"A very fashionable item throughout Romanian homes 30 years ago, the rug representing “The Abduction from the Seraglio”, an opera by Mozart, turned nowadays into an old school symbol of contemporary kitsch. It was erased from the popular collective memory after ’89, making new space for the new consumerist products.
The interactive installation ‘Fight with Mozart’ consists of a boxing bag tapestried with this kind of rug representing “The Abduction from the Seraglio”, two boxing gloves tapestried as well, and a sound system playing fragments from the opera “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” (The Abduction from the Seraglio) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Thus, the viewer/participant can literary interact with the installation boxing to the music of Mozart." Mihai Zgondoiu
"The duplicating mechanism of some objects relevant for the past seems a response to anxiety. An anxiety of the present projected on a past, suggested by objects which now appear to be irrelevant. Mihai Zgondoiu is an artist who chooses to analyse apparently ordinary aspects in order to lead us towards a sociological understanding of an era." Răzvan Ion

Mihai Zgondoiu (b.1982) is an artist, curator and gallerist, who holds a master's and a doctorate degree in the field of visual arts. Starting with 2014 he teaches at the National University of Arts in Bucharest at the Design Department. His artistic practice consists of a variety of genres and techniques, ranging from drawing, collage, experimental print to video installation, performances, and urban interventions. His projects recall critical thinking (as well as self-critical thinking) towards clichés in our current society, mocking its socio-cultural values and icons, which were created by the new media through different kind of fake news propaganda.
Among his most recent exhibitions and projects: EXTRAfaces, Galeria Uj Kriterion - Miercurea Ciuc 2017, Fight with Mozart, RKI - Vienna Contemporary (AT) 2017, New Wall - Calina Gallery Timisoara 2017, Dada Brancusi, MB-XL Gallery Bruxelles (BE) 2016 & Galateca Gallery – București 2016, The Artist's Golden Hand, FivePlus Gallery – Viena (AT) 2014 & Aiurart Gallery – Bucuresti 2013, Lenin's Sleep, Free Press Square – Bucuresti 2011, The Red Line, the National Dance Center of Bucureşti 2011, The Red Carpet, the Schlooss Museum courtyard – Linz, (AT) 2011, Freedom as Visual Pattern, Hampden Gallery - Incubator Art Space, Amherst, Massachusetts (USA) 2010, Me Matrix, Calina Gallery – Timisoara 2009, Me, Contemporary Art Gallery of the Brukenthal National Museum – Sibiu, 2008.
He also participated in RERE. Overriding Design with Art and Vice-Versa – Vienna Design Week 2016, DADADA - Media Art Festival – Museum of Art-Arad 2016, Transformation – Beelden Aan Zee Museum, Haga 2014, BB6 (Bucharest International Biennial for Contemporary Art 2014, IEEB4 & IEEB7 (International Experimental Engraving Biennial, 2010, 2016), Now Art Now Future (The International Biennial of print – Vilnius, 2008), his artworks being part of private and state collections: Art collection Luciano Benetton (IT), Alain Servais Collection (BE), Avium Art Collection (RO), Daniel Stefanica Art Collection (RO), Nasui Art Collection (RO), Herczeg Art Collection (RO), Calina Art Collection (RO), DFEWA Art Collection (DE), The Visual Art Museum, Galați (RO), the Florean Contemporary Art Museum, Baia-Mare (RO), the National Museum of Art, Satu Mare (RO).

Răzvan Ion is an artist, curator, and theoretician. He exhibited at Bucharest Biennale, Poznan Biennial, SKC Gallery- Belgrade, National Museum of Art - Cluj, ICA - Bucharest, NY Experimental Festival, InterFACES - Bangkok, Centro Cultural del Matadero - Huesca, International Photo Ljubljana, CCA Ekaterinburg, National Museum of Art - Timișoara, ICA Budapest, New Langton - San Francisco, Constanța Art Museum etc. He was an associate professor at University of California, Berkeley; Lisbon University; Central University of New York; University of London; Sofia University; University of Kiev; etc. He has held conferences and lectures at different art institutions like Witte de With, Rotterdam; Kunsthalle Vienna; Art in General, New York; Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon; Casa Encedida, Madrid etc. He published in different books, published an artist book and worked as editor of several other books, including the most recent “Architectural Economy of a Biennial”. He was a professor at the University of Bucharest where he teached Curatorial Studies and Critical Thinking. Recently he was appointed the curator of Bucharest Biennale 8, together with Beral Madra.