Dear Shaded Viewers,
09.07.โ15.08.2021
Axente Sever no 14, Cluj, RO
Zina Gallery (Cluj, Romania) has the pleasure to host a cluster of solo exhibitions under the title “TRIUMF AMIRIA: MUSEUM WORKINGS”: ๐ง๐ฅ๐๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐ ๐๐ข๐ฉ๐ ๐๐๐ง๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐ง๐ข ๐ฉ๐๐๐ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฃ๐ข๐ฉ๐๐๐โโabout activism, political imagination and radical fragility, โ๐ง๐ฅ๐๐จ๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐ ๐๐ข๐ฉ๐ ๐๐๐ง๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐ง๐ข๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐โโon disobedient bodies breaking oppressive scripts in public space and pantheons of consumerism, โ๐ง๐ฅ๐๐จ๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐ ๐๐ข๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ง๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐ง๐ข ๐๐ฅ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐๐ข๐ฅโโon empathy, fluid identities and dreamy futures with open eyes; alongside a group exhibition called โ๐๐๐๐ก๐๐ โ ๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐ก๐๐โโdeveloped around subjects such as affirmative synonyms for identities eluding singular definitions, recognition of artistic / curatorial labor, queer bodies, all those through participatory works proposed by Jasmina Al-Qaisi, Apparatus 22 and Georgiana Dobre & Kjersti Vetterstad. Furthermore, โ๐ง๐ข ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฉ๐ ๐ ๐ค๐จ๐๐๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ ๐โ works as a postscript with publicationsโ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ช๐ฆ by Alex Bodea, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐-๐ก, ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐โthat twist and transform print formats.
To our surprise, the invitation addressed to the curatorial duo KILOBASE BUCHAREST turned into a visit to Cluj (for a few weeks) of the most possible ~ impossible ~ radiant art institution recently appeared in Romania: TRIUMF AMIRIA. Museum of Queer Culture [?].
TRIUMF AMIRIA is hybridizing and expanding Zina Gallery according to its own imaginary and likeness as a queer museum growing on the fertile ground between a real institution and a utopian construction.
A polymuseum fluent in multiple artistic languages, TRIUMF AMIRIA is researching, disseminating and putting in the spotlights queer culture and queer artistic production in Romania. The practice of TRIUMF AMIRIA involves love and empathy heightened at a hyperbolic power, so it is no wonder that this embrace of hyperboles and a complex process of queering ~ critical thinking ~ queerification about what a museum could be made possible a generous and expansive grouping of four exhibitions and a PS in a super concentrated space of about 40 m2.
After an in-depth research conducted for TRIUMF AMIRIA about artistic practices in the visual arts (and not only) that have covered queer topics in the last 20 years, KILOBASE BUCHAREST decided to produce the first solo exhibitions of artists such as Mihai Mihalcea, a major figure for the dance and performance scene after 1989; Veda Popovici, artist, researcher, activist with a significant influence in the reflection on feminist, queer and decolonial theories; and Irina Bujor, an elusive artist with a special practice about minorities and seemingly minor phenomena. The responsibility of the legitimacy that a museum carries is transformed, on this occasion, into the gesture of imagining solo exhibitions as love letters sent to artists.
As the title eloquently suggests, โTRIUMF AMIRIA – MUSEUM WORKINGSโ (which can be accompanied by an invisible subtitle with pop references, What other charms did TRIUMF AMIRIA do?), the exhibition cluster at Zina Gallery in Cluj unfolds a series of serious ~ playful ~ irreverent experiments with forms of museum thinking. In addition, for what could become the history of art in Romania it coagulates and acknowledges critical artistic practices and crucial aspects about resistance through art, new forms of conviviality, queer criticality and introspection into better future worlds.