Project Description
Liviu Bulea
“My work merges art, documentary, and activism. I create environments where marginalized voices, queer communities, polluted towns, forgotten workers, can be seen, remembered, and acknowledged.”
Liviu Bulea (b. 1989, Turda) is a Romanian artist, curator, and cultural manager whose multidisciplinary practice explores memory, community, and the politics of space. Currently a PhD candidate at the University of Arts and Design in Cluj, he manages IAGA Contemporary Art and founded Refugiu de Creație, a platform supporting socially engaged art and underrepresented voices.
My artistic practice focuses on the relationship between memory, space, and communities, both in local and global contexts. I’m particularly interested in collective memory and the ways it resonates with physical spaces. Through my work, I recover untold stories and forgotten objects, which I then recontextualize artistically.
A defining moment in my creative journey was being diagnosed with cancer during adolescence. In trying to understand the cause of this suffering, experienced by many young people in my hometown, Turda, I began to explore the local industrial architecture, the history of pollution, and the impact of the urban environment on health. This research led to the development of a socially engaged and critically informed artistic practice, grounded in themes such as the environment, forgotten heritage, and the rights of marginalized communities.
I actively advocate for social change, particularly regarding the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, of which I am a part. I work with a variety of media: text, photography, ready-made objects, video, and audio recordings, to document and give visibility to the interactions between myself and the communities I engage with.
My practice is therefore simultaneously artistic, documentary, and a form of activism.
SOLO AND DUO EXHIBITIONS (selected)
2024
These Things That Will Never Change
(with Alexandra Mureșan), Moara cu Imagini Gallery, Zalău (curator: Lina Țărmure)
2023
Collapse
Diptych Art Space, Bucharest (curator: Lina Țărmure)
2022
Home
Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (mentor: Tatiana Trouvé)
2022
Unnatural Circumstances III
(with Olimpia Bera), Romanian Cultural Institute, Berlin
2021
Homoerotic Revolution
Technopolis, Athens (curator: Alexis Fidetzis)
2021
About Grey
CAVE, French Institute, Cluj-Napoca
2020
Of Wondering Concrete And A Displaced Camera
(with Ferdows Faghir), Chrysalid Gallery, Rotterdam (curator: Marth Von Loeben)
2019
Berlin Street Stories
Urban Nation Museum, Berlin
2018
Under the Grey Dust
Creart Gallery, Bucharest (curator: Răzvan Ion)
2017
#808080
Iaga Gallery, Cluj-Napoca (curator: Olimpia Bera)
2017
Unnatural Circumstances I
(with Olimpia Bera), Visual Kontakt Gallery, Cluj-Napoca
2016
Simulacrum
Parallel Vienna, Vienna
2013
Sold Out
Visual Kontakt Gallery, Oradea (curator: Olimpia Bera)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selected)
2025
Space Shelter Earth – Of Nature, Concrete, Cracks & Power
Atelier #020303, Bucharest (curators: Annick Bureaud & Marcus Neustetter)
2025
“Young Blood” 4.0
Art Safari, Bucharest (curator: Călina Coman)
2025
Inventory
Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu (curators: Alexandru Constantin Chituță, Alexandra Runcan)
2024
Love Letters to The City
Urban Nation Museum, Berlin (curator: Michelle C. Houston)
2024
Fortune Cookies for the Future
Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu (curator: Karina Ganea)
2023
Site-Specific Installation for INTERWEAVE – Mapping Visual Polyphonies
organized by Polyhedron for the Opera Aperta Festival, Opera Park, Cluj-Napoca
2023
Accelerating Young Talent
European Investment Bank, Luxembourg
2023
Pulse 22
MNAC (National Museum of Contemporary Art), Bucharest
2022
MNAC (National Museum of Contemporary Art), Bucharest
Retramp Gallery, Berlin (curators: Katia Hermann & Linda Toivio)
2022
Mapping Frames
Art Museum, Cluj-Napoca (curator: Olimpia Bera)
2021
You Feel ~ You Slip ~ You Sing (1–245)
Combinatul Fondului Plastic, Bucharest (curators: Dragoș Olea, Sandra Demetrescu)
2021
Superheroes/Antiheroes
Art Safari, Bucharest (curator: Raluca Ilaria-Demetrescu)
2020
Neo-Manifest Romantic
Art Museum, Cluj-Napoca (curator: Ioan Sbârciu)
2020
L’Art s’invite dans l’industrie 2.0
Energom, Cluj-Napoca (curator: Horea Avram)
2019
OBJECT. A Traveler Through Public and Personal Histories
MNAC (National Museum of Contemporary Art), Bucharest (curators: V. Iancu & Vlad Viski)
2019
Künstler*innenbücher von Stipendiat*innen des Landes Steiermark
curated by Christiane Kada, Steiermärkische Landesbibliothek, Graz, Austria
2019
Walter Koschatzky Art Prize
MUMOK, Vienna
2018
BUCHAREST BIENNALE 8
curators: Beral Madra and Razvan Ion, Bucharest, Romania
2018
Diversitas
Reactor de Creatie si Experiment, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2018
WOW
curated by Eugen Radescu, Visual Kontakt, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2017
Dead Gardens
curated by Olimpia Bera, Visual Kontakt, Cluj-Napoca, Romania,
2017
Habitus
curated by Sabina Dragomir, IAGA Contemporary Art, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2017
War of Worlds
curated by Eugen Radescu, National Museum of Art, Constanta, Romania
2017
War of Worlds
curated by Eugen Radescu, MORA Gallery, Bucharest, Romania
2017
Mazipos
curated by Carlos Carmomendina, Laboratory VK, Oradea, Romania
2016
Unnatural Circumstances
in collaboration with Olimpia Bera, Visual Kontakt Gallery, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2015
Local Municipalities
curated by Olimpia Bera and Carlos Carmomendina, Laboratory Visual Kontakt, Oradea, Romania
2015
Genesis
curated by Edmunds Lucis, Jurmala City Museum, Jurmala-Riga, Latvia
2010
4th edition of the international Student Biennale
Novi Sad, Serbia
ART FAIRS
2021
Booming Contemporary Art Show
curated by ACME Art Lab, Bologna, Italy
2021
The Others Art Fair
curated by ACME Art Lab, Torino, Italy
2021
Digital Art Weeks
online via T.O.E. Art Market
RESIDENCIES
2025
CONCENTRIC
exchange of experience for professionals in the cultural sector in Paris, France, offered by Cluj Cultural Center, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2025
Space Shelter Earth – Of Nature, Concrete, Cracks & Power
Marginal, Bucharest, Romania
2025
Cluj în rezidență 3
Centrul Cultural Clujan
2025
Spring in the Romanian Village: Băbăluda
Refugiu de Creatie, Buru, Romania
2025
Culture Moves Europe
Romanian Cultural Institute, Vienna, Austria (offered by the European Union and Goethe Institut)
2024
“Convictions”
Countdown Grabowsee, Brandenburg, Germany
2023
Tides
Countdown Grabowsee, Brandenburg, Germany
2022
AIR Cité Internationale des Arts
European Investmant Bank from Luxemburg
2019
AIR Urban Nation
Stiftung Berliner Leben, Berlin, Germany
2018
Styria-Artist-in-Residence (St.A.i.R.)
Graz, Austria
2018
Residency at Reactor de Creatie si Experiment
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2016
Residency at Kultur Kontakt Austria
offered by Chancellery of Austria, Vienna, Austria
2013
Residency at Visual Kontakt Gallery
Oradea, Romania
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
- European Investment Bank, Luxembourg
- National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest
- Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu
- Queer Museum, Bucharest
- Schwules Museum, Berlin
- Urban Nation Museum, Berlin
- Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz
- Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles
LECTURES/ ARTIST TALKS
2020
Artist talk for Pride Romania
Online via Facebook
2020
Lecture (about my art practice)
at Royal School in Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2019
Lecture (about my art practice)
at the University of Arts and Design, Photo-Video department, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2018
Artist Talk (about my art practice)
at HTBLVA Graz Ortweinschule, Austria
2018
Artist Talk “HOME”
at Atelier Schillerstrasse, Graz Austria, part of Styria Artist in Residence
2018
Bucharest Biennale
artist talk at Creart, Bucharest, Romania
2018
Queer Art
artist talk at Fundatia Ratiu, Turda, Romania
2018
Art Debate – Art Safari, BB8, RDW
at Creart, Bucharest, Romania
2018
Lecture (about my art practice)
at the University of Arts and Design, Photo-Video department, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2017
Lecture – Dead Gardens exhibition
at University of Arts and Design, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2017
Lecture – WOW exhibition
at University of Arts and Design, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2017
Lecture (about my art practice)
at Art High School “Romulus Ladea”, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
PUBLICATIONS
2021
Exhibition Catalogue: CATALOG NEO-MANIFEST ROMANTIC. IDENTITĂŢI ALE ŞCOLII DE LA CLUJ
Galateca Gallery, Bucharest, Romania
2021
Pornceptual Magazine, FUCK 2020
Berlin, Germany
2020
Haus Magazine, Political Issue 4
2020
Mein Schwules Auge, Body Issue
by Rainaldo Hopf & Fedya Ili, Konkursbuch, 2020, ISBN 9783887699468, www.mygayeye.com
2019
Walter Koschatzky Prize 2019 Catalogue
2017
Exhibition catalog: #808080 – Liviu Bulea
IAGA Contemporary Art, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2016/2017
KulturKontakt Magazine, winter 2016/2017
2016
Tribuna, Timp, Spatiu si Degradare
by Eugen Cojocaru, May 2016
2016
4th World Biennale of Student Poster Catalog
Novi Sad, Serbia, http:/www.studentbiennial-ns.com/2010/slike/4thWorldBiennialOfStudentPoster2010-Catalog.pdf
CATALOGUES
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