The
exhibition
Collect Call deals with the communicative
approaches which can be found in the works featured in the show. It could be
said that the project as a whole acknowledges and uses the strategy of the international
collect calling, in the sense that it desires a response, or a contribution
from its receivers, from H.arta space and from the local audience, in order
to come into existence. Collect call is produced by the independent art space
Index in Stockholm, and curated by Mats Stjernstedt, director of Index. The
project as a whole is an attempt to open up a more extensive network between
practitioners in Romania and Sweden by collaborating with H.arta, Timisoara,
E-cart magazine, Bucharest, and Center for Art Analyze (CAA), Bucharest. Johanna
Billing’s film-based projects often involve people that participate by being
themselves and contributing with their own experiences in situations that are
both directed and documentary in approach. Her activities also include working
with her and Anders Billing’s record label Make it Happen. Her contribution
to the exhibition at H.arta will be a screening of her music film “You don’t
love me yet”, which is a condensation of a three year live performance and film
project initiated by Index, Stockholm. As a contribution to Johanna’s project
the Makunouchi Bento band from Timisoara will present at the opening a cover
of the piece „You don’t love me yet”. In her installations and text-based works,
Lisa Torell comments on both human relationships as well as large-scale political,
societal developments. These current behaviors could be perceived as fragments
from a present that we ourselves are part of, therefore they are easy to accept,
yet difficult to oversee and obtain a better understanding of. Lisa Torell will
produce a site-specific installation at H.arta, taking its starting point in
aspects on the esthetic gentrification in certain public milieus. Henrik Andersson
works predominately with sound, performance and video. His works refer thematically
to different modes of communication, but always with a sharp political undertone
that acknowledges the difficulties, unfairness or impossibilities in this inter-human
communicative process. His work for H.arta will be a new performative sound
and video piece, which merges techno music with a traditional, Romanian 7/16
beat. Mats Stjernstedt