Apparatus 22

Apparatus 22 is a transdisciplinary art collective founded in January 2011 in Bucharest (RO) by current members Erika Olea, Maria Farcas and Dragos Olea, along with Ioana Nemes (1979 - 2011). Since 2015, they have been working from Bucharest and Brussels.

The trio sees itself as a collective of dreamers, researchers, poetic activists and (flawed) futurologists. Together they explore the complex relationships between economics, politics, gender studies, social movements, religion and fashion to understand contemporary society. Their reflections start from their own created utopian SUPRAINFINIT universe. Their transdisciplinary work mixes reality with fiction from their collectively accumulated knowledge and experience from design, sociology, literature and economics. Apparatus 22 also works outside the art space, with performances in public space, interventions in private quarters and other hybrid forms.

The subject of their residency at Jester is the organization itself. Together with the team, Apparatus 22 explores Jester's operation and residency program. In the process, they also immerse themselves in Jester's environment at the C-mine site in its entirety and research the layered context of the city of Genk. Thus, they arrive at a number of speculative proposals and experimental actions to transform Jester and its residency operation during the coming year.

The work of Apparatus 22 has been presented in exhibitions at La Biennale di Venezia 2013, MUMOK, Vienna (AT), BOZAR - Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels (BE), Museion, Bolzano (IT), Kunsthalle Wien (AT), Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles (BE), Brukenthal Museum Contemporary Art Gallery, Sibiu (RO), Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (DE), MNAC - museum of contemporary art, Bucharest (RO), KunstMuseum Linz (AT), La Triennale di Milano (IT), Loft - Servais Family Collection, Brussels (BE), TRAFO Gallery, Budapest (HU), Futura, Prague (CZ), Ujazdowski Castle - center for contemporary art, Warsaw (PL), Salonul de Proiecte, Bucharest (RO), Onomatopee Eindhoven (NL), TIME MACHINE BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORY ART, D-0 ARK UNDERGROUND, Konji (BIH), Osage Foundation (Hong Kong), Progetto Diogene, Turin (IT), Closer Art Centre, Kiev (UA), CIAP, Hasselt (BE), Barriera, Turin (IT), Suprainfinit Gallery, Bucharest (RO), GALLLERIAPIÙ, Bologna (IT);

Performances and interventions they have done in MAK, Vienna (AT), Steirischer Herbst, Graz (AT), Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam with De Appel CP (NL), Yarat Academy, Baku (AZ), Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (DE), Drodesera Festival, Dro (IT), Villa Empain, Brussels (BE), S.M.A.K. Ghent, (BE), ...

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