ICR Romanian Cultural Institute London

Dan Acostioaei @ Tate Modern

Romanian artist Dan Acostioaei has been invited to take part in the group show Iluminations at Tate Modern, curated by Lucy Askew and Ben Borthwick. The exhibition brings together five film and video works that explore the intersection of conventional religious belief and contemporary secular political and social conditions.

Featured artists are: Dan Acostioaei, Lida Abdul, Sanford Biggers, caraballo-farman and Valérie Mréjen.
Artists Interviews

Acostioaei's video Crossroad (2005) captures the gesture of people crossing themselves when passing a church. The gesture is common to a large variety of social and cultural backgrounds and of different ages in the artist's hometown Iasi, Romania. The film speaks about the persistence of the mystic spirit and traditional values in Romanian society despite of its continuous efforts for modernization. The feverish religious 'revival' is, in fact, the late response of people to communist suppression and censorship.

Dan Acostioaei (b.1974, Iasi) studied at the University of Fine Arts in Iasi, Romania. He had residencies at Arts Link, Cleveland (2006), Kulturkontakt Vienna (2004) and Rotor, Graz (2002). Selected group exhibitions: The Uncanny in Contemporary Romanian Video, Florence Lynch Gallery, New York (2007), Brief Encounters, 11th Bristol International Short Film Festival, UK (2005), Irreducible, Bronx Museum, New York & CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2005), Cover Story, Display Gallery, Prague (2005).

When seeing really is believing: exhibition review in The Observer by Laura Cumming.

Dan Acostioaei's participation is supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute in London.

When: 14 December 2007 - 24 February 2008;
Where: Level 2 Gallery, Tate Modern, London
Admission free.