[spectre] RECLAIMING THE CITY at Spalatorie theater, Chisinau

[stefan rusu]

film screening



RECLAIMING THE CITY, (Romanian subtitles) 64’, 2012

by Stefan Rusu


Period: 28 of October (Sunday), 19:00
Organizer: Spalatorie theater
Location: Spalatorie theater
Address: 72 Eminescu Str.



Through a complex interweaving of field trips and interviews, personal
narratives and interventions in public spaces, the film reveals a number of
sites of the New Berlin that uniquely exemplify the contradictions and
tensions of social memory and national identity in the late twentieth and
early twenty-first centuries. It is conceived as an investigative
documentary, and is a quest through dramatic socio-economic restructuring
processes, the physical transformation of the city following the fall of
the Wall, and the impact of gentrification processes on public space.

The film is based on city walks with Svetlana Hagen, Erik Göngrich, Jochen
Becker, Mathias Heyden, Berndt Langer, who guide the viewer trough
Kreuzberg, Neukölln, and Prenzlauer Berg districts, among others—areas that
are trapped in a continuing cycle of gentrification. Along these trips we
re-visit Tempelhof Airport, haunted by the ghosts of the Cold War; and we
climb to the top of Reichstag— rebranded from a symbol of defeat into a
temple of democracy.

The journey continues as we visit a number of former and still existing
squats, in order to compare them with more recent initiatives and models of
urban resistance. Following this path, the film spotlights agents of
change—cultural workers and activists—and explores the political dimension
of public space.


Commissioned by the 7th Berlin Biennale, co-produced by KSAK Center for
Contemporary Art, Chisinau.With kind support from Goethe Institute,
Bucharest; ERSTE Foundation, Vienna; and Romanian Cultural Institute,
Berlin.


*Stefan Rusu is a visual artist, curator, editor, and filmmaker based in
Chisinau* *and Bucharest. His artistic/curatorial agenda is geared towards
the processes of transformation and changes in post-socialist societies
after 1989.*



Public event organised by Spalatorie theater in colaboration with [KSA:K] -
Center for Contemporary Art, Chisinau.


*Spalatorie theater is not a venue or an institution, it is a framework
created by artists for artists. The framework aims to give artists who
oppose the artistic views of the state-run cultural institutions and hence
find themselves left out of the system, the opportunity to present their
work to the local public and say what they need to say in their own manner.
One of spălătorie’s principles is that artists should take a stand and
should tackle the problems the society is going through. Secondly, that
they should use state-of-the-art approaches in their work and be aware of
the current developments in the art sphere. Therefore, spălătorie-theater
wants to give to the Moldovan independent cultural sector the opportunity
to express itself publicly and to become a part of the public space.
Moreover, it wants to address the need of an alternative space in Chișinău,
where artists are able to act and react to the political and social events
in Moldova, but also to the ones occurring in the broader European region
and generally in the world. (http://www.spalatorie.md/)*

*Center for Contemporary Art – [KSA:K] is a non-profit, independent
institution established in 2000. The strategy of the Center is the
development of cultural forms and art practices that reflect the dynamic of
the social, political and economic transformations of the society. The
Center supports advocacy activities in promoting cultural policies suitable
for defining and strengthening the position of artists and contemporary art
practices in society. (http://www.art.md)*




 Stefan Rusu


Chisinau-Art, Research in the Public Sphere

http://www.art.md/2010/sfera_publica_prezentare_en.html
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