kinema ikon

b. 1970

kinema ikon – multimedia atelier was founded by George Sabău 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.

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.

“We were not necessarily dissidents. We were allowed to make these films with some compromises. We were doing the experimental ones on account of the documentaries, we were able to project them at these student magazines – Scrierea (The Writing) exhibition and Oglinda (The Mirror) space.” (Călin Man)

George Sabău, Ceaușescu la Arad, 1979
Ioan Plesh, Simple Coincidențe, 1978
George Sabău, Ipostaze simultane, 1970

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. Călin Man is the group’s current coordinator.

Occupy the blockchain → Occupy the blockchain →
Occupy the blockchain → Occupy the blockchain →
Film Still, kinema ikon, Vorspann, 1970 - 2021
KEY, kinema ikon, 2021

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

Other Exhibited Artists