Mentoring, a group exhibition, and showcasing public art – the three stages comprising the innovative Accelerator programme and a much-needed blueprint for contextualized and comprehensive support for emerging artists in today’s contemporary art world.
This ingenious, yet sadly rare combination, consisting of a mentoring program for emerging artists with art professionals – let alone a transnational scope with professional opportunities including a group exhibition and the showcase of work in public space over an extended period of two years – sets the Accelerator programme apart as a creative initiative in a league of its own.
Vision, Goals and Timeline
Self described with the programme group exhibition ‘Back to Where It All Began’ as an initiative which aims to ‘define a model for long-term cooperation with young artists,’ Accelerator manages to find a balance in professional development training with ample time and support for artistic product.
With an Open Call for 10 Romanian artists, announced in March 2022 to participate in the mentorship and production programme for emerging artists between May 2022 and September 2023, Accelerator seeks to provide greater accessibility in multiple areas. First, for emerging artists to acquire practical skills and professional knowledge to succeed in the art world and to bridge the gap between the Romanian contemporary art world with the general public during the first stage for mentorship, between May and July 2022. Time dedication to making work for the group exhibition following from August to December 2022. This stage included workshops, both in-person and online, with individual work and mentorship sessions. The second stage for a group exhibition titled ‘Back to Where It All Began’ took place at Gaep from February to May 2023. Finally, the third stage dedicated to public art, showcased between June and September 2023, provides artists the exciting task to consider different challenges in their work including its relationship to a specific space and broader audience.
As outlined in their provided programme characteristics, Accelerator’s combined unique attributes including complexity, international partnership, public art, networking and sharing, and national reach facilitates an ideal combination of support for professional growth and the time and resources for artists to create new bodies of work. In providing sufficient time and resources for the artists to take full advantage of such an invaluable opportunity.
The ten selected artists are: Andrei Arion, Flaviu Cacoveanu, Roberta Curcă, Lucia Ghegu, Mihaela Hudrea, Alina Ion, Maria Mandea, Delia A. Prodan, Stanca Soare, and Ana Maria Szöllösi. The six mentors and provided workshops are as follows: Andrei Breahnă (cultural manager, ‘The Art Market and Financing Options’), Ioana Chira (communicator, PR, ‘Communication in Art and Writing in the Context of Artistic Practice’), Þorlákur Einarsson (director i8 gallery – programme partner, ‘The System of Contemporary Art’), Tevž Logar (curator, who curated the group exhibition, ‘Curating. The Relation Between Artist and Curator’), Ólöf Nordal (artist, ‘Art in the Public Space’), and Sigurður Atli Sigurðsson (artist, ‘Artist Publications’).
Curatorial Approach and Perspective
As the programme seeks to take a strategic approach at the artistic career paths of the selected emerging artists, so does the exhibition design and public art showcase. Abandoning the traditional approach of facilitating an exhibition on the basis of a given theme or topic, the exhibition ‘Back to Where It All Began’ rather incorporated the structural specifics of the programme. The common ground between the shown artists was an attempt to consider and contend with our contemporary social environment and art as an essential tool of communication in crisis. From there, the artists fully explored their conceptual and formal specific interests, all of which raised bigger questions on the working relationship and expectations between artists, curators, galleries, and institutions.
Highlighting our post-pandemic reality, this project also seeks to give space for reconsidering the role, mechanisms, and impact of galleries and institutions and reflecting on the opportunities for new initiatives to challenge and renegotiate these elements on different terms. The wide variety of work to come from this structure include photographs, video, objects, paintings, installation, and drawings, providing dynamic possibilities for curatorial purposes and audience engagement.
Additionally, the programme’s emphasis on context-specific artistic practice, rather than simply site-specific or medium-specific, is a refreshing tone and a meaningful contribution to a programme that seeks to provide cross-cultural and bilateral connections between two distinct project partner countries: Iceland and Romania.
Upon the conclusion of the physical exhibition ‘Back to Where It All Began’, local and international audiences have the chance to ‘visit’ its digital counterpart through a 3D tour on the project website.
In the hopes of extending access for those who don’t live in Bucharest, the Viewing Room expands the gallery’s audience to a global level for those interested in the contemporary art scene.
Concluding Reflections on the Accelerator programme
In the last few months before the conclusion of the two-year project, coming to a close at the end of September 2023, the Accelerator programme organizers – Andrei Breahnă and Ana-Ilinca Macri – shared their reflections on the following question: As the two-year Accelerator programme reaches its last few months, what are the top 1-3 highlights of the programme? What has surprised you most and why?
Andrei Breahnă: Cultural Manager, Accelerator project lead and president of Asociația Culturală Eastwards Prospectus: ‘When we created Accelerator, our goal was to help emerging artists embark on a disruptive educational journey to develop their careers. The mix of know-how and experiences was devised in such a manner to offer them the ‘tools to fly.’ We wanted to achieve a change of mindset – from a more traditional approach on education, rather focused on medium, towards a more forward-looking, contextual approach, tackling topics which should be closer to artists for them to flourish.
I see Accelerator as a spiral that elevates, leveling up from one stage to the other. First, I was impressed by the high quality applications in the Open Call stage, which showed great potential. Secondly, once we interacted with the selected artists, we discovered a sound vision on their forthcoming career that, through knowledge from international mentors and one-on-one mentoring sessions, turned into commitments to self improvement.
The sense of community and synergy among artists is a strong point that makes me very happy. Sharing ideas, learning or challenging one another is the most important way to progress. This big asset is visible in the public art stage we are entering now, because artists have co-created in teams, in addition to individual art works, and that is a big fulfillment.
Accelerator doesn’t stop here. We have already started another project, in a smaller Romanian community. My objective is to multiply it country-wide, to enlarge the group of artists who benefit and to anchor and connect more and more to various audiences. I believe in the power of art in societies, and my goal is to support artists in becoming themselves a powerful voice.’
Ana-Ilinca Macri, Cultural Mediator: ‘Cultural mediation is paramount to decipher contemporary art. Conversations, interviews, statements, events – these are just a few ways to stir the interest of people. During the past years there has been good progress in this respect and more people started to embrace and promote art to families, friends, colleagues. It is such a privilege to notice, during Accelerator’s roll-out, curiosity, real interest and desire to explore the endless dimensions of contemporary art. The joy of people is the reward for us, the project team.’
When considering the future for the contemporary art world, we can only hope that Accelerator is not only a one of a kind first, but the first of many such programmes to come.
