In the frame of the ATOPIA residencies, Rokolectiv invites two musicians affiliated to the SHAPE+ platform to experiment in a shared and open-ended artistic process with Romanian artists: bela will work together with Mihai Mihalcea and Oláh Gyárfás, while Petra will work with Apparatus 22 (Erika Olea, Maria Farcaș, Dragoș Olea). The artists will present collaborative performances & artist talks.



Petra Hermanova is a musician and visual artist based in Berlin. In 2018, Hermanova began working with the autoharp, which has since become the central pillar of her musical practice. Drawing inspiration from medieval drone, doom metal and contemporary textural expressions, as well as Appalachian autoharp music, she creates emotionally driven arrangements accompanied by vocals. She’s presenting a collaborative performance with Erika Olea, Maria Farcaș & Dragoș Olea (Apparatus 22).

Apparatus 22 is a collective of daydreamers, citizens of many realms, researchers, poetic activists and (failed) futurologists founded in January 2011 by current members Erika Olea, Maria Farcaș, Dragoș Olea together with Ioana Nemeș (1979 - 2011) in Bucharest, Romania. Beginning with 2015 they are working between Bucharest, Brussels and the SUPRAINFINIT utopian universe. The work of Apparatus 22 was presented in numerous exhibitions among others at La Biennale di Venezia 2013, Kunsthalle Wien (AT), Kunsthal Gent (BE), Kunsthalle Mannheim (DE), Contemporary Art Museum Roskilde (DK), SMAK Gent (BE), Contemporary Art Museum (MNAC), Bucharest (RO), Museion, Bolzano (IT), TRIUMF AMIRIA. Museum of Queer Culture (RO) and Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (DE) among others.

Originally from South Korea, bela is a musician and a performance artist based in Berlin. They are known for their performance merging pungmul - a Korean folk act rooted in agricultural traditions and linked to past social movements - and vocals inspired by extreme metal. bela shapes pungmul into the ritual for queer rage and grief with sub-heavy distortions and cries. For this new performance, they are collaborating with Romanian choreographer Mihai Mihalcea for the stage movement, and with fashion designer / visual artist Oláh Gyárfás for the costume design.

Mihai Mihalcea is an artist and choreographer based in Bucharest. His works have been presented both in the context of visual arts and of contemporary dance in institutions such as Kunsthalle Gent (BE), Black Box Theater Oslo (NO), The Contemporary Art Gallery of Buckenthal Museum Sibiu (RO), Rencontres Choreographiques de Seine-Saint-Denis (FR), HAU Berlin (DE), The Paintbrush Factory Cluj (RO), The National Dance Center, Bucharest (RO), Akademie Der Künste Berlin (DE), Kunsthalle Bega, Timisoara (RO) among others.

Designer and artist Oláh Gyárfás brought to life the Romanian fashion brand Rozalb de Mura. He was the creative power behind the Patzaikin brand, combining fashion with ecotechnology. Gyárfás is interested in space, nature, abstract details, and the sculptural qualities of texture.

JOIN US for these events:

25.05 / 19h00 / Bar Ton / listening session & artist talk with bela & Mihai Mihalcea

30.05 / 20h00 / The National Dance Centre / live performances

31.05 / 19h00 / Suprainfinit Gallery / artist talk with Petra Hermanova & Apparatus 22

AFCN

This event takes place in the frame of the project ATOPIA, co-financed by AFCN. The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not to be held responsible for the content of the project, nor for the ways in which the results of the project might be used. Those are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the grant.

SHAPE

Petra Hermanova and bela are part of the SHAPE+ platform roster of artists in 2023/24. SHAPE+ is a three-year initiative co-funded by the European Union through the Creative Europe programme. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

EU Creative Europe