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= 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. She uses a multidisciplinary approach by employing various media such as drawing, painting, mural art, book-objects, video, performance, photography, and installation, and her work has been shown in museums, galleries, conferences, symposium, and broadcast venues around the world. Her career spanned across two eras in Romania: the social, cultural, and political restrictions of the Communist era and freedom of the post-revolution era that allowed her to expand her expression. Preda Sânc explored a variety of themes including feminism, gender identity, gender fusion, globalization, self-exploration, and the interaction between public and private spaces.

Education and Work
Preda Sânc received her B.A. from the National University of Arts in Bucharest in 1980. She later received a Ph. D. in visual arts in 2002. Her early work in the 80s was confined by the censorship regulations of the Communist government, but emphasized 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. She states “I am concerned about the idea of the inner and outer landscape of the human body; about places for meditation thoughts and emotions, opening a path toward a deeper penetration of multiple layers of reality.” 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. After the 1989 revolution, Preda Sânc expanded her work to include a critical analysis of social and political norms in the country. This was because of the increased freedom for expression in the Eastern European art world as well as increased access to information from the Western world. During this time she also diversified her technique to include globe objects, video performances, and multimedia installations. Influenced by the war in Yugoslavia in 1999, she explored issues of globalization and political and cultural conflict (e.g. Remapping the World). She also no longer was separated from the feminist movement and was one of the only Romanian artists that actually embraced this label.

Role in Feminism in Romania
Feminism in Romania did not take hold as it did in Western countries. During the Communist era, men and women in theory held equal positions, but in reality women were often restricted solely to domestic work. 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). Wanda Mihuleac is considered to be the only artist pre-1990 to have any feminist approach in her work. After the revolution there were still very few to engage in this type of dialogue, even to the point of refusing to discuss what it was like being a woman in Romania during the Communist time. This is partly due to the negative connotation feminism has in the country and the idea that it lacks relevance in contemporary society. Marilena Preda Sânc is one of the only artists who embraces this term and addresses issues of gender inequality in her work. She uses her art related to feminism as a “self-referential statement,” often incorporating themes related to body (e.g. Bodyscape, Handscape, Mindscape 1993). Preda Sânc sees social and political criticism as very personal, incorporating internal identity with external issues. One exhibition that she participated in that was related specifically to feminism was Perspectives in 2008. The project, organized by Olivia Nitis (curator, art critic, and feminist writer), was intended to “explore the cultural and historical differences between countries with no connection or with a direct and more appropriate connection to the waves and changes feminism has produced.” One of Preda Sânc’s works exhibited in this show was the photography/video installation Diva.

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 in Time and Memory of All)
 * Albertina Art Collections, Vienna, Austria
 * Kunsthalle, Nurenberg
 * 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, Timisoara, 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, Bucureşti (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, Bucureşti, 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 Mateiaşi, 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., DV AVI PAL

2012 The Fist, video clip, 1 min., DV AVI PAL

2010 Daily DIVA,video film, 4 min. DV AVI PAL

2008 DIVA, video performance, 4 min., DV AVI PAL

Selection of publications/symposiums/ writings by Marilena Preda Sânc
"Eco-feminist Art" in catalog Good Girls, Ed. ICR, 2016, pp.27-28

My body is Space in Space, Time in Time and Memory of All in Arta magazine, "Feminisme", Nr. 11 / 2014, ISSN: 0004-335, imagini pp. 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, Bucureşti, CD-Rom interactive, ISBN 978-973-88431-5-8

Art in the Public Space symposium - World Trade Center, Bucharest, Romania

Eco-feminist Art - Contrapunct magazine, no. 2-4, 2002, pg.24-26

Other March - The Women's Role in Transgression of Ethnic Borders, Editura Desire Foundation, Cluj, 2001, curator Enikõ Magyari-Vincze, pg. 9.

The Romanian Woman Ecofeminist Art, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 2000

„Starost”, „Oldness”, in Stereo-Tip, editors Helena Pivec, Lilijana Stepnčič and Mestna galerija Ljubjana, 1995, pg. 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, p.p. 31, 60, 81

(ISBN, 978-2-9553761-0-2)

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, p. 351-361.

"Globalization. The Window with Memories" - Olivia Niţiş, GEGENUBERSTELLUNG Brucke Zwischen Sichtbarem und Unsichtbarem exbibition catalog, Ed. Schnell+Steiner, editor Maria Baumann,  Regensburg, 2014, ISBN 978-3-7954-2895-2, pp 72-73

"Eu, En, Ich II" - Laura Grunberg, Arta magazine, Feminisme, Nr. 11 / 2014, ISSN: 0004-3354,, 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, ISBN 978-973-602-851—9, p. 12, 110-111

Artele plastice în România 1945- 1989 cu o adendă 1990-2010, Magda Carneci, Publisher Polirom, Colecţia de Artă, Bucharest, 2013, ISBN:978-973-46-3445-3,  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, nr. 4-5, 2012, Ed. Uniunea Artiştilor Plastici din România, ISSN: 0004-3354,  p. 110