kinema ikon – multimedia atelier was founded by George Sabau in 1970. The group underwent several periods of activity throughout the years. During the experimental film phase (1970 – 1989), 62 experimental films and 62 documentaries were produced; the experimental films were made in synchronicity with Western practices, and included: kinetic abstractions, animation, scratching on film, Surrealist exercises, non-figurative dynamic forms painted directly on film, [juxtapositions] of fragments of everyday material reality, etc. Within the context of the Communist regime, these works can be interpreted, almost exclusively, as forms of “samizdat.”
In 1990, ki became a part of the Arad Museum Complex. A new generation of artists began producing mixed media and video installation work; after the fall of the Berlin Wall, kinema ikon was finally able to respond to an invitation to show a selection of experimental films at the Centre Pompidou/ Cinéma du Musée. Between 1994 and 2004, the group was one of the main promoters of digital art in Romania; interactive work on CD-ROM or net.art was made during this period, authored by individual members and as a group, shown in exhibitions and festivals around the world. In 2003, kinema ikon represented the Romanian Pavilion at the Venice Biennial. Since 2005, once with the emergence of a group of young artists around KF Arad, kinema ikon returned to the production of hybrid works. Since 2012 the group has had its dedicated gallery space at the Art Museum in Arad, where it has developed several projects: Wunderkammer (3 exhibitions, 2012 – 2016), kinema ikon: serial / 3 seasons / 40 episodes-installations (2013 –2016), internet of ki (2017), screens (2017), 49.*files (2019). Since 2014, kinema ikon has been the main organizer of MAFA – Media Art Festival Arad (now at its 6th edition). The group has edited the magazines Conversația (1990 – 1993) and Intermedia (1994 – 2011). Since 2012, ki publishes a yearly catalogue to accompany its main projects [and exhibitions], and edits the catalogue for MAFA. Calin Man is the group’s current coordinator.
Exhibitions
2023 kimæra / Ars Elctronica Gardens, Linz
2023 kimæra / Art Museum Arad
2023 Thessaloniki Film Festival
2023 kinema ikon screening / TIFF Cinematheque, Toronto
2023 Pesaro Film Festival – Lessons in Film History
2022 kimæra / Museum Arad
2022 Vorspann, Digital Art Fair Asia, Hong Kong, Anca Poterașu Gallery
2022 kinema ikon – exprimental films from Romania, curator Olaga Stefan, Rote Fabrik, Zürich
2022 Media Art Festival Arad / Wunderkammer, Museum Arad, kinema ikon
2021 kimæra, Art Museum Arad, Rezidența BRD Scena 9 București, ephemair
2021 La revedere! (RAMBO) + Dyslex live/performance, Muzeul Național de Artă al României (Sala Auditorium) / kinema ikon Vintage | BIEFF.11, Cinemateca Eforie
2021 Ji.hlava, International Documentary Film Festival, section: Conference Fascinations: Romania
2021 Media Art Festival Arad / IN-BETWEEN, Art Museum Arad, kinema ikon
2021 Orașe invizibile / Tărâmuri imaginare, Comenduirea Garnizoanei Timișoara,Curator: Diana Marincu, Co-curatori: Georgia Țidorescu & Glad Carpencu-Pop
2021 Occupy the blockchain, curator: Raluca Oancea, Anca Poterașu Gallery
2021 ki: Alt /\ Data [altădată] / based on kinema ikon 50 / [a true story] / 2021, Apocalipsa Elefantului Alb, Comenduirea Garnizoanei, curatori: Mălina Ionescu, Denise Parizek, Mirela Stoeac – Vlăduți
2021 kinema ikon: serial / s. 4, e.8 / Pink Cloud / Bogdan Alexandru, Bob Bicknell-Knight, Alexandru Cartuș, Valentina Gal, Martyna Marciniak-Grace, Bogdan Matei, Taietzel Ticalos, unmatei / Curator: Georgia Țidorescu
2021 kinema ikon: serial / s. 4, e.7 / Iulian Leonard: Rubbernecking 101, Art Museum Arad
2021 kinema ikon: serial / s. 4, e.6 / 70% C9H9N: artiști / artiste: Alex Antonescu, Marian Codrea, Dan Chiș, Dragoș Dogioiu, Alexandra Drăgulinescu, Ioana Dumitrescu, Dora Huiban, Marta Mattioli, Ema Motea, Marina Oprea, Emanuel Ștefan, Toma Ștefănescu, Selina Yilmaz/ curatoare: Raluca Oancea, Art Museum Arad
2021 kinema ikon: serial / s. 4, e.5 / Mona Nor: Roșu, Art Museum Arad
2021 kinema ikon: serial / s. 4, e. 4 / Irina Bako: Digital Self-Portait / Marian Codrea, Antonia Corduneanu, George Crîngașu, Cuscrew, Eurosadboy, Diana Gheorghiu, Herne Hiili, Marta Mattioli, Nico Mureș, Nephronik, Pandele Pandele, Alexa Sîrbu, Unmatei, Art Museum Arad
2021 kinema ikon: serial / s. 4, e. 3 / Alex Halka: Nein, Danke, Art Museum Arad
2021 kinema ikon: serial / s. 4, e. 2 / Robert Boran & Mihai Sălăjan: Krilin, Art Museum Arad
2021 kinema ikon: serial / s. 4, e. 1 / I.O.O.O. in.out.on.off # geosab, reVoltaire, Bogdanator, gH, Art Museum Arad
2020 kinema ikon: In Good Company / Post-Nothing, Art Museum Arad
2020 50 frames of ki (followed by 20 more), The 1st Intergalactic Summit of Independent Art Spaces. curator: Abraham Cruzvillegas, Sandwich Gallery, București
2020 kinema ikon: In Good Company / Ki/lling Time Shattering Ikon/s, Art Museum Arad
2020 kinema ikon: In Good Company / Warm Up, Art Museum Arad
2020 kinema ikon 1970-1989, Toronto International Film Festival
2020 Eye on Art: kinema ikon, Eye Museum Amsterdam
2020 kinema ikon: Ne Vedem Joi, proiecție lunară de film experimental, (sezonul 2) Cinema Arta
2019 kinema ikon: films / 1970-2020, Rezidența Scena 9, Bucharest
2019 kinema ikon: films / 1970-2020, Art Museum Arad
2019 Media Art Festival Arad / dig:it, Art Museum Arad, kinema ikon
2019 Europalia Arts Festival Romania, Ghent Film Festival / Vooruit Ghent followed by a tour
2019 ki49.4: subsol 16.2: EXIT SPACE
2019 ki49.3: reVoltaire: App.0110
2019 ki49.2: Josépha Blanchet: Fall Out
2019 ki49.1: Alex Halka: Aural Skin
2019 kinema ikon: Ne Vedem Joi, proiecție lunară de film experimental, (sezonul 1) Cinema Arta
2019 Ex-East, The past and present stories of the Romanian avant-garde, Paris Espace Niemeyer
2018 folder X (incmplt)file.2: subsol 16 by ki new young guns, Art Museum Arad
2018 folder X (incmplt)file.1: Thea Lazăr: Let Us Approach The Internet At The Speed Of Dreams, Art Museum Arad
2018 kinema ikon: authors, Art Museum Arad
2017 internet of ki (iok), Art Museum Arad
2017 Media Art Festival Arad / CINEMA, Art Museum Arad, Cinema Arta Arad
2017 Visualizing the Sound, WASP Bucharest
2017 Error 404. Territories of Absence, MNAC Bucharest
2017 kinema ikon: screens, Art Museum Arad
2017 Notes on a Landscape, Art Safari Bucharest
2016 Time Capsule 2070, Art Museum Arad
2016 kinema ikon: serial / season 3 / 20 episodes, Art Museum Arad
2016 Media Art Festival Arad / DADADA, Art Museum Arad, kinema ikon
2016 Signal to Code: 50 Years of Media Art in The Rose Goldsen Archive, Cornell University
2015 Media Art Festival Arad / R.E.M.X, MNAC Bucharest
2015 Media Art Festival Arad / R.E.M.X, Atrium Mall Arad
2015 kinema ikon: Wunderkammer 2 / Apparatus, Art Museum Arad
2015 Art Encounters, Muzeul de Artă Timisoara
2015 laughter and forgetting, Bucharest Art Week, Biblioteca Nationala Bucuresti
2015 Epaminondas {…}, at Particles, TEBA factory Arad
2015 Ubikitous, Cazarma U, Timisoara / Baril Gallery
2015 Art Encounters, Sequential Strings, Muzeul de Artă Timisoara
2015 FILE [Festival Internacional de Linguagem Eletronica], Sao Paulo
2015 kinema ikon: serial, season two, 10 episodes, Art Museum Arad
2014 kinema ikon at Media Art Festival Arad / R.A.M. Random Access Memory
2014 kinema ikon – May I Have Your Attention, Baril, Cluj-Napoca, Fabrica de Pensule
2013 kinema ikon: serial, season one, 10 episodes, Art Museum Arad
2013 Wunderkammer, Baril Gallery, Cluj
2013 In This Pavilion One Can See Art – Romania in Venice. 89 years with La Biennale, tranzit.ro/ Bucharest
2012 Wunderkammer {on permanent view at the Museum of Art Arad}
2012 Observatory, New York
2012 FILE RIO
2011 Wunderkammer & Other Apparatus: SKEPSIS. kf Arad
2011 FILE [Festival Internacional de Linguagem Eletronica], Sao Paulo
2010 kinema ikon 7010 project, Art Museum Arad and KF
2010 When History Comes Knocking: Romanian Art from the 80s and 90s in Close Up, Galeria Plan B Berlin
2010 D.P.R.T. [exhibition: Art Museum Arad. intervention: various cities] 2010
2008 worx at send & receive exhibition CYNETart, Dresden
2008 freestyle /// kf Arad
2007 freestyle doi [exhibition/workshop], kf Arad
2006 freestyle [exhibition/workshop], clio gallery+kf Arad
2005 retrospect kinema ikon ’70-’05, MNAC Bucharest
2004 ki@kf, off-screen.on-screen, cafeclub Arad
2003 The 50th Venice Biennale, romanian pavilion
2003 Preview, MNAC, Kalinderu MediaLab Bucharest
2002 alteridem.exe exhibition and symposium, Art Museum Arad
2000 ISEA 2000 revelation, Forum des Images, Paris
1999 ICCA, Bucharest
1998 ISEA revolution, Liverpool
1998 VIPER, Lucerne
1997 European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück
1997 OSTranenie, Bauhaus Dessau Berlin
1996 Complexul Muzeal, Art Museum Arad
1996 Experiment 60-90, S.C.C.A. Artexpo Bucharest
1995 MEdiA CULPA, S.C.C.A. Bucharest
1995 screening kinema ikon, Centre Georges Pompidou Paris
1994 01010101 Exhibition, S.C.C.A. Bucharest
1994 intermedia magazine
1993 Ex Oriente Lux, Soros Center for Contemporary Art Bucharest
1990 – 1993 conversatia magazine
1988 intermedia 2 symposium, the interval, City Theatre Arad
1986 mirror space, Architecture Institute Bucharest
1984 intermedia 1 symposium, the image, City Theatre Arad
1980 retrospect ki, film exp. High School Arad
1977 International Festival: Abstract Animation, Cracovie
1973 International Festival: Fiction Short Films, Brno
1970 Arma (ipostaze simultane): the first experimental film by George Sabau, produced by ki
