August 5th – September 12th 2023
Text by Norbert Filep.
In an astronomical time, distant from any human conception, intangible and incomprehensible in the blueness of temporality, a point “floats” with its obsessive swiftness. Microscopic in appearance, extraordinarily hot and dense, it sneaks with a colossal speed that eludes any curiosity. The point contains the conglomerate for something new, fresh, with effervescent or enduring possibilities, with expandable valences and fragilities in a paradox controlled by a hidden force, stable and unstable, destructive and creative, constant and variable, white and black, material or anti-material. Quarks oscillate rapidly in the point’s primordial plasma. Influenced by actions generated by bosons, they acquire mass or form physical connections with other particles, thus generating new forces that stir the entire conglomerate. The subatomic agitation spirals out of control; the era of quarks is ending, and the expansion towards new elements is inevitable. In the next nanosecond, the point transforms; space-time expands, and the forge of new elements operates at maximum capacity. It lasts only three minutes, and the formation of raw matter is complete. Hydrogen and helium are born in the form of matter that constitutes the first elements of the early Universe.
A similar process seems to make its presence felt in every new generation. Creative particles agitate in the spirit of the young artist to generate and stabilize their own artistic universe. In the ultra-active dynamics of a technologized society, often defined by organized chaos, incipient models of artistic creation often seem to get lost in the nebula of overproduced/overpopulated culture. “Quarks, leptons, and bosons” represent that exhibition territory through which these fresh models of creation are meant to be highlighted. The exhibition starts as a status quo of exploring new generations of artists. It represents the link between the primordial creation of physical matter and the fresh cultural creation characterized by the new generations, in the two corresponding spaces: space-time and socio-cultural space. Thus, the basic arsenal of physical matter production becomes, by analogy, a panoply for cultural matter, which appears in each artist’s practice through the cultural and ideational tools, media, and strategies used. From the radicalism of ready-mades in Matei Emanuel’s works to the subtlety and precision of mezzotint in Adriana Pop’s practice, a vast territory worthy of exploration is constituted within the “Quarks, leptons, and bosons” exhibition.
Therefore, Mihaela Coandă’s works present subtle pictorial nuances that effortlessly blend the tradition of classic subjects, such as windows or doors, with the almost extraterrestrial ambiguity of the creatures populating these frames. In contrast to Coandă’s practice, but not at the opposite pole, we find Sînziana Coșoianu’s representation of the archetypal woman, through which she explores her own femininity in dialogue with the avatar of the tiger or crocodile, attempting to elucidate and understand the animal instincts deep within a consciousness suppressed throughout history.
The static nature dimension in the tradition of painting represents a starting point for Călin Dumitrașcu’s works, whose fragility is explored by displacing nature from the wild space and relocating it into the ambiance of an artificial space. By distorting the same subject, Maria Stoica proposes an organic rematerialization of everyday objects through the process of metamorphosis. Thus, the reality of static nature becomes diffuse, and objects are transformed into haunting instances of existence.
Ingrid Farcaș uses canvas support for mixed techniques, predominantly dominated by the sewing technique. The carefully controlled compositions narrate, on the one hand, the rudimentary process of sewing without the intervention of a machine or the mechanical process, and on the other hand, they transport the viewer into a mysterious, almost fantastic world, whose subjects range from hunting to abductions caused by UFOs. A similar world appears in the watercolors of Diana Șinteuan. The predominantly animalistic subjects are characterized by the fluid properties of watercolor, which shape and deform different animal archetypes in a naive manner, thus giving them a phantasmagorical status.
Poetic and fragile potential describe the central core on which Ana Ionescu’s body of works is built. Her objects and installations, often in combination with organic elements, radiate a magical strangeness, whose need for tactile interaction becomes almost hypnotic for the viewer. A different fragility is present in Mihail Șarpe’s sculptures, whose metaphysical minimalism, drawn from the archaic simplicity of tools in the rural environment, invites nostalgic exploration of the picturesque space.
Marta Mattioli reveals the everyday interactions with the digital reality of increasingly technologized users. Thus, the confirmations that manage the mutual influence in social media networks, such as “seen,” or simply key elements of these operations, are taken up by Mattioli through the ready-made strategy. Recontextualized under the aspect of a dystopian reality, they seem like surreal perspectives of an immaterial future. The ready-made strategy is also characteristic of Matei Emanuel’s practice, who reconfigures, in a satirical and ironic manner, objects specific to consumer society. Thus, food and the packages designed for their transport are reinterpreted, creating new issues directly related to the dimension of war or even drug abuse.
For Adriana Mihaela Pop, seriality represents an important key in her artistic approach. On the one hand, this derives from the possibility of reproducing mezzotints, Pop’s preferred technique, and on the other hand, the subjects that compose a magical narrative require such a construction. A bizarre duality constitutes the mystery in Adriana Pop’s works, based on the natural-artificial hybridization, full-empty or whole-partial, and accentuated by the chiaroscuro of mezzotint. The chiaroscuro is present in the drawings of David Miholcsa, whose subjects articulate the idea of the “full-empty” binomial, exploring the limits and possibilities of compensation in society that arise from losses/deprivations.
Petra Martin focuses on exploring sleep and traumas that lead to severe anxiety, hypochondria, or obsessive-compulsive tendencies. With an autobiographical character, these works represent the steps of healing that have contributed to the stabilization and assimilation of traumas that generate dysfunction.
The documentary character of photographic practices is visible both in the visual discourse of Marius Dan Moga and Alex Todirică. The invisible group behind the Vama Seacă football team constitutes the main subject of Moga’s photographs. Through photographic film, he emphasizes a documented narrative that includes characters belonging to this invisible team, as well as specific spatial elements of sports: flags, goals, or locker rooms. The project “Eldorado” represents for Alex Todirică the process of documenting a chaotic urban development. With an architectural background, he questions, through his photographs, the relationship between the natural and the built environment, between order and disorder, between natural and artificial logic, in the post-communist context of Romania.
Vernissage
