ICR Romanian Cultural Institute London

Dacia 1300. My Generation - Special Event

Screening
UK Premiere of the film Dacia 1300. My Generation by Stefan Constantinescu, 62', 2003

One of the most important symbols of communist Romania under Ceausescu was Dacia 1300, a car which everyone wished to own, a symbol of the working class' achievement and victory towards the future. The car manufacturer Auto Pitesti was built in 1968, the year Constantinescu was born, the USSR invaded Czechoslovakia and Romania refused to join in the invasion - a decision which gained Ceausescu Western support and tolerance for his increasingly totalitarian drive.

The car was truly wonderful, says the artist; year after year I visited the auto-showroom to see the last colours and improvements. For me, as a child in communist Romania with no access to Western culture and technology, it was a way to dream and escape.

The film contains old archival footage and propaganda material, alongside thirteen interviews with old neighbours from the block where Constantinescu family lived (Colentina area, Bucharest).

Followed by Artist in Conversation with film critic Adina Bradeanu.

Stefan Constantinescu was born in Bucharest in 1968 and moved to Stockholm in 1994. He exhibits in the Romanian Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale this year, within the group show The Seductiveness of the Interval. In 2007, he had a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, located in the in the building meant to be Nicolae Ceausescu's presidential palace.
Selected group exhibitions include: The social critique 1993-2005, Kalmar Konstmuseum Sweden, 2009; Dada East? Romanian Context of Dadaizm, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, 2008; indirect speech, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany, 2006.
Forthcoming projects: My Beautiful Dacia, documentary film co-directed with Julio Soto - to be released on Channel 4 in 2010.
More information on Stefan Constantinescu's work at www.forma12.com.

The exhibition The Golden Age for Children is open until 3 December.

When: Monday 16 November 2009, 7-9 pm
Where: Romanian Cultural Institute, 1 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PH
Free entry