The Turkish bath in Iasi becomes a hub of creativity for dozens of Romanian and foreign artists –

The Turkish Bath in Iasi, a monument building built at the end of the 19th century and recently rehabilitated with European funds, is transformed during the 12 days of the Romanian Creative Week (RCW), the most important event dedicated to the creative industries in the EU, into a universe of creativity. Thus, the ground floor and first floor of Băia Turceşti will host the central exhibition of the event, Egology, curated by Marian Pălie, throughout the duration of the fourth edition of RCW, between May 15 and 26, 2024. The basement of Baia Turcesti will host three events, designed by three different teams of curators.

Egologia, with an architectural design by Anda Zota and Elena Ionescu, brings to Iasi the works of 24 Romanian artists, as well as from Japan and Italy. A real meditative show made of paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, visual arts, sound design. This is the challenge of Egologia artists for the Romanian Creative Week audience.

“Egology is an approach that explores the complex relationship between the individual ego and the social constructions that shape it, it is a journey of self-discovery, where the interior landscape reflects the complex relationship we share with the natural, external world. We are faced with the tension inherent in modern life, where social pressures and societal norms often collide with the desire for connection and harmony with the natural world. Egologia is not just an exhibition, it is an invitation to introspection and transformation”, says Marian Pălie, curator of Egologia.

Among the artists who will exhibit at Egologia are: Ana Taină, Alexandru Ranga, Elena Pîrvu, Hideo Iwasaki (Japan), Iulian Nan, Mihaela Vasiliu, Thea Lazăr, Tudor Ciurescu and Vlad Albu.

FF | Fashion & Film, the exhibition curated by Domnica Mărgescu and Maurice Munteanu, tells us, through photography, film and video mapping projections, about the impact that cinema had, has and will have on fashion as a social tool, as a fighting tool , as a barometer of all kinds of trends.

“As far as I’m concerned, the story of this exhibition is related to my first love story. I think I was 5 years old when I fell in love with fashion, when I first saw the movie ‘The Birds’. The opening moment, in which Tippi Hedren crosses that intersection in San Francisco, perfectly directed by Hitchcock and impeccably dressed by Edith Head, corresponded to charting my professional destiny, even if at 5 years old I was not aware of it.

The exhibition aims to show the connection between fashion and film, to outline a kind of aesthetic route through time and to capture that visual emotion, a vital emotion. Things cannot work separately, and they do not work separately. Film and fashion have one of the oldest friendships”, says curator Maurice Munteanu, fashion editor of ELLE for 19 years and author of texts at Dilema Veche.

The creative team that “stages” FF | Fashion & Film consists of: Velica Panduru (scenography), Mircea Olteanu / Foarfeca Studio (video editing), Andrei Cozlac (videomapping), Pulsar Sinaps (graphic intervention), Ada Teslaru (project manager). The technical partners of the event are Epson and Profimedia.

Sustainability and Creative Communities, the newest of the RCW sections, completes the whole picture from Baia Turceasca, about humanity, emotion, the connection with us and those around us, through an exceptional video production entitled “What unites us”.

“The pressure of lived history, which is written in our presence, and is communicated to us through different channels as breaking news, has irreversible effects. Manipulation, distortion of the truth, the rise of frivolity are dangers especially when they are not opposed by education. How much do we think for ourselves and how much do others think for us? Prisoners of a reality from which we cannot escape, we become victims of the same present distorted by the avalanche of information that comes upon us every 24 hours. What unites us becomes, with each new title, what divides us”, says curator Irina Păcurariu, director and producer of shows at TVR.

The team involved in the realization of the project, made with the support of Raiffeisen Bank, consists of the actors Ada Lupu (interpretation) and Călin Chirilă (voice), from the National Theater of Iasi, the children Adela and Agnes Obada, Marius Ţintă (image), Alexandru Condurache (editing ), Andrei Cozlac (video installation). The filming was done at the “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University Library in Iasi.

For one week, between May 19 and 25, the Baii Turceşti residence will house the film section of ACT – arthouse cinema&theatre, an extensive theater and film festival held for the first time, this year, at RCW. No less than 9 feature films and 9 short films will be screened at Baia Turceasca.

Spectators will be able to see the feature films: “Between Revolutions” (documentary, dir. Vlad Petri, 2023), La Chimera (fantasy adventure, dir. Alice Rohrwacher 2023), Perfect Days – dir. Wim Wenders (drama, dir. Wim Wenders, 2023) , TOTEM (drama, dir. Lila Aviles, 2023), Clean cities (documentary, dir. Marina Danezi, Kostas Mandilas, Constantinos Hadzinikolaou, Christos Sarris, 2021), Geographies of Solitude (documentary, dir. Jacquelyn Mills, 2022), Pe adamant (documentary, dir. Nicolas Philibert, 2023), Averroes & Rosa Parks – National preview (documentary, dir. Nicolas Philibert, 2024), Girasoli – National preview (drama, dir. Catrinel Marlon, 2023). Movie tickets can be purchased HERE: https://www.iabilet.ro/bilete-baia-turceasca-venue-7584/

ABOUT ROMANIAN CREATIVE WEEK
Romanian Creative Week, which will take place in Iaşi between May 15-26, 2024, is organized by the Federation of Employers in Creative Industries (FEPIC), the only nationally representative employer federation active in the Creative Industries sector in Romania. In 2023, RCW has been named the event that brings together the largest number of creative industries in Europe, according to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

Photo source: facebook.com/romaniancreativeweek