Romania 2022

Title: You Are Another Me – A Cathedral of the Body
Commissioner: Attila Kim
Curators: Cosmin Costinas and Viktor Neumann
Exhibitors: Adina Pintilie

For the 59th Venice Biennale, Romania is represented by Adina Pintilie. “You Are Another Me – A Cathedral of the Body” consists of a multi-channel film installation at the Giardini della Biennale. Additionally, a VR extension is hosted by the New Gallery of the Romanian Institute for Culture and Humanistic Research at Palazzo Correr, Venice.

Pintilie‘s project revolves around a reflection on the body, which in contemporary times has become a contested site for ideologies and a scapegoat for cultural and political anxiety. With “You Are Another Me – A Cathedral of the Body” Pintilie imagines a space of togetherness beyond borders and binaries. The artist fits into the contemporary debate on the scene in gender, sexuality, bodily ability and diversity.

By representing Romania, Pintilie continues a conversation about who represents the nation and who is excluded, about collective shame and responsibility. The artist’s work is inserted in Romanian society’s fraught history of dealing with intimacy, sexuality, and bodily diversity, and by extension with solidarity between the individuals forming a perpetually fractured nation.

The Romanian Pavilion is conceived as a site to reflect upon the body as a device to process recognized and unrecognized history, trauma, and desires. Engaging with these complex narratives of institutionalized normativity and their habitual denial of the body, Pintilie transforms the historically loaded pavilion into a contemporary cathedral that celebrates the body and human connections beyond any preconceptions.