Stefan RUSU (b. 1964 in Kâietu, Moldova) is an artist, filmmaker and freelance curator. His artistic/curatorial agenda is geared towards the social and political changes in East European societies after the fall of Berlin Wall and dissolution of Soviet Union. Beginning with 2000 he is involved in the evolution of KSAK Center for Contemporary Art from Chisinau in the frame of which he develops curatorial projects and art initiatives. In 2005/2006 he attended the Curatorial Training Program at Stichting De Appel, Amsterdam and between 2006-07 acted as editor-in-chief of AlteArteTV project produced by [KSA:K] Center. From 2012 on he is a curator-at-large at Dushanbe ArtGround center after two long term residencies in Central Asia (Tajikistan, 2012-15 and Kyrgyzstan, 2015-19). Stefan is curator of projects and editor of publications: Spaces on the Run (2015), Reimagining the New Man (2014), Chisinau-Art, Research in the Public Sphere (2011), "RO-MD/Moldova in Two Scenarios (2008). In 2012 he directed Reclaiming the City documentary commissioned by 7th Berlin Biennial. His most recent publication - Architectural Guide – CHISINAU was produced in collaboration with DOM publishers, Berlin in 2022 that documents the post-war period of the city’s urban development, which was based on the principles of the socialist city and was shaped by five distinct tendencies reflected in the five segments of the guide – the Stalinist Empire, Soviet Modernism, Postmodernism, Soviet Brutalism, and the Industrial City. He is a member of IN SITU – European platform for Artistic Creation on Public Space. His recent initiative - Insular Modernities, explores how the phenomena of socialist architecture designed in the context of former Eastern Bloc, is perceived and maintained by contemporary societies. Aiming at preservation of modernist heritage from Central Asia and Eastern Europe, it analyses in various formats (exhibitions, publications, documentaries, urban interventions, etc.) the former use and current state of conservation of modernist heritage, as well as the role of public space at the new turn of the history.
