Studiotopia

Official opening

7th of July, 7 PM

Location

Tranzit House

George Baritiu 16, Cluj-Napoca

Schedule

8th of July - 3rd of August

Tuesday - Saturday: 4 PM - 8 PM

Curators:
Maja & Reuben Fowkes

Artists and scientists:

Sandra Lorenzi (ART) & Jean-Christophe Marine (SCI) • Kuang-yi Ku (ART) & Sofie Goormachtig (SCI) • Hypercomf (ART) & Markos K. Digenis (SCI) • 3137 (ART) & Dr. Audrey-Flore Ngomsik (SCI) • Alexandra Pirici (ART) & Paco Calvo (SCI) • Ciprian Mureşan (ART) & Sanneke Stigter (SCI) – Sven Dupré (SCI) • Christiaan Zwanikken (ART) & Emmanuel Grimaud (ART) – DM Hoyt (SCI) • Dmitry Gelfand (ART) – Evelina Domnitch (ART) & Florian Schreck (SCI) – Guillaume Schweicher (SCI) • Oswaldo Maciá (ART) & Chris Bean (SCI) – Emilia Leszkowicz (SCI) • Maja Smrekar (ART) & Jonas Jørgensen (SCI) • Kat Austen (ART) & Indre Žliobaitė (SCI) – Laurence Gill (SCI) • Voldemārs Johansons (ART) & Hugo Thienpont (SCI) – Alexander Kish (SCI) – Antoine Reserbat-Plantey (SCI) • Siobhán McDonald (ART) & Chris Bean (SCI) – Arwyn Jones (SCI) – Emily Shuckburgh (SCI)

Organized by:

Cluj Cultural Centre

 

Concept
The boundaries between the sciences and the arts have been profoundly destabilized by the Anthropocene as runaway ecological breakdown corrodes the epistemic structures of carbon modernity. Scientific recognition of the unprecedented scale of human impacts on Earth systems first prompted calls to rename the current geological epoch at the turn of the millennium. Since then, a multitude of critical and artistic engagements from decolonial, post-capitalist and indigenous perspectives have complicated and pluralised the Western-centric notion of the Anthropocene. The ecological crisis of the many Anthropocenes is therefore not only a biogeochemical derailment, but equally an epistemological question, and art-science collaborations are emerging as vital sites for working through its implications for terrestrial knowledge systems.
This exhibition explores the potential of art practices to reshape the governing paradigm of scientific understanding by disrupting its atomized logic and pushing research methodologies to the boundaries of the possible. It brings together artworks that emerge from the crucible of a collaborative process in which laboratories, technologies and expertise have opened up to the catalyst of artistic invention. Liberating enquiry from the constraints of the epistemologies of the retreating Holocene era, such settings create the conditions for unconventional responses to planetary challenges to be articulated. With the reversal of the usual division of roles, “science for art’s sake” could be the alternative maxim of these art-science collaborations in which art poses the questions and science illuminates a pathway to unpredictable outcomes.
Artists' works
Speculative Ecologies

Palaeoplasticene

Kat Austen

Speculative Ecologies

Lemniscate Cascade

Evelina Domnitch și Dmitri Gelfand

Speculative Ecologies

Fish Kissed

Hypercomf

Speculative Ecologies

Cosmic Gas

Siobhán McDonald

Earthly Sensorium

How to Read Poetry to Cancer Cells?

Sandra Lorenzi

Earthly Sensorium

Corruption and Consciousness

Oswaldo Maciá

Earthly Sensorium

Sensing The Living: Promoting the Perception of Plants

Alexandra Pirici & Paco Calvo

Earthly Sensorium

Zoetropic Centrifuge

Christiaan Zwanikken

Hacking Technocracy

CO3(6)5

3 137 & Dr. Audrey-Flore Ngomsik

Hacking Technocracy

Carbon Archive

Voldemars Johansons

Hacking Technocracy

Centre for Plant Immigrant Integration

Kuang-Yi Ku

Hacking Technocracy

House Swallowed by a Tomb

Ciprian Mureșan

Hacking Technocracy

!Cartesian Shell

Maja Smrekar & Jonas Jørgensen

Events

Official opening

7th-8th of July

Exhibition guided tours

Every Saturday
Photo gallery
About
Team

Project management: Corina Bucea
Exhibition management: Oana Big
Design and production management: Paul Stoie
Mediators: Cătălina Nistor, Helga Thies, Emese Apai
Texts: Maja & Reuben Fowkes
Translation and editing: Mariana Buruiana, Corina Bucea
Graphic design: Dalma Nyiri
Marketing and communication: Mihaela Orosan, Lorena Copil

About Studiotopia
STUDIOTOPIA is a speculative and creative exploration of the themes associated with sustainable development, through the convergent perspectives of artists and scientists. The project, coordinated by BOZAR (Belgium) and supported by Creative Europe, offers a complex programme of collaborative residencies for artists and researchers, as well as exhibitions, research activities, and a creative process of activating and involving a specific audience, from young people to disadvantaged groups.
Colliding Epistemes | Art & Science Exhibition is the culmination of the thirteen art-science collaborative residencies organised within the framework of the project, and it explores how art can reshape scientific knowledge, proposing new, unconventional approaches to the challenges facing our planet today.
“Studiotopia: Art meets Science in the Anthropocene” is hosted by eight cultural institutions across Europe: GLUON in Brussels, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Center for Fine Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels, Laznia Center for Contemporary Art in Gdansk, Onassis Stegi in Athens, Cluj Cultural Centre, Laboral in Gijon, and Ars Electronica in Linz.
About Casa Tranzit

The Tranzit Project was born in 1997, in the building of the former “Poalei Tzedek” synagogue in Cluj, where it aimed in parallel at restoring the building of the synagogue and filling it with artistic and social content. Having now reached 20 years of activity, the Tranzit foundation, which runs the Tranzit House project, managed to fill the empty space of the synagogue periodically with shows, exhibitions, and conferences, giving space for diverse social, ethnic, and professional groups.

The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCN). AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.