Discover Bucharest’s art galleries: Laborna

After a full month of art events such as Art Safari, the White Night of the Museums and the White Night of the Galleries, BR continues the art series with an interview with Ciprian Paleologu from Laborna gallery, a new artistic spot in Bucharest.

By Oana Vasiliu

Which are the most important projects of the gallery this year?

Laborna Gallery continues its consistent foundation program began in 2013, when we opened it. This records monthly professional individual artistic approach, meaning that an artist exhibits for a fixed period of one month, without claiming that these works form an “exhibition”.

The presentation events for public are named milestones (in Romanian, “borne” – the name of the gallery). This year, the milestones are presented every two months, as follows: two rooms are occupied by artists Traian Boldea and Ciprian Paleologu, the founders of the gallery, another by a contemporary art collector, Daniel Stefanica, who monthly presents new artists, the SCARA space is the place where young artists are exposed, while the fifth space, named subSCARA / Mapus Mundi belongs to Ovidiu Morar, who monthly maps alternative worlds.

How developed is cultural management in Romania?

The cultural management is in the same situation as the environment in which it is growing. In other words, it seems that we are in perpetual transformation, without being able to say at the moment if its construction is placed on a solid basis or not. There are forms of experiment, some with a longer history, others just getting started, but apparently, no matter how good it looks in a particular historical moment, the ankles are made from glass.

Which was the most expensive sold exhibit of the gallery and who made it?

We didn’t make any money top because our plan is to develop the concept of our gallery.

Are Romanians interested in buying art?

I think that generalizing the interest in art for the Romanian category is a little deceptive. It exists, as everywhere in this world, individuals that are closer to the artistic phenomenon, others that intersect with it just as a form of social context as well as a networking form, but also a substantial number of people for whom the art does not exist. The most important thing is that we can observe a consistent appetite on the contemporary art but we can’t tell if this appetite means a devastating taste before a main course or just a subsequent satiety and overflow.

How many artists have the gallery in the portofolio? Who are they?

The gallery has five spaces, as I mentioned before, and one space is dedicated to the young artists. Naiana Vatavu, Daniel Roșca Năstăsescu, Ana Ștefan, Ioana Niculescu Aron, Adrian Dică, Mihai Teodorescu have exhibited in our gallery.

The gallery is located on 17 Icoanei St. and more information is available here.