The “Rue de l’Exposition” gallery is a project by the Romanian Cultural Institute of Paris. Motivated by their widely acclaimed Photo Month exhibitions in November 2010 (“Bucharest, the unloved”, “Don’t turn your Head”), the Institute’s Director Katia Danila has decided to open a new space devoted entirely to photography. Not just any photography: Militant, social, sociological, and anthropological. She will be offering “debates, revealing and relating hidden truths”. The exhibitions will have a central theme, highlighting aspects of Romanian and other societies. “Solitaria”, the theme selected for 2011, includes six exhibitions about “solitude, marginalization, and isolation. Interior landscapes, Cioran’s thoughts as pretexts for pictures, the life of the Roms, the “furry” communities in Europe and a look at life for victims of sex trafficking…”

Michele Bressan’s work entitled “Memories for my Children” has been on display since January. Born in Trieste in 1980, the photographer earned a photo-video degree from the Fine Arts University of Bucharest where he has been living since 1994. In this work, he explores the emergence of personal and collective memories, looking for Proustian memory bites. “By erasing barriers between professional and amateur photography”, “Memories for my Children” goes beyond the anonymous family album on public view and presents itself as heritage idealized”.

“Interior Landscapes”, is the title of the second exhibition that will be held from February 2 through March 30. Michele Bressan’s “Floors 5, 6 7”, features clips taken from a stationary video camera, revealing the banality of daily life. Whereas Bogdan Girbovan’s exhibitions “Friend’s rooms” and “10 / 1” explore the structural changes from pre to post communist Romania. Born in Romania in 1981, he also has a degree from the Fine Arts University in Bucarest where he lives and works.

“Friend’s rooms” refers to the Romanian tradition, most prevalent in the south, of considering the guest’s rooms “the better room”. Modernization and urbanization “have eclipsed the need for these rooms, which, for the most part, have been transformed into closets.”

The project entitled “10 / 1” is comprised of ten pictures taken in a high rise building in East Bucarest where concrete has triumphed as witnessed by the 70,000 such buildings in the capital city. On all 10 floors, inside or out, the studios are identical. The goal: make everyone equal. This photo series aims to highlight the social diversity in these buildings. The differences in furnishings and interior decorations reveals the psychology of the residents.

This summer, the gallery will be exhibiting “Le Platz des Roms” by Gabriela Lupu, while the year’s end will see the Dana Popa’s exhibition “Not Natasha”, Natasha referring to the name given to prostitutes from eastern Europe.

In 2012, with the theme “Reminiscences” the gallery will explore the final tracks of a disappearing world: migrations, mining, the consequences of communism on orphans…
In 2013, the gallery will look to the future, with developments in Romanian society ranging from architecture to urbanism, cultural and artistic dynamics…

Bernard Perrine</strong<
Correspondant de l’Institut de France

Galerie rue de l’Exposition
1 rue de l’Exposition
75007 Paris