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|  Inventing the Truth. On Fiction and Reality
Artists: Michele Bressan, Carmen Dobre-Hametner, Alex Mirutziu, Lea Rasovszky,
Ștefan Sava, Larisa Sitar
Curator: Diana Marincu

The New Gallery of the Romanian Institute for Culture and Research in Humanities
Campo Santa Fosca
Palazzo Correr
Cannaregio 2214
30121 Venice
Italy

Press and professional preview: 6–8 May
Friday, 8 May, 5 pm: Opening; 5:30 pm: The Finnish Method, performance by Alex 
Mirutziu 
www.inventingthetruth.com

The exhibition took shape along two simultaneous directions of research, one of 
which interprets fiction as the “repressed” part of the discourse of history 
(as defined by Michel de Certeau), while the other focuses on the seemingly 
banal everyday life, where quotidian elements are poetically re-contextualised 
and temporally recomposed by means of fiction. The transformation of the past 
into the solid matter of history is always an act of excess, a political 
gesture, a subjective intrusion on the part of those who are researching an 
archive. Therefore, the works presented here enrich the analysis of history 
through the insertion of fiction and personal micro-histories. However, the 
present provides even greater interpretative versatility and a better dynamics 
of narrative construction thanks to real-time revisions and corrections.

The works on show bring to the fore both the interpretative process and the 
production of such narratives. The visual construction of each project engages 
with the conventions of fiction, making visible the traces of the author and 
the subtle joints linking authenticity and invention. The impossibility of 
identifying the limits of reality leads the viewer to waver between how 
convincing and how jarring the mise-en-scène is.

Carmen Dobre-Hametner’s (b. 1978) photographic project Consuming History 
documents the commercial re-enactment of everyday life in communism, organized 
in a former Soviet bunker near Vilnius, and made available for tourists and 
locals; the photographs reflect on contemporary perceptions of history and 
otherness. Ștefan Sava (b. 1982) proposes a video essay on the potential and 
the limits of interpreting a photographic archive, questioning the 
representation of a traumatic past. The work And then, one thing led to 
another... by Larisa Sitar (b. 1984) speaks of exchanges between ideology and 
history by appropriating differently dated engravings that depict violence, 
ruin and nameless figures that influenced the course of human history. Michele 
Bressan (b. 1980) speculates on the temporal displacement of an event, 
rendering it more abstract and suspending it outside of chronological 
conventions. Lea Rasovszky (b. 1986) puts together a story from fragments of 
real events, personal memories and excerpts from books, integrating fiction 
into the narrator’s own life. Alex Mirutziu (b. 1981) uses the concepts of the 
“bureaucratic object” and “ontological design” in the relations he establishes 
between word and space, body and object.

Organizers: Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Romanian Cultural Institute, 
Instituto Romeno di Cultura e Ricerca Umanistica di Venezia, Romanian Ministry 
of Culture
Partners: The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest; Center of 
Excellence In Image Study, Bucharest (CESI); Faculty of Letters, The University 
of Bucharest; The Embassy of Romania in the Republic of Lithuania; Ivan 
Gallery, Bucharest; Sabot Gallery, Cluj; Jecza Gallery, Timisoara
Sponsors: Corcova, Roy & Damboviceanu; Flash Lighting Services
With the support of: Ovidiu Sandor; IDEA Design & Print; X Design; Square 
Media; Fabrik

Artists:
Michele Bressan (b.1980) lives and works in Bucharest, Romania. He graduated 
from the Photo-Video Department of The National University of Arts Bucharest 
(2009) and he obtained a master’s degree in photography at the same university 
(2011). Michele Bressan was among the winners of the Essl Award for photography 
and was nominated for the Henkel Art Award in 2009. Selected solo exhibitions: 
ViennaFair The New Contemporary with Jecza Gallery (2013), and Waiting for the 
Drama, H’art Gallery, Bucharest (2012). Selected group exhibitions: WHAT ABOUT 
Y[OUR] MEMORY, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest (2014), 
PASAJ, The National Museum of Contemporary Art – Anexa, Bucharest (2014), Les 
Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid (video screening), La Gaîté 
Lyrique and Palais de Tokyo (2014), Europe/South-East. Recorded Memories, 
Museum für Photographie Braunschweig (2013), Badly Happy: Pain, Pleasure and 
Panic in Recent Romanian Art, Performance Art Institute San Francisco (2010).

Carmen Dobre-Hametner (b. 1978) lives and works in Munich, Germany. Her 
academic training took place at the National University of Arts in Bucharest 
(BFA in Photography and Video Art) and Leiden University, NL (Master of 
Photographic Studies). She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of 
Arts in Bucharest with a research project on the "Furry community". In 2010 she 
won the national selection for the Henkel Art Award for Central and Eastern 
Europe. She was nominated for the Essl Art Award and the Celeste Prize in 2013. 
She participated in artistic residencies at the Romanian Cultural Institute in 
Paris, the Romanian Cultural Institute in London and the Fotonow Foundation in 
Plymouth, UK. Her most important exhibitions include: Alien and Familiar, 
Galerie Taxispalais, Innsbruck, Austria (2013), Celeste Prize, ex-Bibli, Rome 
(2013), Furries, Galerie Rue de l’Exposition, Paris (2011), Body-Art-Society, 
Galerie Oudin, Paris (2011), Furbook, La Cantine, Paris (2010). In 2012, Carmen 
Dobre-Hametner published the photo book ”Furries. Enacting Animal 
Anthropomorphism” at the University of Plymouth Press.

Alex Mirutziu (b. 1981) lives and works in Sibiu. In 2004 he graduated from the 
University of Art and Design, Cluj, (RO) and in 2008 from Huddersfield 
University (UK) with a master degree in physical theatre and performance. In 
recent years Mirutziu has lectured on performance and theatre at prestigious 
institutions such as Royal College of Arts, London, Von Kraal Theatre, Estonia, 
or IASPIS, Stockholm, and has collaborated with artists and writers such as, 
Grit Hachmeister (DE), Paul Devens (NL), Elias Merino (ES), Graham Foust (US), 
Asa Jungnelius (SE), Graham Harman (US). Recent selected solo exhibitions: Each 
thought’s an instant ruin with a new disease, Sabot Gallery (2013), Pending 
works and bureaucratic objects, Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich, Spending time 
in relation to usage, Barbara Seiler Gallery, Zürich (2011), Time’s Own Insult, 
The Glass Factory, Emmaboda, Suedia (2011). Recent group shows: A few grams of 
Red, Yellow, Blue, Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw 
(2014), European Travellers – Art from Cluj Today, Műcsarnok/Kunsthalle 
Budapest (2012), Play dice would be nice, Gaudel de Stampa, Paris (2012); 
Rearview Mirror, The Power Plant, Toronto / Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton 
(2011 / 2012).

Lea Rasovszky (b.1986) lives and works in Bucharest. In 2008 she obtained a BFA 
from the Photo-Video Department of The National University of Arts Bucharest 
and in 2010 she earned a MFA degree from the same department. Selected solo 
shows: From Stars to Steroids: Two Short Stories About an Almost Metaphoric 
Bestiary, Anca Poterașu Gallery, Bucharest (2014), Mentors, Anca Poterasu 
Gallery, Bucharest (2012), The Savages, Atelier 35, Bucharest (2012), MEN, 
Atelier 35, Bucharest (2011), Sorrow, Heartache, Recovery & Shit, ALERTStudio, 
Bucharest (2011). Selected group exhibitions: PALE BLUE DOT, Lateral Art Space, 
The Paintbrush Factory, Cluj (2014), PASAJ, The National Museum of Contemporary 
Art – Anexa, Bucharest (2014), Spazi Aperti, 10th Edition, Romanian Academy in 
Rome, Rome, IT (2013), The Biennial of Young Artists, 5th edition, Overlapping 
Biennial, Bucharest (2012), Fresh Drawings, LC Foundation – Contemporary Art 
Center, Bucharest (2011). International residences: Artist Residence Herzliya 
via ICR Tel Aviv, Herzliya (2011), Schafhof - Europäisches Künstlerhaus 
Oberbayern, Freising (2008).

Ștefan Sava (b. 1982) lives and works in Bucharest, Romania. He earned a 
master’s degree from the Photo-Video Department of The National University of 
Arts, Bucharest (2010) and he is currently enrolled as a PhD student at the 
same university. In 2013 he was the winner of the Henkel Art Award Romania. 
Selected solo shows: Ruins of a Day, Ivan Gallery, Bucharest (2015), Facts 
about Which There Can Be Questions, Ivan Gallery, Bucharest (2013), The 
Inside‐Out of the Wall, Ivan Gallery, Bucharest (2012), Atoms and Void, Galeria 
Posibilă, Bucharest (2010). Selected group shows: Few Were Happy with their 
Condition, Kunsthalle Winterthur, Winterthur (2015), Europe/South-East. 
Recorded Memories, Museum für Photographie Braunschweig (2013), From the 
Backstage, Salonul de proiecte, The National Museum of Contemporary Art – 
Anexa, Bucharest (2012).

Larisa Sitar (b. 1984) lives and works in Bucharest. In 2008 she graduated from 
the Photo-Video Department of The National University of Arts, Bucharest and in 
2010 she earned a master’s degree from the same university. Selected group 
exhibitions: WHAT ABOUT Y[OUR] MEMORY, The National Museum of Contemporary Art 
Bucharest (2014), Transformation. Romanian Sculpture 25 Years After the 
Revolution, Museum Beelden aan Zee, Haga; PASAJ, The National Museum of 
Contemporary Art – Anexa, Bucharest (2014), The Visible City project (with a 
public space intervention, Monument), organized by AltArt Foundation, 
Cluj-Napoca (2013), breakup, Motorenhalle, Dresden (The Trailblazers, with 
Mircea Nicolae and Ștefan Tiron, 2013), Care Crisis, Futura Gallery, Prague 
(2012), Essl Art Award CEE, Winners Exhibition, Essl Museum, 
Klosterneuburg/Vienna (2011), Zoomania.Ro, The National Museum of Contemporary 
Art Bucharest (2010), End of Academia, The National Museum of Contemporary Art 
– Anexa, Bucharest (2010), EMERGEANDSEE, media arts festival, Berlin (2010), 
Start Point Prize, Galerie NTK, Prague (2010).

Curator:
Diana Marincu (b. 1986) is a curator and art critic living in Cluj and 
Bucharest. She graduated from the Faculty of Arts and Design in Timisoara, and 
obtained an MA degree in Art History and Theory from the National University of 
Arts in Bucharest. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Arts 
in Bucharest, Art History Department. Her most recent curatorial work includes: 
Other Rooms, Galeria Plan B, Fabrica de Pensule, Cluj, 2015; Mihai 
Iepure-Górski, Words in a Room, : BARIL, Fabrica de Pensule, Cluj, 2015; PASAJ 
(Michele Bressan, Lea Rasovszky, Larisa Sitar), The National Museum of 
Contemporary Art – Anexa, Bucharest, 2014.

Project managers:Co-founded by cultural managers Suzana Dan and Silvia Rogozea, 
the Ephemair Association has an extensive experience with contemporary art 
projects and urban cultural activities in Bucharest. Designed to promote the 
contemporary Romanian art scene locally and internationally, with a clear 
impact on cultural life and education, The White Night of the Galleries had 
produced throughout its 9 editions (2007-present) more than 25 exhibitions 
focusing on emerging Romanian contemporary artists. Partnering with local and 
national institutions, other projects such as Bucharest Art Weekend, Art on 
Display and NAG Pop Up Gallery also tackle urban activation and contemporary 
art production and promotion, while the Trance / Cultural program is dedicated 
to interdisciplinary art research and production (music, new media, movement, 
visual arts).

For press inquiries, please contact:
[email protected] / Silvia Rogozea: +40 724 576 779

The exhibition Inventing the Truth. On Fiction and Reality will represent 
Romania at the 56th International Art Exhibition – Venice Biennale at the New 
Gallery of the Romanian Institute, alongside Darwin’s Room by Adrian Ghenie in 
the National Pavilion in Giardini. The exhibition Darwin’s Room, curated by 
Mihai Pop, is initiated by The Paintbrush Factory in Cluj in partnership with 
Film ETC. Association in Bucharest. More details on www.darwinsroom.ro.
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