Marginalii Group: The Collective as a School and Shared Mental Space

Marginalii Group was initiated in 1992 by dancers Irina Costea, Florin Fieroiu, Cosmin Manolescu and Mihai Mihalcea. The group had an informal character, with a horizontal leadership, the work within the collective being a form of knowledge through self-pedagogy, self-choreography and self-representation. The members of the Marginalii group proposed an uninhibited endeavour of searching for new personal languages of expression in the field of dance, being preoccupied with finding new methods of relating with the space, the closeness of the audience, the work with experimental music or the visual impact of movement. In this film, the artists talk about the spirit of Marginalii in the context of the 1990s and the emergence on a terrain that needed to be discovered and invented, about the group as a force, an energy, a knowledge resource and a shared mental space where things were possible. Marginalii Group can be considered as the core which contributed to the generation of the conditions that favoured the emergence of a substantial movement in the Romanian contemporary dance after 1989.
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MARGINALII GROUP: Irina Costea, Florin Fieroiu, Cosmin Manolescu, Mihai Mihalcea
Bucharest, 2022

Interviews: Ștefania Ferchedău
Performances: © Marginalii Group
Archives: Cosmin Manolescu, Mihai Mihalcea

Fragments from the performances & recordings:
– Marginalii performative artist talk (October 29, 2021, German State Theatre Timișoara, camera Adrian Danciu)
– Zidul din turn [The Wall in the Tower] (1996, film and video-performance by Marilena Preda-Sânc, choreography Florin Fieroiu, performance Marginalii Group: Florin Fieroiu, Rodica Geantă, Mihai Mihalcea, Natașa Trifan)
– After-show Despre fluturi fără aripi [About Butterflies without Wings] (1994, Marginalii Group, Bulandra Theatre, camera Radu Dumitriu)
– Fragmente din interior [Fragments from Inside] (1994, Bulandra Theatre, choreography Cosmin Manolescu, performance Irina Costea, Florin Fieroiu, Cosmin Manolescu, Mihai Mihalcea, camera Radu Dumitriu)
– Simplu balans [Simple Balance] (1994, Bulandra Theatre, choreography Mihai Mihalcea, performance Irina Costea, Florin Fieroiu, Mihai Mihalcea, camera Radu Dumitriu)
– Patru=unu [Four=One] (1993, Marginalii Group, collective choreography for the Romanian Television)
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Camera & video editing: Dan Iordache
Subtitles: Bianca Floarea, Ștefania Ferchedău
Music: Lucian Mețianu, Pythagoreis, 1970
Parkour & IP visual identity: Radu Manelici
Parkour Video visuals: Sebastian Pren
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Film produced in the frame of the projects “Uncensored Act” and “Collegium”. With support from the French Institute Bucharest.

The project is part of the national cultural programme “Timișoara—European Capital of Culture in the year 2023” and is funded by the Municipality of Timișoara, through the Center for Projects. Cultural project co-funded by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.

The project does not necessarily represent the standpoint of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN cannot be held liable for the content of the project or the manner in which the outcomes of the project may be used. These shall devolve entirely on the beneficiary of the financing.

In 2022, Marginalii Group reunited in the frame of a Collegium residency offered by the Institute of the Present in the series dedicated to the research of works, artistic practices, situations and events at the crossroads of 1989. The residency included an open lab which proposed the testing of the dynamics where individual decision influence the positioning inside collective processes and raising an awareness of the imprint that the typology of a space imposes on the work environment or the content proposals.

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