Foto PUNCT 2
June 9 – June 21, 2017
Str. Lăpușneanu, Iasi
Artists: Lucian Bran, Ioana Cîrlig, Daniel Komendant, Mihai Nistor
Curators: Matei Bejenaru, Lavinia German
Visual concept: Cătălin Soreanu
Foto PUNCT is a project of the Center for Contemporary Photography in Iași, which aims to promote contemporary artistic photography in the public space of Iași. Now in its second edition, Foto PUNCT is made in collaboration with the “George Enescu” National University of Arts in Iași, with the support of the Iași City Hall and the “Mihai Ursachi” House of Culture of the Iași Municipality, as part of FIE 2017.
The photos selected for the second edition of the Foto PUNCT project, made within FIE 2017, have in common the representation of fragments of territory that preserve signs of the near or distant past. Belonging to the broad genre of landscape photography with references to the painting, documentary images carry with them a double value, one informative and the other aesthetic.
The cultural and social-critical dimension of the perception of the territory, understood as a space in which a certain type of authority is exercised, is reflected visually through the analysis of some traces of history, from the trenches of the Second World War, to the desolate industrial landscape inherited from the period communist, from the traces of the former filming sets of some Hollywood productions in Romania, to the methodical-conceptual documentation of the Prut River, the natural and political border that separates Romania from the Republic of Moldova.
Lucian Bran (b.1981, Brașov) studied photography at the National University of Arts in Bucharest. He works on the border between documentary and conceptual photography, focusing on the misperception and identity that can be revealed in the landscape. Constantly reflecting on the interaction between humans and nature, he presents different layers that have been formed by time, history and memory. He had group exhibitions in Romania, Austria, France, England and Jersey and solo exhibitions in Romania and Poland. In 2016 he published his first artist book, Borrowed Territories, was a finalist in the New East Photo awards and nominated for The Unseen ING Talent awards. In 2011 he won the first prize at Archisle: The Jersey Contemporary Photography Programme, and in 2012 he participated in an artistic residency at the Romanian Cultural Institute in Paris. (www.lucianbran.ro)
Daniel Comendant (b. 1984, Chisinau, works in Iasi) studied photography, audiovisual communication and sociology. He is currently a PhD student at the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iasi, Faculty of Philosophy and Social-Political Sciences. His artistic practice intersects with research areas such as visual sociology and cultural anthropology. Since 2014, he has participated in group exhibitions in Bucharest, Iasi, Cluj-Napoca and Chisinau.
Ioana Cîrlig (born 1987, lives in Bucharest) is an independent photographer, co-founder of the Center for Documentary Photography in Bucharest. She studied cinematography and worked as a photojournalist in Bucharest. In recent years she has dedicated herself to documentary photography and works on long-term artistic projects. (www.ioanacirlig.ro)
Mihai Nistor (b. 1991) lives and works in Iași and Rădăuți. He graduated from the Photo-Video Master’s Degree at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts in Iași. He benefited from mobilities and artistic residencies in Finland and the Netherlands, where he developed the project Deconstructing the Flag/25 Years of Democracy. In 2015, he held the personal exhibition Earthworks, at the apARTe Gallery in Iași. He constantly participates in national and international group exhibitions. (nistormihai.wordpress.com)
