Over the past twenty years Irina Botea Bucan, has been engaged in an art practice that uses multiple media to inspect socio-political dynamics and the possibility of transformation. Irina Botea Bucan’s most recent films focus on strategies to undermine such dominant socio-political discourses and to create the framework where minor, unknown, or forgotten histories rise to the surface, forming an unsuspected force field of ideas. Irina Botea Bucan lives in Romania and England.

After graduating from the Art University in Bucharest, the artist earned her master’s degree from The School of the Art Institute in Chicago. In 2014, Irina received the 3Arts award, conferred to exceptional women artists.

ince 2013 the artist has been working closely with Jon Dean (b. 1966), sharing his experience in the field of community-based participatory arts and adult learning for over 30 years. Jon Dean also creates independent (cross-platform/film) art work that symbiotically relates to his community arts-focused methodology.

Solo and group shows of Irina Botea Bucan, include: 55th Venice Biennale; New Museum, New York; MUSAC (Museum of Contemporary Art of Castilia and Leon); Pompidou Centre, Paris; Jeu de Paume, Paris; Kunsthalle Winterthur; Reina Sofia National Museum, Madrid; Gwangju Biennale 2010; U -Turn Quadriennial, Copenhagen; 51st Venice Biennale; Prague Bienale; Kunstforum, Vienna; Foksal Gallery, Warsaw; Argos Center for Art and Media, Brussels; MNAC (National Museum of Contemporary Art), Bucharest; Museum of Contemporary Art, Szczecin, Poland; Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowki Castle, Warsaw. Festivals, include: International Film Festival Rotterdam (Short Special); Artefact Festival, Leuven; Impakt Panorama, Utrecht; Polis Adriatic Europe Festival. Awards, include: 3Arts Visual Artist Award, Illinois; Impakt Film Festival, Silver Award; International Residence at Recollets, Cite des Arts, Paris.

Solo Shows and Performances

2018 Out of The Bear, LOOP Art Fair, Barcelona, Spain

2017 In the zone of transition, the building will have a future, she said, The Philips Museum of Art, Lancaster, USA(including collaborations with Jon Dean)

2017 Apostrof. Totul a început cu o ezitare a portarului, MNAC, Bucharest, Romania

2017 Installation 11: In the transition zone the building will have a future, she said

2016 Signal: Invisibility Transmitted, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2015 Shorts Special: Irina Botea, IFFR(International Film Festival Rotterdam), NL

2014 It is Now a Matter of Learning Hope, ThreeWalls, Chicago, IL, US

2014 Phalanstère, Julius Caesar Gallery, Chicago, IL, US

2012 Picturesque, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2011 Irina Botea feat. WeAreTheArtists, Kunsthalle Winterthur, Switzerland

2010 Before a National Anthem, Italian Cultural Center, Strasbourg, France

2009 A place for Citizenship – performance, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain

2009 Re-place, Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

2009 A moment of Citizenship, MNAC, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania

2009 A moment of Citizenship, Satellite Program, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France

2008 Solitdaire, ICR, Paris, France

2006 Auditions for a Revolution, Work of the Month at MNAC, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania

2004 Human Interaction, New Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2004 Tiempo de la Princessa, Cooperation, Wiltz, Luxemburg

2003 Alice and the Paper Fairy, H’Art Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2002 Light Shadows, WolfKahn Studio, Vermont Studio Center, Vermont

2002 Leonard – Prince of the Musical, DeInterese Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2002 Loading… – site-specific installation, Atelier35, Bucharest, Romania

2002 Welcome 2 – site-specific installation, Loft Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey

2001 Welcome 1 – site-specific installation, Atelier 35, Bucharest, Romania

2001 Irony Venus – multimedia installation, International Center for Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania

Group Shows

2023 ARTIST ROOMS / Then and Now, Rezidenta BRD Scena 9. Bucharest, Romania

2023 Videonnale #1, Image of Happiness, Haifa, Israel

2021 The 4th Mediterranean Biennale. Living Together – Crossing Borders, Haifa, Israel

2019 Ciné Bear, Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris, France

2018 At Different Angles, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania

2018 Revolutionize, Mystetskyi Arsenal

2018 FILM, WASP, Bucharest, Romania

2018 FILM, ApARTE Gallery, Iași, Romania

2017 The Map Is Not the Territory, The Romanian Cultural Institute, Lisbon, Portugal

2016 D’EST Prologue: O’ Mystical East and West, Martin Gropius Bau, Cinema Hall, Berlin Germany

2016 As If, At Home – Artists in Europe, BOX Freiraum, Berlin , Germany

2016 A Government of Time, Rebuild Foundation, Chicago, US

2016 Salt of the Earth. This is not a stone, MNAR-National Museum of Art, Bucharest, Romania

2016 DADA Games, RKI Galerie, Berlin, Germany

2016 My Father Avoids the Sirens’ Song, Josée Bienvenu Gallery, NY, US

2016 Performing Histories, Timespan

2016 MonuMental Histories, Arcub, Bucharest, Romania

2016 Few were happy with their conditions, Gallery 400, Chicago, US

2015 Laughter and forgetting, Arcub, Bucharest, Romania

2015 Pocket Revolutions, Korea Foundation gallery, Seul, Korea

2015 Repertoire of (In)Discreetness, Tranzit, Bucharest, Romania

2015 Never Alone, MNAC (National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest), Romania

2015 Never Alone, Magma, Sf. Gheorghe, Romania

2015 Between Democracies: Memory And Commemoration, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, South Africa

2014 The Forgotten Pioneer Movement, DISTRICT Kunst und Kulturförderung, Berlin, Germany

2014 Ghost Nature, Gallery 400, Chicago, US

2014 Ghost nature: Le Phantôme de la nature, La Box, Bourges, France

2014 Momentum, Aiurart Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2014 Sights and Sounds, Jewish Museum, NY, US

2014 A Few Grams of Red, Yellow, Blue, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, Poland

2013 55th Venice Biennial, Representing Romania, -Reflection Centre for Suspended Histories. An Attempt-, New Gallery of The Romanian Cultural Institute, Venice, Italy

2013 You only Fall Twice, CCA London-Derry, Northern Ireland

2013 Speak, Memory, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, NY, US

2013 One Sixth of the Earth: Ecologies of the image, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany

2012 Demonstrations. Making Normative Orders, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Germany

2012 One Sixth of the Earth: Ecologies of the image, MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain

2012 Epic Something, Hyde Park Art Centre, Chicago, US

2012 Overlapping Biennial, The Biennial of Young Artists, Bucharest, Romania

2012 Doina, MNAC (National Museum of Contemporary Art) Platforma Space, Bucharest, Romania

2012 Co-Re-Creating Spaces, Central Trak Gallery, Texas, US

2011 Ostalgia, New Museum, New York, US

2011 El grito, MUSAC,Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain

2011 I am a Romanian: The Bucharest – Tel Aviv Route, Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel

2010 8th Gwangju Biennale, 10 000 Lives, Gwangju, Korea

2010 Participation, Salzburger Kunstverein, Austria

2010 CitiesMethodologies/ Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

2010 Videozone, Tel Aviv, Israel

2010 Impakt Panorama Matrix City, Utrecht, The Netherlands

2009 Actors and Extras, Argos Center for Art and Media, Brussels, Belgium

2009 Autres Mesures, Centre Photographique, D’Ile-de-France, Pontault-Combault, France

2009 Dada East, Contextes roumaines du dadaisme, Muse des Beaux-Arts, Tourcoing, France

2009 Subtexts, Multimedia Gallery, The University of The Arts, Philadelphia

2008 Restaging the Past, Baltic/Balkans, Museum of Contemporary Art in Szczecin, Poland

2008 History will repeat itself, Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowki Castle, Warsaw, Poland

2008 History will repeat itself, Goethe Institut, Hong Kong

2008 U-turn Quadrienale, Copenhagen, Denmark

2008 Polis Adriatic Europe Festival, Pula, Croatia

2008 Dada East, Zacheta Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

2008 Asi se escribe la historia, Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain

2008 Playground Revolutions, ICR, Stockholm, Sweden

2008 Artefact festival, Leuven, Belgium

2008 U-turn, Copenhagen, Denmark

2007 Dada East, FÄRGFABRIKEN – Center for Contemporary Art and Architecture, Stockholm, Sweden

2007 Documenta, Regensburg, Germany

2007 History will repeat itself, Kunst-Werken, Berlin, Germany

2007 History will repeat itself, HMKV Halle, Dortmund, Germany

2007 Tribes Gallery Show, New York

2007 Directors Lounge, Berlin, Germany

2007 Little Italy Gallery, Milan, Italy

2006 Acidentes, Videobrasil, Sao Paolo, Brazil

2006 Mixed Pickels 2, K3 space, Zurich, Switzerland

2006 Cooper Gallery, Dundee, Scotland

2006 EXIS, Experimental Film and Video Festival in Seoul, Korea

2006 Offset. Underconstruct, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania

2006 Coupling, Rosenberg Gallery, New York

2006 Trans:it. Moving Culture through Europe/Now here Europe, MNAC, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania

2006 Navigation, Negotiation, Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago

2006 New Work, G2, Chicago

2006 Live Box Gallery at Nova Art fair, Chicago

2006 51st Venice Biennale, Trans: it. Moving Culture through Europe, Museale Veneziano, Venice, Italy

2006 Prague Biennale, National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic

2006 Central, Kunstforum, Vienna, Austria

2006 Siemens_artLab, Vienna, Austria

2006 Mixed Pickles 1, K3 space, Zurich, Switzerland

2006 Mash-up, Gallery2, Chicago

2006 Cosmopolis 1: Microcosmos x Macrocosmos, Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece

2006 Chicago Filmmakers, Global Super8 day, Chicago

2004 VIPER Basel, International Festival for Film, Video and New Media, video, Basel, Switzerland

2004 Monument Recall, Microcinema, San Francisco

2004 Inauguration of the New National Museum of Contemporary Art, Romanian Artists (and not only) / love the palace!? video, photography, Bucharest Romania

2004 Reading Room, Cubitt, London, UK

2004 ReLocation:Shake Society, video installation, Casino de Luxembourg, Luxembourg

2004 Revolutions Reloaded, video, Play Gallery, Berlin, Germany

2004 Revolutions Reloaded, video, Artra Gallery, Millan, Italy

2004 Atterissage, painting, Paris, France

2003 Docu-Fiction, video, Bucharest Architecture Hall, Romania

2003 Die Zukunft von Balkan ist da, Kunstlerhaus Boswil, Switzerland

2003 In Den Shluchten Des Balkan, Kunsthalle Fridericianum Kassel, Germany; video projection of -Tiempo de la Princessa- during the conference -Romanian Art Now-

2003 Preview – Romanian Contemporary Art Museum, Kalinderu Medialab, Bucharest, Romania

2002 Coop2, Museum of Contemporary Art, Kalinderu Medialab, Bucharest, Romania

2002 Freebiennal, performance, New York

2002 Manifesta 4 Archive, -The Room-, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Germany

2002 Night Shots -Cake Room-, interactive installation, Timisoara, Romania

2002 Coop2, International Media Festival, Kalinderu medialab, Contemporary Art Museum, Bucharest, Romania

2002 Coop1, Atelier 35, video, Bucharest, Romania

2002 Five Stories, New Gallery, installation, Bucharest, Romania

2001 11-11, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria

2001 Periferic 5, International Contemporary Art Biennial, Iasi, Romania

2001 480 Minutes, Public Bath, site specific installation, Iasi, Romania

Published work

2014 Gagarin 28, independent publication entirely dedicated to the publication of original texts of artists who are now working anywhere in the world

2011 City Methodologies, Elena ladybug and re-enactment, Bucharest, Romania

2011 Auditions for a Revolution, Ostalgia Catalogue, New Museum, NY, US

2011 Arta Magazine – A Moment of Citizenship, Bucharest, Romania

2009 Before a National Anthem, published by Jeu de Paume, Paris, France

2008 Playground Revolutions-, published by ICR Stockholm, Sweden

Seminars, Workshops & Lectures

2006-present Adjunct faculty at The School of The Art, Institute of Chicago

2015 Piet Zwart Institute, Visiting Artists/Professor, Rotterdam, Nederland

2014 MLA (modern language Association), Remains of Utopia: Communist Kitsch, Propaganda, and Sentimental Artifacts in Postcommunist Romania

2013 Atelier 35 Gallery, workshop, Bucharest, Romania

2012 University College of London, Centre for South-East European Studies, London, UK

2011 Columbia College, Chicago

2011 Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel

2011 Bucharest University of the Arts, Bucharest, Romania

2010 Ecole supérieure des Arts décoratifs de Strasbourg, France

2010 Bucharest University of the Arts, Bucharest, Romania

2010 Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture de Strasbourg, France

2009 Bucharest University of the Arts, Bucharest, Romania

2008 Bucharest University of the Arts, Bucharest, Romania

2006 DePaul University, Chicago

2002 Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey