Marilena Preda Sânc
Works
“I consider myself a painter of fixed and running images, an interdisciplinary artist who creates drawing, painting, object, photography, artist book, installation, video, performance. Integrating the traditional forms of art and the new media arts, my work investigates and visualizes the body/mind/soul/behaviors in relation to nature and social/political/representational space and the feminism problematic as gender/ageism/the woman as leader in an eco-feminist key.”
“One of the first exponents of the feminist movement in Romania, Marilena Preda Sânc has been a leading figure on the Eastern European art scene since the 1980s. During the Ceaușescu regime her research found its possibility of expression in abstraction. Through various media such as painting, sculpture and drawing, joined in the 1990s by video and performance, she has developed different cycles of work in which she analyses the spatial relations between abstract and organic forms by applying sets of rules activated in the field of vision.
In the series Modules of the ‘80s, the architectures that give them form have a precarious balance due both to their inner structure — marked by cracks and fissures — and to their often perched positioning, probably to suggest the fragility of the political context and the individual condition of the artist.
The Body-Space series of works, from the same period, plays with contrast: it is a group of collages in which drawings made with a marker pen are overlaid on nude photographs of the artist. The drawings, similar to the structures of the modules, reveal the analogy between body and architecture, and the possibility of turning the body of the woman into a unit of measure of reality.” – Anna Daneri, curator
CV
Born in 1955, lives and works in Bucharest (RO)
STUDIES
1980
BA, National University of Arts Bucharest (RO)
2002
PhD in Fine Arts, National University of Arts Bucharest (RO)
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Solo shows
2021
‘Sinteze / Antiteze Vizuale’, Craiova Art Museum, Craiova (RO)
2020
‘Resilience Test: Marilena Preda Sânc’, online exhibition, Gaep, gaepgallery.com
2019
‘Subjective (De)Constructions’, Gaep, Bucharest (RO)
‘Thinking on Art, Nature, Society’, Palatele Brâncovenești Cultural Centre, Mogoșoaia (RO)
2015
‘Calling Earth Back to Art’, Calina Contemporary Art Space, Timișoara (RO)
‘but IT Got Too COLD’, Gaep (formerly EASTWARDS PROSPECTUS), Bucharest (RO)
2012
‘Mecanismele imaginii / Imagine Machinery’, Contemporary Art Gallery of the National Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu (RO)
‘Libertate în Labirint / Freedom in the Labyrint’, Art Museum, Cluj-Napoca (RO)
2011
‘Utopii. Cotidiene. Crossing Self Histories 1981-2011’, MNAC – National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest (RO)
2010
‘Flying Souls’, Anagma Gallery, Madrid (ES)
2003
’Inside the Living’, Studio D.V.O., Brussels (BE)
1993
‘Eu En Ich’ (Roxana Trestioreanu media installation / Magda Cârneci poem / Marilena Preda Sânc media installation), Hungarian Cultural Centre, Bucharest (RO)
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Group shows
2023
‘The Signs for Somewhere and Elsewhere and Here and Now’, Gaep, Bucharest (RO)
2022
‘Snapshot contemporan / Timeline tradițional’, M2M/Muzeul 2 Meta, Slon, Prahova (RO)
2021
‘The Domino Effect 2’, Gaep, Bucharest (RO)
‘The Apocalypse of the White Elephant’, Comenduirea Garnizoanei, Timișoara (RO)
‘How to Explain Pictures …’, Rezidența BRD Scena9, Bucharest (RO)
2020
‘The Domino Effect’, Gaep, Bucharest (RO)
‘12 Years After. A Survey of Romanian Art in 180 Works’, MNAC – National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest (RO)
2018
‘Din unghiuri diferite/At Different Angles’, MNAC – National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest (RO)
‘Salonul Național de Artă Contemporană Centenar 2018’, MNAR – The National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest (RO)
‘Woman, All Too Woman’, The Art Museum, Timișoara (RO)
2017
‘Seeing Ourselves Sensing’, Gaep (formerly EASTWARDS PROSPECTUS), Bucharest (RO)
‘Here/There’ (‘Aici/Acolo’), Cotroceni National Museum, Bucharest (RO)
2015
‘The Collection as Archive’, MNAC – National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest (RO)
‘From Affirmation to Contestation – Public Art Practices’, MNAC – National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest (RO)
2014
BB6 / Bucharest International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Bucharest (RO)
3rd European International Book Art Biennale, Russian State Art Library, Moscow (RU)
‘Non Hic Librorum’, Art Museum, Constanţa (RO)
2013
‘Good Girls | Memory, Desire, Power’, MNAC – National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest (RO)
‘Video-Collage Internacional Resistencia, FemLink’, Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires (AG)
2012
‘20 Years: KKA Artists in Residence’, KulturKontakt, Vienna (AT)
Salon de Peinture Roumanie Contemporaine, Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris (FR)
2010
‘Gender Check’, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (PL)
2009
’Gender Check. Feminity and Masculinity in the Art of Eastern Europe’, MUMOK, Vienna (AT)
2006
’Mit Macht zur Wahl / 100 Jahre Frauenwahlrecht in Europa / Ausstellung und Kunst im Kontext’, Frauenmuseum, Bonn (DE)
‘59 seconds’, film/video festival, New York (USA)
‘FemLink’, International video collage, Paris, Toulouse, Nicosia (FR)(CY)
2005
‘Depozit’, MNAC – National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest (RO)
2004
‘Romanian artists (and not only) love Ceauşescu’s Palace?!’, MNAC – National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest (RO)
2001
‘Split Reality’, MUMOK, Vienna (AT)
2000
‘In Full Dress’, Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu (RO)
‘Transitionland’, MNAR – National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest (RO)
1998
‘Pseudo Programs’, Franklin Furnace’s Program, The Future of the Present, Live Netcast – New York (USA)
SELECTED AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2020
Radio Romania Cultural Award, Visual Arts category
2017
Special Mention Sardi per l’Arte Back to the Future, Artissima, Turin
2010
Diploma of Excellence, Faculty of Arts and Design, Timișoara
2008
“Mihail Grecu” Award for Painting, UAP Moldova, Chișinău
2004
“The Cultural Merit” Order and medal
1998
Artslink, fellowship, New York
1997
KulturKontakt, artist in residence, Vienna
1996
Habitat – the 3rd prize for painting, national competition organized by U.N.D.P., Bucharest
1988
International JUNIJ Group, prize for the best group exhibition, Mois de la Photo à Paris
PUBLIC ART
2011
Drafts and Open Windows, mural / collective, new American Embassy, Bucharest
2007-2010
Art in Public Space, projects by MA students at National University of Arts in Bucharest (curator)
2008
Femslogan, mural facade video projection, UNA, Bucharest Urban Clip Visual Art Center, Bucharest (curator)
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NOMAD – load / flow / mix, META Cultural Foundation, Parcul Tineretului, Herastrau, Bucharest
2004
Constructions, mural painting, façades, Larofarm Factory, Bragadiru
1993-2010
Mural art works realized in situ by BA and MA students at The National University of Arts in Bucharest (curator)
1977-1988
Fresco – New Mural Church Paintings and Restoration
1979
Arts, mosaic, ceramics and sandstone, Student’s House, Bucharest
