Unmapping

If mapping means bringing a place into the realm of the known, the stable, and the predictable, Unmapping introduces deviations, dérives, exceptions, suspensions, situations that temporarily remove certain zones (public spaces and institutions) from the ordinary, the everyday, the familiar, from their implicit mapping. Spaces for reflection, unfamiliarity, unknowing, openings for new possibilities – unmapped zones might appear.

Unmapping practices are inserted as subtle interventions in the social, aesthetic, and affective textures of places and, in a self-referential way, also in the Unmapping process itself, through deviations from the usual ways of collaborating, working, and presenting. Unmapping proposes a collaboration based on productive alienations – artists are amplified in their own paths, in the proximity and with the support of others, producing unpredictable interactions between different processes and practices. Over the exhibition context, the process will continue in Indecis space but also in the city, the exhibition changing and evolving along the way and is accompanied by performances and interventions. You can join the artists and the Unmapping process at Indecis during the entire duration of the exhibition.

We are Sleepers: Eliza Trefaș, Traian Cherecheș, Diego Agulló, Smaranda Găbudeanu, Martina Piazzi, Vlad Brăteanu, Florin Flueras. We have some common interests like questioning and avoiding artworld’s commercial, ideological, managerial and entertainment imperatives; exploring relations between environmental collapse, spirituality and the current implicit certainties and realities, and their enforcement in art. Through Unmapping we don’t plan to harmonize our perspectives, but to allow ourselves to productively diverge, accepting and amplifying each other’s perspectives.

From what I gathered until now (a few days before the opening), Traian is scratching the artworld’s immaculate surface, unearthing and recycling discarded artworks accumulated in the hidden premises of an important art venue in the city. Starting from our question about why he currently finds Tai Chi more fulfilling and meaningful than art, Diego does a peculiar version of Tai Chi (employing a pizza roller) in different contexts in the city. During the exhibition, he will do Tai Chi sessions with artists, trying to make them quit art. Eliza is doing advice meetings around strange meals (food sprinkled with ashes made of texts like “A Hunger Artist “, cakes made of soil gathered from the heroes cemetery, cotton balls soaked in vitamins…), starting from her process of perceiving the city and life in general through a hunger that wants to become aesthetic. Smaranda is exploring body adaptations to postapocalyptic scenarios in the city, although it became apparent that Bucharest might be more adequate for this practice. Martina aims to reach others through audio suggestions that can influence their bodies and behaviors in the exhibition and then in the city. Vlad is doing a secret project involving the city’s numerous natural and mineral water public fountains. He’s also looking to revisit a clandestine monumental work that he managed to install in the city 3 years ago. As for myself. I’m still interested in the capacity of the body to affect and to be affected. I introduce the affect charged bodies (mine and Eliza’s) in bureaucratic, administrative, managerial institutions in Timișoara, but also in some art venues, because, let’s face it, the difference is getting smaller and smaller.

Opening October 30, 18h, Indecis Timisoara.

A Sleepers’ project, initiated by Florin Flueras, produced by PETEC, financed by Centrul de Proiecte Timișoara, supported by Minitremu, Indecis and SOMN.