Pavel Brăila
Works
“I think an artist today is a kind of syncretic figure, who lives his/her life absorbing a lot of different influences – art, science, music, politics, household chores. Life itself becomes the main artistic project.
The artefacts which appear during this process are traces or remains, like fingerprints – they are kind of by-products and signs of this life. I’m influenced by the circumstances I’m living in, either in Moldova or elsewhere, and part of my work is to keep the inspirational trigger open all the time.”
Since the mid-1990s, Pavel Brăila took part in numerous international art exhibitions and film festivals. He has participated twice in documenta (documenta 11, 2002, Kassel, and documenta 14, 2017, Kassel and Athens), as well as in Manifesta 10 (2014, St. Petersburg). He created the artistic concept for the 1st Moldovan Pavilion at the World Expo (2015, Milan) and his film Definitively Unfinished was awarded at the Oberhausen International Film Festival 2009.
CV
Born in 1971, lives and works in Chişinău (MD)
STUDIES
1994
Technical University of Moldova, Chișinău (diploma of engineer-mechanic)
1997
State University of Moldova, Chișinău (diploma of translator-reviewer)
2001
Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (NL)
2003
Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing (FR)
RESIDENCIES
2018
Art Prospect program, Kyiv (UA)
2005
Kunstlerprogramms des DAAD, Berlin (DE)
2001
Artist in residence KulturKontakt, Vienna (AT)
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021
‘Casa Mare’, Centrala Space, Birmingham (UK)
2017
‘New Year’s Dissections’, Gaep (formerly EASTWARDS PROSPECTUS), Bucharest (RO)
2011
‘Chisinau – City Difficult to Pronounce’, Art Point Gallery, Vienna (AT)
2010
‘Chisinau – Sibiu – Braila”, Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu (RO)
2009
‘Source’, Jan Dhaese Gallery, Ghent (BE)
See more
2008
‘Want’, Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris (FR)
2007
‘Baron’s Hill’, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (DE)
2006
‘Pavel Braila’, Taxispalais Kunsthalle Tirol, Innsbruck (AT)
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
‘Mnemonics [back to the future]’, Gaep, Bucharest (RO)
15th Bienal de la Habana – ‘Shared Horizons’, Havana (CU)
‘Images of the Good Life in the East’, Bunker / Lutnița / Zpațiu, Chișinău (MD)
2023
‘Chronic Desire – Sete cronică’ (part of Timișoara 2023 – European Capital of Culture), Palatul Ștefania, Timișoara (RO)
‘The Signs for Somewhere and Elsewhere and Here and Now’, Gaep, Bucharest (RO)
2022
‘General Alert. Wars that Have Never Ended’, ERSTE Foundation, Vienna (AT)
‘A War in the Distance’ (prologue to Steirischer Herbst festival), Neue Galerie, Graz (AT)
2021
‘The Domino Effect 2’, Gaep, Bucharest (RO)
‘Diversity United: Contemporary European Art’, Tempelhof Airport Berlin (DE) and New Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow (RU)
‘Kick Off’, Camera K’ARTE, Târgu Mureș (RO)
2020
‘The Domino Effect’, Gaep, Bucharest (RO)
2019
‘After the Canal There Was Only ‘Our’ World’, MGML – City Art Gallery of Ljubljana (SI)
2018
‘Somewhere in Between’, BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels (BE)
‘Orient’, Kim? Contemporary Art Center, Riga (LV)
2017
documenta 14, Kassel (DE)/Athens (GR)
Art Encounters Biennial, Timișoara (RO)
2016
‘14 x 14 – Survey of the Danube Region. – Individual Views. – Photographic Positions’, Museum of Contemporary Art of Republic of Srpska, Banja Luka (BIH)
2015
‘Project 35: The Last Act’, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (RU)
‘Athens Photo Festival 2015: Recorded Memories’, Benaki Museum, Athens (GR)
‘Waiting for Better Times’, Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw (PL)
‘Recorded Memories. Europe – Southeast’, Museum of Yugoslav History, Belgrade (RS)
‘Recorded Memories. Europe – Southeast’, Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (GR)
2014
Manifesta 10 – The European Biennial of Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg (RU)
‘Recorded Memories. Europe – Southeast’, MNAC – National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest (RO)
‘14 x 14 – Survey of the Danube Region’, Edwin Scharff Museum, Neu-Ulm (DE)
‘Urbane Perspektiven – Dark City’, Schafhof – Europäisches Künstlerhaus Oberbayern, Freising (DE)
‘Recorded Memories. Europe – Southeast’, NiMAC – Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre (CY)
‘14 x 14 – Survey of the Danube Region’, MSUV – Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Novi Sad (RS)
See more
2013
‘Project 35: Volume 2’, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (DE)
‘Recorded Memories. Europe – Southeast’, Museum für Photographie, Braunschweig (DE)
2012
‘One Sixth of the Earth’, MUSAC – Castilla y León Museum of Contemporary Art, Leon (ES)
‘One Sixth of the Earth’, ZKM – Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe (DE)
‘Live rightly, die, die’, Dazibao, Montreal (CA)
‘Arbeit’, Technisches Museum, Vienna (AT)
2010
‘False Friends/An Ephemeral Video Library’, Jeu de Paume, Paris (FR)
‘A Pair of Left Shoes – Reality Check in Eastern Europe’, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb (HR)
‘On the Eastern Front’, Ludwig Museum, Budapest (HU)
‘FALL OUT – art, desire and disengagement’, Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (SE)
2007
‘Time of the Storytellers’, KIASMA – Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (FI)
‘Czechpoint’, Museum of Art Zilina (SK)
‘Förderkohle’, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin (DE)
2004
‘New Video, New Europe’, Tate Modern, London (UK)
‘Delay’, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (NL)
2003
‘Cine y Casi Cine’, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (ES)
Biennale of Moving Images, Geneva (CH)
2002
documenta 11, Kassel (DE)
