Irina Botea Bucan & Jon Dean

Irina Botea Bucan (b. 1970, Ploiești) has developed a symbiotic artist-educator-researcher methodological framework that consistently questions dominant socio-political ideas and centralizes human agency as a vehicle for meaning. Choosing to act in diverse contexts, she is currently focusing on the decentralization of cultural discourses and the possibility of sustaining a creative differentiation which arguably exists outside a dominant hegemonic system of values and critique. Performance, reenactment, simulated auditions, elements of direct cinema and cinéma vérité are combined in her artistic approach, developed through a relational process. Currently she is faculty at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (since 2006) and pursuing a PhD at Goldsmiths University in London. Selected solo and group shows: 55th Venice Biennale; International Film Festival Rotterdam; New Museum, New York; MUSAC (Museum of Contemporary Art of Castilia and Leon); Centre Pompidou, Paris; National Gallery Jeu de Paume, Paris; Kunsthalle Winterthur; Reina Sofia National Museum, Madrid; Gwangju Biennale 2010; U-Turn Quadrennial for Contemporary Art, Copenhagen; 51st Venice Biennale; Prague Biennale; Kunstforum, Vienna; Foksal Gallery, Warsaw; Argos Center for Art and Media, Brussels; MNAC (National Museum of Contemporary Art), Bucharest; Museum of Contemporary Art, Szczecin; Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw. Film festivals: Artefact Festival, Leuven; Rotterdam Film Festival; Impakt Panorama, Utrecht; Polis Adriatic Europe Festival.

Jon Dean (b. Wolverhampton) has been working in the overlapping fields of community/visual arts and applied social science for over thirty years; initiating and developing diverse cultural projects through embedding differentiated and negotiated participatory strategies designed to place participants at the very core of artistic expression, learning and cultural policy. Throughout his career, Jon has worked within a broad range of socio-cultural contexts, including: formal educational institutions, museums, art galleries and generic community locations. Recent screenings/exhibitions include: Loop Barcelona; Elvira Popescu Cinema, Bucharest; Young Artists Studio, Budapest; University of Johannesburg; Goldsmiths University, London; Tranzit.ro, Bucharest; Anca Poterașu Gallery, Bucharest; Centrala Gallery, Birmingham; Art on Display, Bucharest; Arcub, Bucharest; Black and White Biennale, Satu Mare; Columbia University, NY; Ferenc Bar, Budapest.