Dialog in Agora is an intercultural and interdisciplinary artistic platform initiated by the artist Dana Fabini.
It has the aim to open and establish structures for interactive, performative and sustainable art communication and art reception.
You find here short informations mostly in original language about the projects of this platform, as well as contributions to other similar projects.
2023-2024 Creative forms of art dialogue and clinical context
The Military Emergency Hospital "Dr. Constantin Papilian" in Cluj-Napoca is the second largest unit of its kind in Romania (after the Central Military Hospital), it has over 400 employees and annually over 11,000 patients - military and civilian - from absolutely all counties of the country. Based on the collaboration agreement between the University of Art and Design - Art Education Department and the Emergency Military Clinical Hospital in Cluj Napoca, an art therapy project was developed during 2023-2024. The students of the second and third year of bachelor art studies worked together with inpatients and outpatients in neurology, psychiatry and oncology. The project involved different group communication techniques on visual art and enjoyed a very good collaboration with the medical staff, to the benefit of the patients. It is a pilot project to introduce sustainable structures for the practice of art therapy in the clinical context in Romania.
Coordination of the project: university professor Dr. habil. Dana Fabini.
Assistance: Ph.D student Roxana Fogaș / Ph.D. student Theodor Romilă / Ph.D. student Mădălin Ciucă / PhD. student Ovidiu Leuce.
Director: Commander colonel Dr. Doina Baltaru, the first woman in Romania to run a military hospital.
See also the project announcement on TVR Cluj News
2023 Diasporic Art Exhibition
The largest exhibition in Romania dedicated to exile and the way in which artists maintain ties with their country of origin, was presented at the Centrul de Interes between June 7 and July 29, 2023. The curator Ami Barak and the nine artists , who live and work outside their countries of origin, are reference names in international contemporary art: Adel Abdessemed, Mircea Cantor, Gaëlle Choisne, Latifa Echakhch, Hana Miletić, Melik Ohanian, Anna Prvacki, Daniel Otero-Torres, Decebal Scriba.
“The use of the term diaspora has expanded considerably over the last few decades. Initially referring to a forced exile, for political, economic, social and cultural reasons, it is now relatively commonplace and is enough to maintain a link, at least symbolic, with an original home and a set of dispersed populations that originated from it to proclaim oneself a member of a diaspora and to assume an identity that volens nolens brings back to the origins. On the artistic level, these conscious or unconscious links, these artistic genealogies are undeniably sources of enrichment, both symbolic and metaphorical. Whatever they do, the artists will express, as much on the level of the formal vocabulary as on the conceptual level, works or details which will bring us back to these links. As the British sociologist and scholar Paul Gilroy (1993) says so well, «𝘙𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴». «𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘶𝘴», says the American writer Philip Roth. And for these reasons we have chosen these artists and works to show and demonstrate the power and diversity of approaches but also to capture the effects of dispersion, scattering, borders, origin and return, insider and outsider, that correspond to realities and lived experiences offering an emblematic range.” – Ami Barak
The "Diasporic" exhibition was opened on Wednesday, June 7, between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., at the Centrul de Interes in Cluj-Napoca. The opening was followed on Thursday, June 8, from 18:00, by a round table on the exhibition, moderated by Florin Ștefan - artist, professor at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, president of the Center of Interest Federation, with the participation of: Ami Barak - curator and independent art critic / Decebal Scriba - artist / Dana Fabini - artist and university professor at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca / Vlad Țoca - art historian and university professor at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca. Benoît Bavouset – creative and artistic education advisor at the French Ministry of Culture in Mamoudzou Mayotte, and Bogdan Ghiu – writer, essayist, translator, participated in the round table via Zoom.
2022 Art Lab Performance / Parcul Artelor - Laborator performativ
One week project of interdisciplinary art forms with students from Art Education / Painting Department of the UAD - University of Art and Design in Cluj Napoca, Romania. Choreography: Oana Mureșan, founder of OM Studio Choreografic Center - the first independent center in Cluj-Napoca dedicated to contemporary choreographic research. Organiser: Ioana Olăhuț, artist and director of the UAD Painting Department / Dana Fabini, artist and professor for Interdisciplinary Art Forms - UAD Art Education.
Location: Pavilion Pictura, str. Aleea Parcului nr 2, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
18 Nov. 2022, the second day of the project - see video on YouTube
Sponsors and Supporters: Primăria Cluj Napoca, Universitatea de Artă și Design, OM Studio Centru Coregrafic
2021 2x5 Art as a Language / Kunst als Sprache / Arta ca Limbaj
An intercultural dialogue between five women artists from Freiburg (Germany) and five from Cluj Napoca (Romania), organized on the occasion of the 900 year city anniversary of Freiburg. The exhibition presents the diversity of current artistic techniques related to professional forms of image multiplication. Artists: Dana Fabini, Ria Hochmann, Christine Huss, Lucia Lobonț, Ana Cristina Marian, Chris Popović, Grit Schumacher, Ligia Smarandache, Elisa Stützle-Siegsmund
Curators: Dana Fabini, Christine Huss, Elisa Stützle-Siegsmund
2021 Art Exhibition - Goethe Institut Freiburg // Centrul de Cultură Urbană Cluj Napoca
see video on YouTube
2020-2021 Pandemic Lessons
2018-2020 Cosmopolitan(ism) / Cosmopolit(ism) / Kosmopolit(ismus)
A project about art, migration and globalisation. During the project, between 2018-2020, art professionals are invited to work together and present their intercultural experience. It focuses on the Romanian presence in this context. (Note: The events planned for 2020 were cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.)
2018-2019 Cosmopolitan(ism) in Cluj Napoca and Cologne
see video on YouTube
Links
2016 - 2017 Contemporary Archaeology / Arheologie Contemporană / Zeitgenössische Archäologie
Dialogue in Agora. Contemporary Archaeology is an interactive-performative project that supports contemporary art and interdisciplinary artistic expressions. The project concentrates on a cultural exchange of experiences and information between the twin cities of Cologne and Cluj Napoca (Klausenburg). The focus is on a lively and open dialogue in which the participating artists and their guests develop works inspired by the city, the people living in the place, the archaeology, the atmosphere and the current urban structure. An intensive and extensive exploration of ancient and new cultural layers is pursued through artistic means, and it offers the opportunity to inform the international public about the local culture. Over the duration of the project, from October 2016 to October 2017, video presentations, talks on specific topics with artists, curators and art theorists, interactive actions, performances and interdisciplinary workshops will take place both in Cluj Napoca and in Cologne.
2017 Contemporary Archaeology in Cologne
see video on YouTube
2016 Contemporary Archaeology in Cluj Napoca
see video on YouTube
