The event is part of Zona &.

Book Launch Zona Festival: Ileana Pintilie, Radu Leșevschi

Panel talk: Edit András, Zdenka Badovinac, Edi Muka, Manuel Pelmuș, Ileana Pintilie, Corina Oprea, Magda Radu

The book explores the legacy of Zona, a performance art festival held in Timișoara, Romania, between 1993 and 2002, during the transitional period from a totalitarian system to a new societal structure. Gathering artists from the former Eastern Bloc, Zona served as a meeting ground for theoretical discussions and postmodern art experiments, showcasing diverse artistic languages. The fall of the Berlin Wall is highlighted as a pivotal moment leading to globalization and the spread of postmodern thought. In the early 1990s, artists employed subversive strategies to navigate totalitarian societies, using body art as a critical language to analyze stereotypes and launch inquiries into identity politics. The festival's concerns revolved around political, social, and artistic themes debated between Eastern and Western perspectives. The book features essays by Ileana Pintilie, László Beke, Vladimir Bulat, Robert Fleck, Alexandra Titu, Berislav Valušek, and artists' texts by various contributors, offering insights into the impactful intersection of art, politics, and society during a transformative period.The book Zona Festival is edited by Ileana Pintilie and published by PUNCH. 

The Panel talk gathers several presentations, artistic and curatorial positions which provoke a reassessment of performance history, starting with Zona as a pivotal force in Romania's art scene. By expanding its scope internationally, the presentations articulate fundamental questions around performance, a genre that serves as a mode of resistance and liberation against societal constraints. 

Presentations are in English and Romanian, with simultaneous translation, subject to availability of headsets.