DE FACTO. UAD 2023
15 December 2023 - 28 January 2024
Gallery of Contemporary Art BWA SOKÓŁ
vernissage:
15 December 2023, hour 18:00
The exhibition DE FACTO. UAD 2023 brings together works by artist-educators from the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
LOCAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH CULTURE AND ARTS EDUCATION
For Pierre Bourdieu and Alain Darbel, the "love of art" depends on inherited cultural capital, on cultivated dispositions transmitted within the family, more than on natural and spontaneous inclinations; the frequency and even more the modes of cultural consumption result thus from the inoculation of an entire way of life." [1]
Education is one of the basic pillars in the formation of a community, of a society with a cultural identity. The publication of this material, as well as the realization of the two exhibitions with the creations of the teachers of the University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca at the Center of Contemporary Art Painters' Colony and at the Gallery of Contemporary Art BWA Sokół in Nowy Sącz, Poland were financially supported by the IDF project (Institutional Development Fund) generated by the Romanian Ministry of Education.
Culture is not an economic asset, but it inevitably produces economic effects, acting within society rather than outside it. The potential to invent a country, to unite a city around culture is a challenge for sustainable development through culture. In order to build cultural development projects at local level, there needs to be a confluence of cultural strategies with regional and national policies, taking into account the training of artists, the protection of intellectual property rights, the preservation of heritage, the support for consumer information, even subsidies to reduce the cost of access to cultural goods and services. National and regional policies are seldom directly oriented to distribute cultural activities in the territory, there are always other scientific or political criteria. A decentralised decision-making framework would give local actors the freedom to make decisions, communicate and create specific projects.
Xavier Greffe and Sylvie Pflieger[2] make a comparison between "artistic legitimacy" and "economic legitimacy". The former needs more time for novelty to be recognised and the latter is very much linked to budgetary or market conditions. Given this relationship, in some countries there is a subordination between the two, prioritising economic legitimacy by looking at the immediate outcome of the subsidy granted for a cultural good. If the validation of the users of the cultural act is not what the funder expects, it will not be renewed. Therefore, if culture is subject to the market, it will behave like other sectors of the economy. If it is placed in the hands of the public authorities, "it will be a source of inefficiency and waste (...) due to widespread irresponsibility, bureaucratisation, consolidation of rents, weighting of recognised artists, clientelism: so many phenomena that the commercial operation would avoid "[3].
The Centre of Contemporary Art Painters' Colony, the space hosting the exhibition of the teachers from the University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca, is structured on 5 pillars[4]. The first, immanent, aesthetic, refers to the cultural legitimacy of the artistic project. It is important here to include this legitimacy in the current Pan-European context, relying on a network of cultural actors with a national and international reputation.
The second pillar is historiographical, patrimonial, vertical and structures the project's narrative. It starts with the centuries-old history of the first plein-air school, its evolution, cultural survival in the days of communism and reinvention in the contemporary.
The third pillar, territorial, horizontal, concerns the inclusion of the project in a dynamic of local development of the city and the region on a cultural level. This aspect translates, of course, into strong support for artists and creation in all its forms, but also in the irreducible desire to associate the population, teenagers, schools, volunteers, the curious, enthusiasts, civil society, politicians, associations ... to the life of the Colony. And for this to work, it is not enough just to decree it, we must constantly invent new ways of doing it, and reproduce some of them on a recurring basis in the form of annual or biennial festivals and meetings, workshops, etc.
The managerial aspect is the fourth pillar and concerns the direction and leadership of the team. A well-developed management project enables achievements to be guided, balance to be maintained, circumstances to be adapted, difficulties to be avoided and opportunities to be exploited. There are no recipes, only the need to give everyone the desire to get involved, to improve themselves, knowing that they contribute to the success of the whole project.
The fifth dimension is that of communication, carried out at all levels, with the artists, with the residents, with the people enrolled in the teaching modules, and finally with the public.
I had the honour, the opportunity and the joy to conceive and write this project dedicated to institutional development in order to give back to the public space the university artistic life of Cluj, as well as to gather the teaching staff of the University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca around a travelling exhibition and a publication that would attest another dimension of the teaching act, namely the artistic one, the research in the studio, in the creative space. I would especially like to thank the Rector, Associate Professor, PhD Eugen SAVINESCU for his trust, Professor, PhD habil. Bogdan IACOB, the curator of the exhibition, Associate Professor, PhD Angéla KALLÓ for designing the graphic identity and the concept of the album, Senior Lecturer, PhD. Ștefan BĂDULESCU for photographing the artworks, all the teaching staff and the entire management and implementation team.
I wish that this cultural gesture represents the beginning of our collaboration between a prestigious university art education institution both in the country and abroad and a cultural space with a history of 127 years, with a beautiful history at international level, not just a local cultural landmark, which has meant and continues to mean creation, artistic and cultural training, material and immaterial heritage.
Associate Professor PhD habil. Laura Teodora GHINEA
Director of the Contemporary Art Centre Painters' Colony
President of UAPR Baia Mare Branch
[1] Françoise BENHAMOU, L'économie de la culture, Editions la Découverte, Paris 2004, P. 11
[2] Xavier GREFFE et Sylvie PFLIEGER, La politique culturelle en France, Editions La Documentation Française, Paris, 2015, ISSN 1763-6191, P. 11
[3] Xavier GREFFE et Sylvie PFLIEGER, La politique culturelle en France, Editions La Documentation Française, Paris, 2015, P. 214
[4] Laura Teodora GHINEA et Paul RASSE, L'École internationale de peinture de Baia Mare, un Tiers-lieu réinventé, article Tiers lieux culturels
For Pierre Bourdieu and Alain Darbel, the "love of art" depends on inherited cultural capital, on cultivated dispositions transmitted within the family, more than on natural and spontaneous inclinations; the frequency and even more the modes of cultural consumption result thus from the inoculation of an entire way of life." [1]
Education is one of the basic pillars in the formation of a community, of a society with a cultural identity. The publication of this material, as well as the realization of the two exhibitions with the creations of the teachers of the University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca at the Center of Contemporary Art Painters' Colony and at the Gallery of Contemporary Art BWA Sokół in Nowy Sącz, Poland were financially supported by the IDF project (Institutional Development Fund) generated by the Romanian Ministry of Education.
Culture is not an economic asset, but it inevitably produces economic effects, acting within society rather than outside it. The potential to invent a country, to unite a city around culture is a challenge for sustainable development through culture. In order to build cultural development projects at local level, there needs to be a confluence of cultural strategies with regional and national policies, taking into account the training of artists, the protection of intellectual property rights, the preservation of heritage, the support for consumer information, even subsidies to reduce the cost of access to cultural goods and services. National and regional policies are seldom directly oriented to distribute cultural activities in the territory, there are always other scientific or political criteria. A decentralised decision-making framework would give local actors the freedom to make decisions, communicate and create specific projects.
Xavier Greffe and Sylvie Pflieger[2] make a comparison between "artistic legitimacy" and "economic legitimacy". The former needs more time for novelty to be recognised and the latter is very much linked to budgetary or market conditions. Given this relationship, in some countries there is a subordination between the two, prioritising economic legitimacy by looking at the immediate outcome of the subsidy granted for a cultural good. If the validation of the users of the cultural act is not what the funder expects, it will not be renewed. Therefore, if culture is subject to the market, it will behave like other sectors of the economy. If it is placed in the hands of the public authorities, "it will be a source of inefficiency and waste (...) due to widespread irresponsibility, bureaucratisation, consolidation of rents, weighting of recognised artists, clientelism: so many phenomena that the commercial operation would avoid "[3].
The Centre of Contemporary Art Painters' Colony, the space hosting the exhibition of the teachers from the University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca, is structured on 5 pillars[4]. The first, immanent, aesthetic, refers to the cultural legitimacy of the artistic project. It is important here to include this legitimacy in the current Pan-European context, relying on a network of cultural actors with a national and international reputation.
The second pillar is historiographical, patrimonial, vertical and structures the project's narrative. It starts with the centuries-old history of the first plein-air school, its evolution, cultural survival in the days of communism and reinvention in the contemporary.
The third pillar, territorial, horizontal, concerns the inclusion of the project in a dynamic of local development of the city and the region on a cultural level. This aspect translates, of course, into strong support for artists and creation in all its forms, but also in the irreducible desire to associate the population, teenagers, schools, volunteers, the curious, enthusiasts, civil society, politicians, associations ... to the life of the Colony. And for this to work, it is not enough just to decree it, we must constantly invent new ways of doing it, and reproduce some of them on a recurring basis in the form of annual or biennial festivals and meetings, workshops, etc.
The managerial aspect is the fourth pillar and concerns the direction and leadership of the team. A well-developed management project enables achievements to be guided, balance to be maintained, circumstances to be adapted, difficulties to be avoided and opportunities to be exploited. There are no recipes, only the need to give everyone the desire to get involved, to improve themselves, knowing that they contribute to the success of the whole project.
The fifth dimension is that of communication, carried out at all levels, with the artists, with the residents, with the people enrolled in the teaching modules, and finally with the public.
I had the honour, the opportunity and the joy to conceive and write this project dedicated to institutional development in order to give back to the public space the university artistic life of Cluj, as well as to gather the teaching staff of the University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca around a travelling exhibition and a publication that would attest another dimension of the teaching act, namely the artistic one, the research in the studio, in the creative space. I would especially like to thank the Rector, Associate Professor, PhD Eugen SAVINESCU for his trust, Professor, PhD habil. Bogdan IACOB, the curator of the exhibition, Associate Professor, PhD Angéla KALLÓ for designing the graphic identity and the concept of the album, Senior Lecturer, PhD. Ștefan BĂDULESCU for photographing the artworks, all the teaching staff and the entire management and implementation team.
I wish that this cultural gesture represents the beginning of our collaboration between a prestigious university art education institution both in the country and abroad and a cultural space with a history of 127 years, with a beautiful history at international level, not just a local cultural landmark, which has meant and continues to mean creation, artistic and cultural training, material and immaterial heritage.
Associate Professor PhD habil. Laura Teodora GHINEA
Director of the Contemporary Art Centre Painters' Colony
President of UAPR Baia Mare Branch
[1] Françoise BENHAMOU, L'économie de la culture, Editions la Découverte, Paris 2004, P. 11
[2] Xavier GREFFE et Sylvie PFLIEGER, La politique culturelle en France, Editions La Documentation Française, Paris, 2015, ISSN 1763-6191, P. 11
[3] Xavier GREFFE et Sylvie PFLIEGER, La politique culturelle en France, Editions La Documentation Française, Paris, 2015, P. 214
[4] Laura Teodora GHINEA et Paul RASSE, L'École internationale de peinture de Baia Mare, un Tiers-lieu réinventé, article Tiers lieux culturels