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The Art Cell is an art gallery in Bucharest which goes off the beaten track: it is different, it is nonconventional, it is a gallery that in 2022 celebrated its five years of existence. An aquarium-gallery, looking out onto the street, which seeks to promote the artistic message in direct contact with the public, with the public which happens to be passing by, with the street public. Quoting from the manifesto of the gallery, it enables art works to escape from the all too familiar space of a conventional gallery in order to interact with a new public which does not habitually take part in the opening of art exhibitions or in related events, thereby breaking a physical and temporal barrier between the art object and the onlooker, through a free, direct and non-conformist dialogue.
We sat down and spoke to one of the Art Cell co-founders, visual artist Daniel Loagar, about the history of the Cell, about how it all started 5 years ago, about the concept and about the team.
"A bit of history is needed, in order to make myself clear: the creation studio where I work is located in one of Bucharest's cultural hubs, namely the "Carol 53" hub. In this hub, they have studios, while working and collaborating on the premises are other artists as well, activating in various fields - painting, photography, music, leather work, jewelry, metal, but also the renewing of classical bicycles. Initially, the Art Cell was born out of the sheer need that we had, to express ourselves and to show, to lay before the public what we do in our studios. Specifically, the gallery was set up by a group of artists, members of the hub, while in October 2017, as part of the Galleries' White Night, we opened the gallery officially with a maiden exhibition, Wood be Nice, then we had the Houses' Night afterwards, the same year we also had our first performance, a live painting. However, shortly afterwards we realized it was selfish for us to have only our works on display, we, the people of the hub. We realized there were also other artists who wanted to be present, who wanted to get their works exhibited and manifest in the gallery. That is how The Art cell began, just as the public knows, today. The Art Cell is not a gallery in the very familiar sense of the word, for a number of reasons. It is an artist-run sort of space, it is run, it is organized by artists and friends, who dedicate part of their time pro-bono, in a bid to make it work. On the team, we've got people who do graphic design, social media, photo-video, web design, PR, people who are into logistics. Ours is not a big team, yet we try to cover the whole range of needs as regards this gallery. There are no set visiting hours for the Art Cell. The artistic object can be viewed, admired round the clock, 24/7, straight from the street. Another reason why we are not a conventional gallery is the public of the gallery, which is very diverse. What we exhibit is consumed both by art lovers and by artists' friends, just as it happens in a conventional gallery, but also by people who are less in the know. Our exhibitions are viewed by ordinary passers-by, by pupils on their way back from school, by grandparents going to the market, and so on. Another reason why we are, so to speak, different, is the fact that in the gallery we exhibit only works that are an absolute first, or, which is way more important for us, works purposefully created for the aquarium-type tri-dimensional space our gallery is. We exhibit and promote emerging artists, who are at the beginning of their career, who are still undergraduate or MA students, doctoral candidates, artists with no formal education in the field, artists who have their works exhibited for the first time, experimental artists, audacious artists, artist who love the challenge, artists who want to collaborate, but also artists who are well-established on the art market. We exhibit an extremely varied type of contemporary art: painting, sculpture, mix media, installation, new media and also we play host to performances, live paintings, live music, interactive installations or launches of magazines. "
What happened at the Art Cell in its 5 years of existence? Here is Daniel Loagăr once again, summarizing that:
"As we speak, we have reached the event number 137 and probably more than 100 exhibited artists. I kind of lost count of them, but we're almost there The performance by Teodor Grigoraș, who, taking up on the Celandine, shut himself in the Art Cell for 30 hours, and painted 30 paintings. Dorin Cucicov's new media installation, an installation which provides an account of every passer-by, also integrating them into a virtual gallery. A pro-Ukraine, manifesto exhibition we staged in The King Michael square in Bucharest, this year. An exhibition jointly staged with the "Art Mirror" Association in Cluj, dedicated to the environment, an exhibition we mounted in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova. A live painting occasioned by the opening of the Vertical Gallery. A live painting where blindfold artists were at work. A body drawing performance of our artist and friend Evgenya Gritsko of Chernovtsy, Ukraine. A large-scale project, titled IN-TO-IT, jointly carried with ASUNAB - The Association of the UNARTE students, which included live music broadcast by IN-TO-IT radio, a group exhibition of the UNARTE students and an installation of the students in the design department. Bombs and People, a pro-Ukraine and anti-war manifesto exhibition, Romania's first exhibition of this kind, curated by Raluca Ilaria Demetrescu and myself. And, also, I need to mention the New Art Cell premises, specifically, "The Art Cell Kulterra Gallery" pop-up windows, a collaboration between our gallery and Kulterra, a collaboration that had its debut in April 2022 and The Vertical Gallery By Cell, a new gallery branded The Cell, in the Random Space Courtyard, an art consumption space. We had the opening of the Vertical Gallery in May 2022.
Here is the artist Daniel Loagar once again, this time getting more personal and telling us what he wanted from the Art Cell Gallery in the next 5 years:
"I daresay we shall keep up the good work. We shall try to reveal the work of as many brilliant artists as we can, hitherto unknown to the public, we shall try to experiment, to play, to do performances. " (EN)