MAFA 13 // re: 7.1e.C°π

PROMPT

MAFA 13 re: 7.1e.C°π
bête comme un prompt

A cheap postcard of a masterpiece, annotated by hand. La pittura è cosa mentale; bête comme un prompt. The work is decided in the mind: choose, do not execute. Moustache par Picabia, barbiche par Duchamp, 22 years late. If the image appears, label it d’après; if not, this caption is the work – sufficient unto itself, purposefully redundant. Output: MAFA 13 – re: 7.1e.C°π / 25.09.2026. / 13 artists. 13 prompts. / curators: Calin Man / Ileana Selejan

––––––––––––––––––––
https://mafa.ro/MAFA13/
––––––––––––––––––––

Media Art Festival Arad 2026

MAFA 13 re: 7.1e.C°π
bête comme un prompt

perioada: 25.09–01.10.2026
@: Muzeul de Artă Arad / kinema ikon

Ediția 13 a festivalului așază față în față două formule despărțite de cinci secole: la pittura è cosa mentale (Leonardo da Vinci) și bête comme un peintre (o expresie malițioasă din secolul XIX). Amândouă, prin filtrul duchampian, duc la concluzia radicală – dacă arta este un lucru mental, execuția poate lipsi. Readymade-ul înlocuiește creația prin alegere; L.H.O.O.Q. reduce capodopera la suportul unei idei.

Promptul este forma actuală a acestui gest. O secvență de cuvinte precede și, tot mai des, substituie imaginea; alegerea termenilor a devenit tehnica însăși. MAFA 13 invită 13 artiști/artiste să formuleze 13 prompturi care constituie punctul de plecare al ediției. Materializarea lor nu este obligatorie. Precedentul există: barbișonul omis de Picabia în 1920 a fost completat de Duchamp abia în 1942 (moustache par Picabia, barbiche par Marcel Duchamp) dovadă că o operă își poate amâna execuția fără să-și piardă statutul.

Lucrările propuse vor fi numite d’après, iar promptul va ocupa poziția rămasă liberă: aceea a celui care doar alege – re: 7.1e.C°π. (re: c’est une copie)

*

MAFA / Media Art Festival Arad este un proiect kinema ikon, axat pe experimentul vizual, sonor, performativ în varianta sa ludică, tehnologică, hibridă, digitală, analogă, voit redundantă. MAFA caută modalități de joacă, folosind spațiile disponibile pe post de pretext. Preocupările din domeniul artei și tehnologiei reunesc un grup eterogen de artiști/artiste multimedia, cu precădere din generația tânără. Festivalul caută să motiveze producătorii locali și să faciliteze crearea unor rețele de colaborare internaționale în domeniul cultural.

curatori: Calin Man / Ileana Selejan

MAFA este un proiect kinema ikon
organizatori: Primaria Municipiului Arad / Centrul Municipal de Cultura Arad

––––––––EN

Media Art Festival Arad 2026

MAFA 13 re: 7.1e.C°π
bête comme un prompt

25.09–01.10.2026
@: Art Museum Arad / kinema ikon

The festival’s 13th edition places face to face two formulas separated by five centuries: la pittura è cosa mentale (Leonardo da Vinci) and bête comme un peintre (a mischievous 19th-century expression). Both, through the Duchampian lens, arrive at the radical conclusion – if art is a mental thing, execution can be absent. The readymade replaces making with choosing; L.H.O.O.Q. reduces the masterpiece to the support of an idea.

The prompt is the current form of this gesture. A sequence of words precedes and, increasingly, substitutes for the image; the choice of terms has become the technique itself. MAFA 13 invites 13 artists to formulate 13 prompts that constitute the starting point of the edition. Their materialization is not mandatory. The precedent exists: the goatee Picabia omitted in 1920 was completed by Duchamp only in 1942 (moustache par Picabia, barbiche par Marcel Duchamp) proof that a work can defer its execution without losing its status.

The proposed works will be called d’après, and the prompt will occupy the position left free: that of the one who merely chooses – re: 7.1e.C°π.

GLOSSARY

L.H.O.O.Q. by Marcel Duchamp — a cheap reproduction (postcard) of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, over which Duchamp drew a moustache and goatee in 1919. (a specific version: in 1920, Francis Picabia wanted to reproduce the work in his magazine 391, but Duchamp didn’t send him the original in time, so Picabia drew the moustache himself on a Mona Lisa — forgetting the goatee. In April 1942, Duchamp came across a copy of that reproduction, added the missing goatee himself, and added the text: „Moustache par Picabia, barbiche par Marcel Duchamp, avril 1942.” The inscription „7.1e.C°π” (c’est une copie) at the bottom suggests this is a later reproduction/edition of that version, not the original copy.)

„La pittura è cosa mentale” — Leonardo da Vinci, (Trattato della pittura). (True painting is born in the mind: from science, geometry, perspective, anatomy, observation of nature. The hand only executes what the intellect has conceived. The painter is a thinker, not a house-painter.)

BÊTE COMME UN PEINTRE
„Bête comme un peintre” — a 19th-century French expression, taken up by Duchamp and used as an accusation against the painting he called „retinal art” — art that addresses only visual pleasure. The painter content to please the retina remains exactly that: „bête comme un peintre.” Duchamp’s proposed alternative: art must be idea, intellectual play, concept. The result is the readymade. Choice replaces execution.

D’APRÈS
„D’après” is the established term for a work made starting from another artist’s piece.(L.H.O.O.Q. is, technically speaking, a „d’après Léonard.” Duchamp keeps the form of homage and reverses its meaning.
*

Media Art Festival Arad is a project organized by kinema ikon, with a focus on visual, sound, performative experimentation, considered from a ludic, technological, hybrid, digital, analogue, purposefully redundant perspective. MAFA searches for modalities of play, using available spaces as a pretext. A shared interest in art and technology brings together a heterogenous group of, mostly young, multimedia artists. The festival seeks to motivate local producers and to facilitate the emergence of international collaborative networks within the cultural sector.

curators: Calin Man / Ileana Selejan

MAFA is a kinema ikon project
organizers: Primaria Municipiului Arad / Centrul Municipal de Cultura Arad

https://www.facebook.com/events/1384999387097848/