Introduction to contemporary art: At the edge of the world

The first introductory course to contemporary art organised in conjunction with the exhibition “At the edge of the world” will focus on the ways in which drawing has been used by artists over the past 50 years. We will explore various stages and tendencies, from conceptual art and analytical reductionism to hyperrealism, drawing as “mimesis” and adapting traditional graphic language to the new requirements of contemporary art.

Maria Orosan-Telea is a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Design in Timișoara. She trained in art history and theory at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. She has been concerned with contemporary art since her doctoral studies, when she carried out research on Romanian art in the post-communist period. Her collaboration with the Art Encounters Foundation began in 2017 with the publication of the book Art Guide. Introduction to Romanian Contemporary Art. As a curator she has carried out a series of projects in collaboration with Avantpost group, and in 2018 she founded the curatorial program DRAFT. In 2019-2021 she was an assistant in the project “Gender Politics and the Art of European Socialist States” initiated by Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. In addition to her academic and curatorial activities, she is preoccupied with elaborating friendly methods for the familiarization of the general public with art historical notions and movements.


Curated by Diana Marincu and Ciprian Mureșan, the exhibition aims to render the creative laboratory of the participating artists, visible in drawings and sketches, by analyzing the boundary between the real and fictional worlds that every one of us inhabits. Starting from the medium of drawing as a conceptual tool through which unknown areas are explored and a visual universe is redefined, the exhibition gives shape to a state of uncertainty and unease, two feelings that are inevitable today. Each of the invited artists represents a different direction in what concerns the contemporary visual creation, straining the limit between the visible and the invisible. The sound-drawing, the imprint, the network, the palimpsest, the spatial drawing, the relief drawing, the drawing that scratches, the drawing that caresses, all of these are ways of “reading” the vibration of an increasingly altered reality.


With a premonitory title, the exhibition At the edge of the world surprises through its timely, intuitive character. The model of nature arises as a method through which all dualities are organically healed, while repetition and seriality represent opportunities for changing something, for finding that difference which imposes itself as a critical mechanism, reminding us that, in fact, history never repeats itself.


Artists: Andrei Arion, Csilla Bartus, Dan Beudean, Ole Blank, Floriama Cândea, Eduard Constantin, Norbert Filep, Camilia Filipov, Lucia Ghegu, Alexandra Mereuți & Sebastian Danciu, Alexandra Satmari and Lucía Simón Medina.


Participation is free of charge.

To register, please contact us at inscrieri@artencounters.ro

Although the COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, we recommend wearing a mask and keeping a physical distance of at least 1.5 m from the people around you.


The exhibition is part of ART-UP, a cultural project that has been co-financed by The Administration of the National Cultural Fund.
Organiser: Art Encounters Foundation
Co-financer: The Administration of the National Cultural Fund
Sponsors: ISHO, Thesaurus, Illy
Media partners: TVR Timișoara, Radio România Cultural, RFI România, Observator Cultural, Zeppelin, Modernism, Revista Arta, The Institute, Propagarta, StudentFest
Graphic design: Flavia Țună
Collaborators: Andra Dascălu, Robert Floria, Carmen Nicolau, Maria Orosan Telea, Teo Papadopol, Gavril Pop, Overcast Agency, Galeria Plan B, Galeria Sector 1, Galeria Sabot