HEARTBEAT DETECTION SYSTEMS

We arethrilled to present Heartbeat DetectionSystems, the first project presented by The Bureau of Melodramatic Research (founded by artists IrinaGheorghe and Alina Popa in 2009) after the premature death of Alina Popa inFebruary 2019. The project marks a retrospective moment, in which existing works are reevaluated and recontextualised, as well as a moment of anticipation, offering a reflection on the possibilities for a further expansionof the practice, while accounting for an inevitable absence at its core.

HeartbeatDetection Systems can be seen both as techniques of examining affective flows in the wider social and political environment, and as means of exploring the pulsations of the heart in the Bureau’s own practice. How can the vital signs of a long-term practicebe detected and maintained and how can they incorporate the idea of absence?

To mark the second part of theretrospective yet anticipative exhibition by The Bureau of Melodramatic Research, The Internal Fire, taking place at Goethe-Institut Bucharest, pulls together existing works that were rarely shown before, together with a new large scale installation that has materialized on this occasion. The two artists founded The Bureau ofMelodramatic Research while both working at the Goethe Institute in Bucharestin the late 2000s.

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The Bureau of MelodramaticResearch (BMR) is a dependent institution founded by Irina Gheorghe and AlinaPopa in 2009 to investigate the role of emotions in contemporary politics and thenew economy. BMR projects include a self-help guide for public crying, a safety trainingfor the new office work, a cooking show using love and gold as central ingredients, and aweather forecast camouflaged as a melodrama scene in contemporary industrialRomania. The Bureau's work was shown at the National Museum of Contemporary ArtBucharest; SUPRAINFINIT Gallery, Bucharest; Trafó House of Contemporary Arts,Budapest; HOME, Manchester; Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York; Times Museum Guangzhou,WING Hong Kong; SAVVY, Berlin; Art Encounters Biennial, Timisoara; Skolska 28Gallery, Prague; bak, Utrecht; Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna; DEPO, Istanbul; Ujazdowsky Castle,Warsaw; messagesalon Zurich; Center for Visual Introspection, Bucharest; Galeria Posibilă,Bucharest., among others.