I have arrived for the first time to an art warehouse

26.02.2022 @ Cristina Stoenescu

One of the innovative methods we want to apply in this audience participatory programme is to reveal the inner workings of a gallery. From various studies, readings and conversations with local curators, we have noticed that there is a general consensus that there is a distance that audiences who are not part of the cultural scene maintain from contemporary art. The motivation seems to be caused by the fear of not understanding what is going on in an exhibition, or by the belief that the exhibition space seems to be exclusively a high-end commercial space, in which you cannot enter unless you belong to a certain social stratum.

In order to make the cultural space more accessible, to facilitate dialogue and the importance of curiosity regardless of why someone would choose to spend time visiting a contemporary art exhibition, we wanted to interrupt the mirage of an incomprehensible, intangible space. That’s why we chose to reveal the inner workings of gallery work, to invite the public to look behind the curtain and see how diverse the artistic offer is: from textile art, to photography, sculpture, video art, or the well-known medium of painting. From established artists, to younger generations of artists or re-discovered artists, there is a cultural dialogue diverse enough to create over time tastes, reactions, dialogues with a more informed and critical public towards the visual culture of our times.

We have therefore opened the physical space on Popa Soare to visitors who have already started to ask about the works they initially viewed online, who are curious about a particular artist or a work they discover through our shelves, whether they are students of art or sciences, or whether they see us every week in the local cafes, but for the first time choose to be curious enough to visit us…