Artep Gallery Association is dedicating a large part of its 2025 projects to the interference of art with Artificial Intelligence (AI), as an extremely provocative theme in the current context, which must also be debated from the perspective of contemporary visual art, in order to raise awareness of the storm of instrumentalized extremism via new technologies as well.
In a society strongly affected by the evolution of new technologies, authoritarian figures, democracy backsliding and the mix between the two directions, which lead to wars, the decline of human principles, poverty and chaos, SCHIZOTOPIA introduces a special visual decoding magnifying glass. The project uses the specific elements of visual art to critically interrogate and express the social, political and cultural reality we live in, globally, but it starts from the immediate expression of the so-called world leaders who are dividing the world among them today, with the help of the new social media and the evolution of AI.
The project has two components. The first component features the art installation that expresses the perspective of artist Radu Carnariu on the theme suggested by the project, in a critical way. The exhibition can be visited at the Artep Gallery starting September 2025, it is curated by Maja Ćirić (Serbia) and it also includes two specific interventions suggested by artists Andrei Cozlac and Alexandra Ghioc from Iași (October 2025).
The second component acts as a framework for Iași seen as a public forum on the topic of critical design. During the months of October and November there will be three debates on specific topics of speculative design. This intersection with visual art, in search of possible global scenarios, will include international guests as well.
To emphasize this burning global theme, we use a combination of visual art, critical design and dialogue with internationally prestigious experts. In the universe of SCHIZOTOPIA, we find design as a tool of knowledge, in its form of speculative design, intertwined with the visual art suggested by artist Radu Carnariu, which is both critical and speculative, in order to outline possible scenarios in the deeply unbalanced context of societies today. Thus, SCHIZOTOPIA becomes a VISUAL MANIFESTO against hybrid authoritarianism.
SCHIZOTOPIA is a cultural project initiated by Artep Gallery Association and co-financed by National Cultural Fund Administration, which proposes a visual critique of a world torn between hyper-connection and hyper-fragmentation, where authoritarian leaders manipulatively adopt progressive rhetoric, and technology becomes, according to a slogan, "a weapon of mass distraction" that hypocritically masks the cruel reality of inequities and political duplicity.
Radu Carnariu is a multidisciplinary visual artist who graduated with a bachelor's degree, master's degree and doctorate degree at "George Enescu" University of Arts in Iași. He is interested in the study of the social, political and cognitive effects of critical art on the relationship between mentality, imagination and behaviour. His artistic projects ironically highlight some contexts of these effects through paradoxical visual approaches, aimed at challenging or modifying the public's capacity for awareness. He had national solo exhibitions in Romania and Germany and group exhibitions such as: Art Revolution Taipei 2012 (finalist), Nord Art 2013 and Nord Art 2014, European Cuteness Art- Contamination 2016, Budapest Art Fair 2021, Juxtapose Art Fair 2021, Art Safari - Superheroes/Antiheroes 2021 and Supermarket-Stockholm Independent Art Fair 2022.
Maja Ćirić is a curator, art critic and teacher. Shifting her focus to the multipolar dynamics of planetary computing after 2020, she coordinates projects at the crossroad of art, science and technology, venturing into the metaverse. She worked as a curator (2007) and as a commissioner (2013) of the Serbian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, as a curator of the BJCEM Mediterranea Biennale for Young Artists in Tirana (2017), and as a chief curator of the 20th Pančevo Art Biennale (2022). Dr. Ćirić’s contributions redefine curatorial norms and leave an indelible mark on the global art landscape.
Let us also remember some of the visual artists we have seen at Artep Gallery in Iași: Felix Aftene (2018, 2020), Ștefan Câlția (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022), Virgil Scripcariu (2019), Mark Verlan and Ghenadie Popescu (2020), Matei Bejenaru (2021), Nicu Ilfoveanu (2021, 2025), Claudiu Ciobanu (2022, 2023, 2024), Miruna Radovici (2022), Sorin Ilfoveanu (2022/2023), Radu Carnariu (2023), Andrei Gavrilița (2023), Åsa Sonjasdotter (2024), Andreea-Delia Voren (2024/2025).
Organised by: Galeria Artep Association
Cultural project co-financed by: National Cultural Fund Administration (AFCN)
Parteneri: Universitatea de Arte G. Enescu Iași, Institutul de Cercetare Multidisciplinara în Arta (ICMA)
Parteneri media: ASOCIAȚIA EMPOWER ARTISTS, Asociația PIN pentru Promovarea Tehnologiei și lndustriilor Creative Revista TIMPUL, PROPAGARTA
The project does not necessarily represent the position of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the works may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.
