ART ENCOUNTERS | Appearance & Essence | 3-31 OCTOBER 2015 TIMISOARA | ARAD
Matei Bejenaru
(1963, Suceava, România - lives and works in Iași, România)
www.mateibejenaru.net
Matei Bejenaru is an artist who lives and works in Iași, România, where he teaches photography and video art at the "George Enescu" Arts University.. Established in 1997 as a performance festival, Periferic transformed into an international contemporary art biennial defined as a platform for discussions on the historical, socio-political and cultural context of Iasi. Together with a group of artists and philosophers from Iasi, Matei Bejenaru founded in 2001 the Vector Association, a contemporary art institution which supported the local emerging art scene to become locally and internationally visible.
As an artist, he is socially engaged in analyzing the way globalization affects postcommunist countries labor force and rapidly changes mentalities and lifestyles. In 2005, he published in the Idea Magazine and later exhibited at Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art in Vienna, a Travelling Guide for Romanian illegal workers. In 2007, he developed the project Impreuna/Together involving the Romanian community from UK and showed it at Tate Modern – Level 2 Gallery. In 2008 he participated in the Taipei Biennial where he presented the video Maersk Dubai, a documentary about the assassination of three Romanian immigrants.
Since 2010 he is developing the project Songs for a better future, a series of choral performances dealing with the perception of the future in different social and cultural contexts. Matei Bejenaru was a visiting professor at University of Quebec in Montreal during the academic year 2011-2012.
Between 2012-2013 he was an associate artist at Kettle’s Yard Art Center in Cambridge, UK.
