Apparatus 22 is a collective of daydreamers, citizens of many realms, researchers, poetic activists and (failed) futurologists founded in January 2011 by current members Erika Olea, Maria Farcas, Dragos Olea together with Ioana Nemes (1979 - 2011) in Bucharest, Romania. Beginning with 2015 they are working between Bucharest, Brussels and SUPRAINFINIT utopian universe.

The work of Apparatus 22 was presented in numerous exhibitions and a myriad of other formats; recently at Contemporary Art Museum Roskilde (DK), Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (DE), Kunsthal Gent (BE), Malmö Konstmuseum (SE), SMAK Gent (BE), NOCA Oradea (RO), WEST, Den Hague (NL), Triumf Amiria. Museum of Queer Culture (RO), Kunsthalle Mannheim (DE), Argos, Brussels (BE), The Contemporary Art Museum (MNAC), Bucharest (RO), De Garage Mechelen (BE), Triennial of Small Sculpture, Fellbach (DE), Suprainfinit Gallery, Bucharest (RO), Kiosk Gent (BE) etc

The Apparatus 22 engagement with Museum Why introduced ideas and works that were slowly prototyped and practiced over the last decade in collective’s particular approach when working with the institution ~ format ~ medium that is The Museum: a hybrid of institutional critique ~ institution (re)building ~ grafting reality with drops of utopia.

E.g. “S for Suprainfinit” was a lecture ~ workshop about processes of transformation within museums and daydreams of queer institutions in the framework of “Towards a Future Museum Glossary”, Trondheim kunstmuseum, NO (November 2021), followed up by an intervention spicing up the critical conversation of “Eat the Rich – a seminar on Capitalism, Power and the Role of the Art Institution”, Malmö Konstmuseumm, SE (September 2022) with a set of questions on ethics in thinking museums and entanglements with the art market, and a subsequent unruly ~ wet ~ performative plea for including artistic sensibilities in shaping museums at Whose Museum, a key note consisting of two works: “How close to hold the Mirror?” - a performative questionnaire on ethics, care and adventures in museum policies for art acquisitions - and “A most amazing offer” hyperbolic offer for a set of artworks as metaphorical tools able to set in motion changes in museums – in the framework of “Museum Why? Practice, Agency and Knowledge in the Art Museum” at PASS – The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Practice-based Art Studies, University of Copenhagen, DK (May 2024)

In 2023, Apparatus 22 unfolded a short but intensive residency in Brussels for the member institutions of the Museum Why network (May 2023) as a fusion of performances, in depth internal working sessions about topics like institutional change and visions of museums of the future inspired by Suprainfinit utopian universe but also discovery visits in several key places for the institutional artistic ecosystem of Belgium.

The collective also worked in 2023 with the team of the Museum of Contemporary Art Roskilde on the process of discussing, shaping and articulating the progressive new mission and vision of an itinerant shapeshifting museum profoundly engaged with a multitude of local contexts and communities.