Silvia Amancei & Bogdan Armanu

Artistic duo, b. 1991, Iasi & Timisoara, Romania
Live and work in Iasi

s.a.b.a. - Silvia Amancei and Bogdan Armanu is an artist couple working together since 2012, in the city of Iași, Romania. They both graduated from the University of Arts in Iași, respectively mural art (Silvia) and painting (Bogdan), a fine art background which they transgress in their practice together with the physical and discursive limits of the object (and the labour inscribed in it) within the conceptual framework of new-media. Their artistic practice could be positioned at the border between social studies and visual art, researching for methods and examples where art and artistic means can be instrumentalised in order to overexcite the ability to look beyond capitalism and create a (common) future.
Among their recent solo shows are "It was always in plain sight" (2020, Ivan, Bucharest), "s.a.b.a. 1979–####" (2020, Škuc Gallery, Ljubljana), “If Then What After” (2019, Kunstverein Baden), “Return to Spaceship Earth” (2017, Salonul de proiecte, Bucharest), and the group exhibitions “Go, Stop, Stay” (2019, MODEM, Debrecen, HU), “STRIKE GENTLY AWAY___” (2019, The Real Office, Salzburg), “Displacement and Togetherness” (2019, Cultuurcentrum Strombeek, BE), “Baywatch” (2018, Kvost, Berlin), “Odessa Biennial” (2017, Odessa, Ukraine), Timisoara Art Encounters Biennial (2017 and 2015).

"Wish we could all live in beautiful villas”, 2021, transmedia installation, mural painting and ink drawings, V_AIR program, MUST – Museo del Territorio di Vimercate, Italy, photo s.a.b.a.
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Solo exhibitions

2021
“Together. Forever. In Debt”, Kvost, Berlin, DE

2020
“Where to go? What to do?”, Gallery K18, Maribor, SL
“s.a.b.a 1979-####”, Škuc Gallery, Ljubljana, SL
“s.a.b.a.: Unlovable Prospects: When the Future Disappears”, TAM TAM Street Gallery, Ljubljana, SL
“It was always in plain sight”, Ivan Gallery, Bucharest, RO

2019
“If Then What After”, Kunstverein Baden, Baden, AT

2017
“What Past? What Future?”, KU Linz, Linz, AT
“When atoms collide and disturb entropy”, Electro-Putere Gallery, Craiova, RO
“Return to Spaceship Earth”, Salonul de proiecte, Bucharest, RO
“Art Picnic at Domino (indoor) – with Silvia & Bogdan”, Domino Contemporary Art Space, Cluj-Napoca, RO 
“Talking about the Future”, Domino Contemporary Art Space, Cluj-Napoca, RO 2016
“Depression, Uncertainty and other Symptoms of Mortality”, OFF Gallery, Lodz, PL “In Search for Causes and Realities”, “apARTe” Gallery, Iasi/Baia Mare RO 
“Clinical Architectures for a Compositionist Future (Part II)”, “CAMERA PLUS. Biennial of contemporary photography and moving image”, Borderline Art Space, Iasi, RO
“Constellations of Desires”, “apARTe” Gallery, Iasi, RO
“The Omelet Manifesto”, “The Projection Room”, “The Unstitute”, WorldWideWeb 

2015 

“NO HOPE FOR A FUTURE”, “apARTe” Gallery, Iasi, RO 
“4th” International / 12th Congress / 200 years of resistance”, Facebook page, WorldWideWeb. 
“(NO)FUTURE”, Otte 1 Gallery, Eckernforde, DE
“Summertime Sadness – Crisis at the Baltic Sea”, tranzit.ro/Iasi, Iasi, RO
“A gift for all of our Facebook friends -2016 a sexy-history calendar/featuring TINA”, Facebook event, WorldWideWeb

2014
“METROPIA”, “apARTe” Gallery, Iasi, RO
“A gift for all of our Facebook friends -2015 a sexy-history calendar”, Facebook event, WorldWideWeb

2013
“?!!” [Personal artistic archive reconstruction], “apARTe” Gallery, Iasi, RO
“Transmedial / questioning painting”, “apARTe” Gallery, Iasi, RO 

 

Selected group exhibitions

2022
“Stop War”, Cazul 101, Bucharest

2021
“Secret Language”, Ivan Gallery, Bucharest
“VIDEO+RADIO+LIVE”, Casa Artelor, Timisoara, RO
“Dialoghi con la catastrofe”, MUST – Museo del Territorio di Vimercate, IT
“Šiluva Art biennial – Touched Land”, LTH

2020
“Rewriting Our Imaginations”, public space project of “Liste Art Fair Basel”, Basel, CH
“MATCAUTOMAT: exchanging extremes”, Automat, Saarbrücken, DE
“ARTISTS ROOMS”, “Scena9” Residence, Bucharest, RO
“Corona And Climate Crisis”, GROUP GLOBAL 3000, Berlin, DE
“Subordinated Reality”, VBKÖ Gallery, Vienna, AT
“VIDEOFORMA VIII”, Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Center, St. Petersburg, RU
“PPM#5 @the workplace”, Aici Acolo Pop Up Gallery, Cluj-Napoca, RO
“CROSSROADS. Poems of non belonging”, Victoria Art Gallery, Iasi, RO
“Freiraum Festival 2020”, online

2019
“STRIKE GENTLY AWAY ____”, The Real Office, Salzburg, AT
“Displacement and togetherness”, Museumcultuur Strombeek, Grimbergen, BE “Suoja / Shelter Festival-Laboratory 2019”, Vapaan Taiteen Tila, Helsinki, FI
“Go, Stay, Stop”, MODEM (Modern and Contemporary Arts Centre), Debrecen, HU “căDERE LIBERă”, Le 6 b, Saint-Denis/Paris, FR
“Sofia Underground Performance Festival”, Sofia, BG
“Zsigmond Vilmos Film Festival”, Szeged, HU

2018 

“Capital’s Time Machine”, Club ElectroPutere & The Real Office, Bucharest, RO “A World Has Still To Be Built”, Art Encounters Foundation, Timisoara, RO “Baywatch”, KVOST (Kunstverein Ost), Berlin, DE
“Alternative Facts”, “The Real Office”, Stuttgart, DE 
“Hybrid Polarities”, “MATCA” Art Space, Cluj-Napoca, RO
“WW – 10 januari 2018 – Strijd”, Kulter / West Wednesdays, Amsterdam, NL “Where do we go from here?”, Salonul de proiecte, Bucharest, RO
“IV Festival de Video nodoCCS”, Caracas, VE
“Under the stars”, InContext, Slaniac Moldova / MNAC, Bucharest, RO

2017
“Cool monuments –hot heads”, “Expanded Space # 7”, Bucharest, RO “Beyond one’s own territory”, “Initiative.Raumschiff”, Linz, AT
“Variations. Again and the same”, Electro-Putere Gallery, Craiova, RO
“Ways of using absence”, 2ndTimisoara Art Encounters Biennale, Timisoara, RO “Summer of ‘68”, “VOR – Virtual Open Space”, WorldWideWeb
“Zuiderfestival 2017”,Studio Complex & Hangarrrrrr,Enschede, NL
“Mobile Biennale: The tour of Moldavia in 7 days”, RO / MD
“Message in a bottle”, “Walk&talk” Art Festival, São Miguel, PT 
“The face of the Earth”, Espacio Pla, Buenos Aires, AR“Images of Tomorrow”, Goldsmiths College, London, UK “Odessa Biennale of Contemporary Art”, Odessa, UA
“On: Media Arts”, Pazardzhik, BG
“Independent Political Activism Short” Film Festival, Athens, GR “BAD VIDEO ART FESTIVAL”, “A3 Gallery”, Moscow, RU 
“Boiling Point”, “MATCA” Art Space, Cluj-Napoca, RO 

2016 

“AIR” (exhibition), “Electro Putere” Gallery, Craiova, RO
“How do you feel a space?”, Acts of Searching Closely, London, UK
“Future Project”, Inland Art Festival, Redruth, UK
“Non-Fictions”, “Scena9” Residence, Bucharest, Ro
“BIDEODROMO. International Experimental Film and Video Festival”, Bilbao, ES
“RETHink Art Digital Festival”, Crete, GR
“After Eden”, Latarka Gallery, Budapest, HU
“Video Art Festival Miden”, Kalamata, GR
“Gods Own Country”, Yorkshire Festival, Sheffield, UK
“Them”, “Lemonade” Gallery, Windsor, UK
“Blueprints”, Chicago Industrial Arts & Design Center, Chicago, USA
“[dis]Corporate Bodies #14”, “The Unstitute”, WorldWideWeb

2015
“CLOSE-UP”, “etc.” Gallery, Prague, CZ
“Sofia Underground Performance Festival”, Sofia, BG
“Give me five!”, “Magma” Gallery, Sf. Gheorghe, RO
ESSL Art Award Nominees Exhibition, Bucharest, RO
“TWORK#1”, video screening and artist-talk at KuLeKunsthaus, Berlin, DE
“What is Social Realism Now”, event / learning play coordinated by “ChtoDelat?” artistic group, Rosa- Luxemburg Foundation, Berlin, DE
“Between Democracies 1989-2014”, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, ZA
“Appearance & Essence”, 1st Timisoara Art Encounters Biennale, Timisoara, RO
“Visualcontainer TV”, 28th Instant Video Festival, Marseille, FR
“In Times of Hope and Unrest”, MNAC (National Museum of Contemporary Art), Bucharest, RO

2014
„Working title”, “Magma” Gallery, Sf. Gheorghe, RO
“An indifference map”, “apARTe” Gallery, Iasi, RO
“salonvideo_SUBmissions”, “Magma” Gallery, Sf. Gheorghe, RO

2013
“It already happened again”, “apARTe” Gallery, Iasi, RO 

Awards / nominees / commissions

2017
Commissioned public space work for the 7th edition of “Expanded Space”, Bucharest, RO
Selected for “Biennial of Young European Art” (Jeune Création Européenne)(series of exhibitions in: France, Denmark, Poland, Letonia, Cech Republic, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Romania)
Commissioned video work, “Killing Hope” by “Salonul de proiecte”, Bucharest, RO
“Crisis at the Baltic Sea” (collaborative work with Sana Ghobbeh) accepted for REFUGEE – Film Collection 2016
Commissioned video work, “Life is a Bitch” by “CAMERA PLUS. Biennial of contemporary photography and moving image”, Iasi, RO
Nominated for Chimera Art Award, final shortlist
Commissioned video work, “In Search for Causes and Realities” by “Centre of Contemporary Photography in Iasi”, Iasi, RO

2015
Nominated for ESSL Art Award, Romanian Shortlist
Nominated for Chimera Art Award, final shortlist
Commissioned video work, “s.a.b.a – video portrait” by ArtycoK.tv, Prague, CZ 

 

Artist Residencies / Other activities

2020
A-I-R, one month digital-residency at Guest Room Maribor, Maribor, SL
A-I-R, one month digital-residency at “ARTISTS ROOMS”, project of “Scena 9”, Bucharest, RO

2019
A-I-R, three months residency stay at AIR – ARTIST IN RESIDENCE Niederösterreich, Krems, AT

2018
A-I-R, KVOST research residency (Kunstverein Ost), Berlin, DE
A-I-R, RO (The Real Office) research residency, Stuttgart, DE
A-I-R, one month residency stay within “In Context” artist in residency program, Slanic Moldova, RO

2017
A-I-R, one month digital-residency at “warehouse.industries”, curatorial platform run by “super filme” and “flatness”
A-I-R, one month residency stay at Domino Contemporary Art Space, Cluj-Napoca, RO
2016
A-I-R, one month residency stay at Club Electroputere, Craiova, RO
“Autumn School. The 3 s: the spatial, the social and the sensorium”, University of Applied Arts, Vienna, AT A-I-R, one month residency stay at Wschodnia Gallery, Lodz, PL

2015
A-I-R, TAE research residency (Timisoara Art Encounters Biennial), Timisoara, RO
A-I-R, three months residency stay at Otte 1, Kunstlerhaus Eckernforde, Eckernforde, DE 

“Summer School for Engaged Art”, project developed by “ChtoDelat?” artistic group, Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation, Berlin, DE
A-I-R, one month residency stay at “quartier21 / Museums Quartier Vienna”, (programme of transit and ERSTE Foundation), Vienna, AT 

2013 

“b2.marathon meeting-brainstorming”,project by Lia Perjovschi, tranzit/Sibiu, RO 

Dispersed activity within the World-Wide-Web 

“Talking about the Future – a multi-layered narration about the possibilities and impossibility of the Future”: http://warehouse.industries/en/entry/talking-future-multi-layered-narration-possibilities-impossibility- future-4/ 

“Video-Manifestos – the adaptation of politics to the volatility of contemporary knowledge movement” (YouTube Chanel):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgze4X0veMMeNxhUjdmT25Q 

“A Sexy-History Calendar” series: https://independent.academia.edu/SilviaAmanceiBogdanArmanu