Urban Realograms. Artistic practices for shared spaces. Part II

Ivan Gallery is pleased to announce the upcoming two-part exhibition project "Urban Realograms: Artistic Practices for Shared Spaces", an intergenerational initiative structured around the critical reactivation of the 1976 exhibition Realograms (Realograme). About The 1976 exhibition stands as a defining moment in the experimental neo-avant-garde scene of 1970s Bucharest. By weaving together photography, drawing, printmaking, and painting, it established an interdisciplinary inquiry into the relationship between the visual image, documentary evidence, and the concrete, lived fabric of the city. Rather than approaching this legacy as a static historical artifact, Urban Realograms reclaims the original project as a generative research instrument- recovering both the critical contributions of these historical figures and the social and urban imaginary of Bucharest across shifting eras. To articulate this dialogue across time, the exhibition is conceived in two distinct, interconnected chapters. The project opens with a focus on the historical artists - Matei Lăzărescu, Florina Coulin, Andrei Gheorghiu and Ion Grigorescu. This initial stage revisits the core vocabulary, methodologies, and archival materials of the 1976 exhibition, mapping the historical ways in which Bucharest’s everyday spaces and architectural transformations were observed, recorded, and artistically challenged. The second chapter shifts the inquiry into the present, introducing newly produced works by four emerging artists -Matei Alexandrescu, Clara Caradimu, David Pricob and Eliza Trefaș - selected through an open call. Working in direct engagement with the Realograms archive and in dialogue with the historical practices, these emerging voices investigate the city's current socio-spatial dynamics, collective memory, and the political dimensions of public space today. Through this dual structure, Urban Realograms creates a unified analytical framework bridging past and present, activating Bucharest as an evolving site of shared experience, critical observation, and visual representation. This project is co-funded by the Bucharest City Hall through ARCUB, as part of the ”București în premieră” 2026 Programme. Read more Toggle Photography Installation Multi-disciplinary Painting Mixed media