Lecture | Encounters with Romanian art
On Thursday 27 August, S.M.A.K. hosts a talk dedicated to the Romanian contemporary art scene and the presentation of Art Encounters Biennial, with which S.M.A.K. has established a new institutional partnership.
Diana Marincu, Artistic Director of the Art Encounters Foundation, will give a talk on recent Romanian art, examining artists, institutions, political contexts, geography, and the entanglements among these elements. Focusing on landmark artists and exhibitions between the 1970s and the 2020s, this presentation offers the audience insights and opens a conversation about future collaborations and exchanges.
The partnership between Art Encounters and S.M.A.K. is structured around artistic co-production and professional exchange, with the aim of learning from each other how both institutions operate and develop their projects. Diana’s mobility in Ghent is the first in a series of exchanges between the two teams. Curators and professionals from Art Encounters and S.M.A.K. will thus have the opportunity to work, in turn, in Timișoara and in Ghent, in an exchange of experience, practices, and perspectives.
The dialogue will be enriched by Philippe Van Cauteren – director of S.M.A.K. and recently appointed curator of the 2027 Art Encounters Biennial – and Georgia Bacinschi, the General Director of Art Encounters Foundation, responsible for management, fundraising, and business planning.
- Thursday 27.Aug.26 at 19:00
- Location: Auditorium S.M.A.K.
- Language: English
- Free entry, but book your place via reservation@smak.be
Diana Marincu is a curator and art critic, member of the IKT board, and the Artistic Director of the Art Encounters Foundation Timișoara. She received her PhD from the Bucharest National University of Arts in 2017, in the Art History and Theory department, with research on the curatorial discourses on identity, alterity, and the periphery constructed by large-scale exhibitions and biennials from 1989 to this day. From 2012 to 2018 she worked with the Plan B Foundation in Cluj and with the Paintbrush Factory, where she curated numerous exhibitions focusing on the young artistic scene. In 2017, Diana Marincu, together with Ami Barak, curated the second edition of the Art Encounters Biennial in Timișoara, Life: A User’s Manual, featuring more than 100 invited artists. Within the programs created in collaboration with the Art Encounters Foundation’s team, Diana Marincu aims to strengthen links among regional artistic scenes and larger international ones, establish artistic connections based on co-production, and support the younger generation of artists. As co-curator of the Romanian Pavilion this year, Diana Marincu contributed to the realization of the project Black Seas – Scores for the Sonic Eye, by artists Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan.
