In Timișoara, Romania, Beta Architecture Biennial opens to the public today, September 13, under the curatorial direction of Oana Stănescu. Now in its 5th edition, thus celebrating 10 years since its inauguration, the 2024 biennial proposes a wide-ranging program of debates, exhibitions, guided tours, and artistic performances. The two main components of the biennale are the Main Exhibition, cover me softly, led by Stănescu, and the Beta Awards, aiming to highlight architects and professionals from Romania, Hungary, and Serbia who actively contribute to the improvement of the built environment. The biennale is open between September 13, and October 27, 2024.
Each edition of Beta is centered around a main theme proposed by the curator as a result of in-depth research and aims to expose and explore a relevant aspect of the complex relationships between architecture, city, and society. For the 2024 edition, architect, designer, and educator Oana Stănescu proposes an exploration of the concepts of originality, and the subtle but relevant differences between copying, imitating, stealing, and covering.
This exploration seeks to explore the subject across disciplines, mediums and geographies. Consequently, the main exhibition invites participation from 'architects, designers, musicians, artists, activists, photographers, writers, filmmakers and those who refuse categorization.' Among the invited participants are US-based architects SO-IL, Space Popular, Tudor Vlăsceanu, and KOSMOS, photographers Laurian Ghinițoiu and Iwan Baan, and filmmaker Radu Jude.
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Curator Oana Stănescu Reveals The Theme of Beta 2024 Timișoara Architecture BiennialCounter to notions of copying, stealing, imitating, and bootlegging that may each come with their own ethical slant, the cover provides an alternate set of relational vocabularies for understanding how transferences of knowledge and structures of authorship are circulated through art and design. By centering our vast interconnectedness, 'cover me softly' opens new realms of possibility for doing, making, and being. - Oana Stănescu
Oana Stănescu, born in Romania, is an accomplished architect whose career encompasses a diverse range of cultural and interdisciplinary projects. With studios in New York and Berlin, her work includes notable large-scale installations at MoMA and Coachella, an infrastructure rehabilitation project in her hometown of Reșița, Romania, and the co-founding of the ambitious +POOL project in New York, which seeks to foster open-air swimming in the river. Last year, she also presented the Fresa pavilion at the annual event Concentrico in Logroño, Spain. In 2023, ArchDaily recognized her as part of its Best New Practices, for her efforts to reimagine urban spaces and engage in critical socio-cultural dialogue. Additionally, ArchDaily's editor-in-chief, Christele Harrouk, sat down with Oana in an interview where she shared her insights on architecture's role in addressing societal issues, emphasizing the need to think beyond the confines of the profession.
