Pelmuș | Magdalena Pelmuş | Manuel Pelmuş | Dan Perjovschi | Gluklya Pershina | Ana Petrovici Popescu |
Mihai Platică | Cristi Pogăcean | Delia Popa | Camelia Popescu | Annekatrin Posselt | Caterina Preda | Joana Preda | Silviu Preda | Andrei Pungovschi | Abel Rad | Lea Rasovszky | Restu Ratnaningtyas| Saddo Raul | Matei Rădulescu (Minitremu) | Cristian Răduţă | Oliver Ressler | George Roşu | Patrick Roussel | Cristian Rusu | Şerban Savu | Marishka Soekarna | Dimitar Solakov | Nedko Solakov | Alexandru Solomon | Ada Stan | Raimar Stange | Sabina Suru | Iza Tarasewicz | Luciana Tămaș | Oana Tănase | Krassimir Terziev | Tudor Toader | Iulia Toma | Silvia Trăistaru | Andrei Tudose | Remus Ţiplea | Roberto Uribe Castro | Alina Ușurelu | Tomáš Vaněk | Jaro Varga | Sorina Vaselina | Casandra Vidrighin | Simona Vilău | Iuliana Vîlsan | Elena Vlădăreanu | Ioana Vreme Moser| Dorota Walentynowicz | Trevor Yeung | Laurenţiu Zbîrcea | Mihai Zgondoiu |Fani Zguro
Entrance is free. It is necessary to schedule the visit in advance.
Diptych Art Space diptych.artspace@gmail.com Plantelor Street no. 58, 030167 Bucharest
Studio Silvia Traistaru: Room 30 | Malmaison silvia.traistaru@gmail.com Calea Plevnei no. 137C, Building B, 2nd floor, 060011 Bucharest