Marilena Preda Sânc

Marilena Preda Sânc (born April 17, 1955 in Bucharest) is a Romanian visual artist, art educator (current position – professor at National University of Arts, Bucharest, and author of feminism and Public Art writings. She is known for being one of the most active feminist artists in the country.

Her career has spanned two eras in Romania: the social, cultural, and political restrictions of the Communist era, and the freedom of the post-revolution era which allowed her to expand her expression. gender identity, globalisation, Her early work in the 1980s was confined by the censorship regulations of the Communist government, but emphasised the exploration of the relationships between body and space (e.g. My Body is Space in Space, Time for Memory of All), and the expression of self-analysis. Even though she faced restrictions, her art was still considered very experimental for the time, as seen in projects such as her intervention photographs and photo collages. During the Communist era, men and women in theory held equal positions, but in reality domestic work was still done primarily by women. Policies regarding reproduction also placed constraints on women's control over their sexual and reproductive life. After the revolution, women still experiences hardships, facing more difficulties finding work than men and receiving less pay. Although information access has increased in the country and there is more freedom to protest gender inequality, there is often a lack of interest in doing so. "The weak representation of feminist art in Romania is based on inconsistencies in information, prejudices, and negative value judgments: the majority of art training's interest is focused on making art as a means of expression without applying any serious gendered analysis" (Olivia Nitis).

Museum holdings MNAC (The National Museum of Contemporary Art) Bucharest (feminist work) Art Museums Oradea; Engraving Museu;, Bistriţa, Graphic Museum Tulcea Arhitekturni Muzej Ljubljana, Group Junij Collection, Lujljana (My Body is Space in Space, Time for Memory of All) Albertina Art Collections, Vienna, Austria Kunsthalle, Nuremberg Centro d’Arte Spaziotempo Firenze St. Stephen King Museum (artist book Body+Sound) Art Center Hugo Voeten, Belgium Art works in private collection: Austria, Belgium Bulgary, Canada, England, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, U.S.A., South Korea, India, Denmark.

Awards and grants 2017 Diploma for Gallery Eastward Prospectus with solo exhibition Marilena Preda Sanc – Artissima / Back to the Future 2010 Diploma of Excellence, Faculty of Arts and Design, Timișoara, Romania 2008 Prize for painting "Mihail Grecu" UAP Moldova, Chisinau 2004 Ordinul Meritul Cultural, Romania 1998 Arts link, fellowship, New York (Franklin Furnace's Program) 1997 KulturKontakt, artist in residence, Vienna, Austria 1996 Habitat the III-rd prize for painting, national competition organized by U.N.D.P., Bucharest 1993 Diploma Amici del Pomero, (RHO) Milan, Italy 1988 International JUNIJ Group selection (prize for the best group exhibition – Photo Moon in Paris) 1983, 1986 Medaglia Amici del Pomero, (RHO) Milan, Italy 1986 Art Camp for painters Kazanluk 1982 Studio 35 Prize of Painting, Bucharest, Romania 1979 Scholarship of Merit, University of Arts, Bucharest, Romania

Most recent solo exhibitions – feminist themes 2014 Crossing Worlds, FIVE PLUS Art Gallery Vienna (curator Olivia Niţiş) 2012 Mecanismele Imaginii / Image Machinery Contemporary Art Gallery of the National Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu (curator Liviana Dan) 2011 Utopii Cotidiene / Crossing Self Histories 1981–2011 – intermedia exhibition, (MNAC), National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest 2010 La Ciudad, paintings – video, Romanian Embassy Art Gallery from Madrid, Spain 2008 Bucharest-Budapest Bridge Contemporary Romanian and Hungarian Arts - The Gabor Hunya Collection (El Kazovszkij, Marilena Preda Sanc), Hungarian Cultural Centre, Bucharest 2007Urbanscape / Flying soul / Globalization, intermedia exhibition, Studio D.V.O. Gallery, Brussels Geografia intima / global – videoarte y arte digital, ICR, Madrid

Most recent group exhibitions – feminist themes 2017 Dans la peau de la peau@ssie, Galeria Rue Francaise by MissChina, Paris, France Seeing Ourselves Sensing, East Wards Prospectus Gallery, Bucharest, Romania 2016 Istorii Monu-Mentale, Art Cub Gabroveni, Bucharest, Romania (curator Olivia Niţiş) 2015 From Afirmation to Contestation – Public Art Practices, MNAC, Bucharest, Romania (curator Judith Balko) Trans – Insurrection Poetique, Galerie Rue Francaise by Miss China, Paris, France Bon Appetite, performance, live net-cast, Galerie Rue Francaise by Miss China, Paris, France 2014 3rd European International Book Art Biennale (EIBAB), Russian State Art Library, Moscow, Russia. Author & curator Dorothea Fleiss and curator Mikhail Pogarsky Momentum 2, Aiurart Contemporary Art Space, Bucharest, Romania (curator Olivia Niţiş) Femart – Nihil sine UNA dea, CAV, București (curator Reka Csapo) 2013 Good Girls Memory Desire Power, MNAC, Bucharest, Romania (curators Bojana Pejic, Olivia Niţiş) Video Art International Festival, Camaguey (curator Olivia Niţiş) Momentum, Aiurart Gallery, București, Romania (curator Olivia Niţiş) 2012 20 Years:KKA Artists in Residence, KulturKontakt, Viena, Austria Body World – Traveling the Distance between Subject and Object, Victoria Art Center, Bucharest, Romania (curator Petru Lucaci) Femart, CAV, Bucharest, Romania (curators: Romana Mateiași, Bety Vervega, Emilia Persu, Marilena Preda Sânc)

Most recent video work – feminist themes 2016 Closed Circuit, video 3 min 2015 Bon Appetite, performance, live net-cast, Galerie Rue Francaise by Miss China, Paris, France 2014 Local Policy ’Patriarchy’, video performance 2 min.24 sec. 2012 The Fist, video clip, 1 min 2010 Daily DIVA, video film, 4 min 2008 DIVA, video performance, 4 min

Selection of publications/symposiums/ writings by Marilena Preda Sânc "Eco-feminist Art" in catalog Good Girls, Ed. ICR, 2016, p. 27-28 My Body is Space in Space, Time for Memory of All in Arta magazine, "Feminisme", Nr. 11 / 2014, , imagini p. 36-37 Romanian Women Artists in Art in Public Space - Feminism and Culture symposium. Relevance and Perspectives in Art History and Cultural Analysis, The Institute of Art History, Bucharest, 11.27.2009 Femartworks, Editura UNARTE, București, CD-Rom interactive, Art in the Public Space symposium – World Trade Center, Bucharest, Romania Eco-feminist Art – Contrapunct magazine, no. 2–4, 2002, pp. 24–26 Other March – The Women's Role in Transgression of Ethnic Borders, Editura Desire Foundation, Cluj, 2001, curator Enikõ Magyari-Vincze, pp. 9. The Romanian Woman Ecofeminist Art, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 2000 "Starost", "Oldness", in Stereo-Tip, editors Helena Pivec, Lilijana Stepnčič and Mestna galerija Ljubjana, 1995, pp. 62–63, 83. 1986 "Crochiul Minţii" – artist book (poem and screen printing), limited edition, run of 15

Selected bibliography "Artissima Back to the Future" – Anna Daneri , 2017 Torino, p. 88-89 FemLink-Art, Ed. Escourbiac, France, 2015, pp. 31, 60, 81

Material Histories Feminism and Feminist Art in Post- Revolutionary Romania - Olivia Niţiş, published in Gender Check: READER – Art and Theory in Eastern Europe, edited by Bojana Pejic & Erste Foundation & Museum Moderne KunstStiftung Ludwig Wien, pp. 351–361. "Globalization. The Window with Memories" – Olivia Niţiş, GEGENUBERSTELLUNG Brucke Zwischen Sichtbarem und Unsichtbarem exhibition catalog, Ed. Schnell+Steiner, editor Maria Baumann, Regensburg, 2014, , pp 72–73 "Eu, En, Ich II" - Laura Grunberg, Arta magazine, Feminisme, Nr. 11 / 2014, , text, imagine p. 23 Sinteze Contemporane. Corpul în Arta Balcanică / Contemporary Syntheses. The Body in the Balkan Art, Alexandra Titu, Constantin Prut, Editura BrumaR, Timişoara, , p. 12, 110-111 Artele plastice în România 1945- 1989 cu o adendă 1990–2010, Magda Carneci, Publisher Polirom, Colecţia de Artă, Bucharest, 2013, , p. 125, 131-132 Marilena Preda Sânc la MNAC - Magda Predescu, Arta magazine Optzecismul vizual după 20 de ani / The 1980s Generation in the Visual Arts Twenty Years Later, no. 4–5, 2012, Ed. Uniunea Artiştilor Plastici din România, , p. 110