About Periferic

Periferic project was initiated in 1997 in Iasi by the Romanian artist Matei Bejenaru. Iasi is one of the major universitary cities in Romania, situated in the North East of the country, close to the border with the Republic of Moldova.

In the beginning, Periferic was a performance event which grew up in the first 3 editions (1997, 1998 and 1999) to the level of both international and regional contemporary art events. Periferic is organized by Vector Association, a non-profit cultural NGO, an artistic association which promotes contemporary art in the local context.

Between December 2003 and October 2007, Vector Association has been running the Vector Gallery, an independent art space with an international exhibitional and educational programme. Since 2007, Vector Association is running the Studio for Debates and Art Practices in partnership with the Arts University of Iasi.

The aim of Periferic was to collect different artistic attitudes related to the CENTRE - PERIPHERY relationship and also to create a series of theoretical discussions about the conditions for art production in different cultural contexts. In the last editions Periferic developped different educational programmes in the idea to get a better local visibility, as well as to promote regional artistic collaborations. Periferic also developed a local contemporary art scene.

Since 2001, Periferic was transformed into an international art biennial and its 5th edition took place in several locations: The Turkish Bath of Iasi, The Palace of Culture, the Cupola Gallery, the French Cultural Center, the Goethe Zentrum in Iasi and other city locations.

Periferic 6 was organized in May-June 2003 and the guest curator was Anders Kreuger (Stockholm). Under the theme "Prophetic Corners" he made an international selection of 33 artists. Periferic 6 was one of the most coherent and substantial contemporary art events in Romania after the fall of Communism in 1989. Periferic 7 was organized in May-June 2006 and it had three different platforms curated by Marius Babias from Berlin and Angelika Nollert from Munich (“Social Processes”), Florence Derieux from Paris (“Strategies of Learning”) and Attila Tordai from Cluj-Napoca (“Why Children?”).