Accelerator presents the screening of the video work Facade No.3 (2023), by Bjarni Þór Pétursson. The public is invited to the Gaep gallery in Bucharest on Saturday, May 13, from 19:00

• The video screening of the work will be followed by a Q&A session with the Icelandic artist.
• The screening is a conclusion of the group exhibition Back to Where It All Beganwhich presented the newly produced works by the 10 emerging artists from the Accelerator program.
• The exhibition and related events were held under the umbrella of the program Mentoring and production for emerging artistsimplemented by the Eastwards Prospectus Cultural Association in partnership with Gaep Gallery from Bucharest and i8 Gallery from Reykjavik in Iceland as an international partner.

Gaep and the Eastwards Prospectus Cultural Association invite you to the screening of the video work Facade No.3 (2023), by Bjarni Þór Pétursson, which will be followed by a dialogue with the artist. The event marks the end of the group exhibition Back to Where It All Beganwhich is part of the program Accelerator.

Pétursson’s works revolve around the use of fictional vacuums. These negative backgrounds function as a code to decipher the limits of theatricality. With the movie Facade No.3, the public is invited to take a look at a staged space, full of various entropic assemblages, from playful to mythological. From this cinematic picture emerges a narrative thread that follows the after-work activities of two employees who seem trapped in an endless monochrome purgatory.

Bjarni Þór Pétursson (b. 1979) lives and works in Reykjavík. He studied at the Iceland Academy of Arts (2009-2011) and the Malmö Academy of Art (2011-2013). After graduation, he exhibited at Gallery Format (2018), Galleri Obra (2017), Reykjavík Art Museum (2015), Galleri Nicolai Wallner (2015), AROS Museum (2014) and Skissernas Museum (2013).

The next stage in the Accelerator program is art in public space, planned for the summer period.

Accelerator started on October 1, 2021 and will run for 24 months, until September 30, 2023. The project budget is 1,069,301.00 lei (216,707.74 euros) for its entire duration. The value of the non-refundable funding (85% EEA Grant and 15% the national budget) is 962,370.90 lei (195,036.97 euros).

The project is financed by EEA Grants 2014 – 2021 within the Program RO-CULTURE and implemented by the Eastwards Prospectus Cultural Association (ACEP).

EEA grants represents the contribution of Iceland, the Principality of Liechtenstein and the Kingdom of Norway to the reduction of economic and social disparities in the European Economic Area and to the strengthening of bilateral relations with the 15 beneficiary states in Eastern and Southern Europe and the Baltic States. These financing mechanisms are established on the basis of the Agreement on the European Economic Area, which brings together the EU member states and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway as equal partners in the internal market. In total, the three states contributed €3.3 billion between 1994 and 2014 and €1.55 billion for the 2014-2021 funding period.

program RO-CULTURE is implemented by the Ministry of Culture through the Project Management Unit and has the general objective of strengthening economic and social development through cultural cooperation, cultural entrepreneurship and cultural heritage management. The Program’s budget is approximately 34 million euros.

Eastwards Cultural Association Prospectus promotes contemporary art at national and international level through exhibitions and cultural or educational projects carried out together with key partners in the cultural sphere. In the 7 years since its establishment, ACEP has attracted funds for the production of works of art; organized more than 30 offline and online exhibitions; coordinated an urban intervention by the artist Tania Mouraud, carried out simultaneously in 9 cities; supported the participation of artists in international art fairs and developed projects for children and company employees interested in contemporary art.