Photos by MAB

Photo credits - Borderline Art Space Iași

Curator Cristian Nae, artist Ciprian Tokar and George Pleșu, gallery manager

Romanian Union of Visual Artists, Harghita branch, Harghita County Council, Harghita County Cultural Center, the Art Gallery of Harghita County Council, TRUICART Events Brand and Dan Tudor Truică, curator of the event, presented an art exhibition entitled “Contemporary Attitudes”, between 12-26 August, the second stage, which took place in the space of the Art Gallery of Harghita County Council.

The exhibition project is itinerated in 4 locations in the country, the first stage taking place at the UAP Brăila Art Gallery (July 8-22), the second being the one at the Art Gallery of the Harghita County Council, Miercurea Ciuc (12-26 August), following the Botoșani County Museum (September 2-16) and the “Victoria” Iași UAP Gallery (November 11-20).

With a solid base, this exhibition and curatorial approach brings together in the exhibition space a number of 24 professional visual artists such as Tibor Balla, Carmen Bazilescu, Angela Bocu, Botár László, Elena Dăscălescu, Cornelia Victoria Dedu, Ioana Enescu Truica, Eugen Vasile Iovan, Mariana Gavrilă Vesa, Ruxandra Sibil Mermeze, Iulian Mita, Gh Mosorescu, Gabriela Naftanaila Leventu, Lucia Ősz Trancota, Victoria Pastuch, Lucia Puscasu, Cristian Radu, Florentina Rizea, Ana Maria Rugescu, Vasile Saraci, Liviu Șoptelea, Szabó Árpád, Maria Untanu and Nicu Zimbroianu , which bring to the public their latest creations, made in various environments of traditional art such as painting, graphics and textile art, each bearing a distinct artistic brand.

"It is a large-scale event, a dear project, which was born as a necessary extension, more elaborate and more selective, of similar events in previous years organized under the auspices of TRUICART Events Brand in the country and abroad. (…) Regardless of the technique approached, the artists selected in this event demonstrate, once again, the timeliness and accuracy of a contemporary visual message connected to the latest European trends", said curator Dan Tudor Truica in the statement accompanying the exhibition.

We are talking about an exhibition event that has become a reference for contemporary Romanian art in recent years. At the same time, the exhibition is recognized for its itinerant character, bringing together professional visual artists, members of the Union of Visual Artists in Romania, but also young artists, graduates of art universities.

The Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca, together with the University of Art and Design, institutional collaborator in organizing this event, presented in the Bánffy Palace between September-October, the collective exhibition under the suggestive generic "Gone With the Wind". The exhibition brings to the public's attention an illustrative selection of dissertation projects taken at the graduation exam at the end of the academic year 2019-2020 by master students of the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, specialization "Painting", made under the guidance of the coordinating teachers Ioan Sbârciu and Olimpia-Georgeta Bera. The exhibition includes works by Oana-Cătălina Asavei, Tiziana Bianca Cellino, Mădălin Ciucă, Tudor Costin, Farkas Andreea, Patricia-Denisa Isip, Maria-Theodora Ispas, Kalabér Timea, Andrei Nuţu, Cosmin-Marin Sandu, Paula-Maria Sgândăr, Szekely Sevan, Simona-Daniela Tudose and Diana-Amelia Varga. 

Realized in cooperation with the Cervantes Institute and the Belgrade Photo Month Festival, this exhibition re-examines human memory, individual and collective memory, in an original way, through works that bring an interesting overview of important historical events.

Photographer Fernando Bayona immersed himself in the rich funds of the photographic archive of the daily ABC for the project "Deceptiveness of Memory", whose curator is Javier Diaz-Guardiola.

Obsessed with the idea of ​​failure, his goal was to connect the analytical and scientific way in which an archive manages memories, with a more chaotic and subjective form of human memory. For the artist, the way we remember and present events in the present leads to their overlap and the creation of a distorted image.

"This is a series of works in which I try to make the audience think about the dangers of forgetting catastrophic events with the intention of preventing their recurrence," states Bayona.

The works made by this photographer are created from the superposition of hundreds of original photographs from archives that have a specific concept as their theme (violence, explosion, refugees, fire čije), whose boundaries also overlap with the end result.

Each of the works is illustrated with an original photograph from the ABC collection, which shows some of the important events from the last century that influenced the evolution of man (from the First and Second World Wars to the Spanish Civil War, September 11 or the arrival of man on the moon).

Wanting to confirm the idea that history repeats itself and that our memory is weak, Bayon completes each diptych with a portrait of individuals who still suffer the injustices that this project points to.

(Due to the current situation, there will be no official opening of the exhibition, and the audience will be able to see "The Variety of Memory" from Thursday, July 2.)

The gallery of the Institute Cervantes is open on weekdays from 8 am to 6:30 pm, and the maximum number of visitors who can see the exhibition at the same time is limited to eight. In accordance with the recommendations of the Government of Serbia regarding health and safety, visitors to the gallery are asked to keep a distance of two meters in relation to other visitors, with the obligatory wearing of masks.

If the epidemiological situation allows it, the Spanish photographer will hang out with the Belgrade audience before the closing of the exhibition, on September 10. Until then, the audience will be able to hear more about the authoring process and the exhibited works in a virtual meeting on July 9 at 5 pm, whose actors will be Fernando Bayona and David Pužado, the founder of the Belgrade Photo Month festival.

(More information about this meeting, as well as about the exhibition itself, can be found on the websites belgrado.cervantes.es and belgradephotomonth.org )

"I would like to organize a meeting with all interested parties so that I can personally explain to them the specific characteristics of this project, both at the historical and technical and aesthetic level, but also the ways in which the full conceptual potential of works can be understood using mobile phones and similar devices, "Bayona said: "This is the first time that I am exhibiting my works in Serbia, and it is a solo exhibition, which is why this is a particularly emotional moment for me. In addition, I feel a great responsibility for presenting the exhibition in the gallery of the Cervantes Institute, bearing in mind the importance of this space for the promotion of Spanish culture. "

This exhibition was realized in cooperation with the Cervantes Institute in Belgrade and the Belgrade Photo Month Festival with the great support of the Spanish Agency for the Promotion of Culture (Acción Cultural Española) through the PICE program for the international promotion of Spanish culture through the mobilization of artists.

Fernando Bajona (Linares, 1980)

He lives and works on the route between Madrid, Malaga and Granada. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Granada, and obtained a master's degree in photography from the NABA University in Milan, among other diplomas and studies in educational centers around the world. His works have been exhibited in numerous art centers in Miami, New York, Buenos Aires, Brussels, Berlin, Milan, Rome, Venice, Osaka, Tunisia, Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Bilbao, but also at numerous art fairs such as ARCO in Madrid. , ART BASEL in Miami and MACO PHOTO in Mexico. He has won several prestigious awards and scholarships, and his works are part of many prestigious collections, such as CA2M, Unicaja & Boti Foundation in Spain, BSI Bank in Switzerland, Eberhard, FORMA (International Photography Center) and the Luciano Benetton Foundation in Italy.

He is the founder and director of Studio Bayon, which deals with the production of photography and communications. He did marketing campaigns for BSI Bank, as well as a tourism campaign for the Canary Islands government. In addition to being a very prolific creator, Fernando Bayona is also a professor at the University of Granada as well as at the Graduate School of Design in Granada. He is the director of the EmerGenT residency and production program in Torremolinos, Spain.

Photo via Institut Servantes

Additional comments: Admission free. The number of visitors is limited to a maximum of eight. In accordance with the recommendations of the Government of Serbia regarding health and safety, please maintain a distance of two meters in relation to other visitors, as well as to allow passage to the entrance to the building.

Date: from 03/07/2020 to 10/09/2020

Gallery opening hours: weekdays 8 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Location: Institut Cervantes, Instituto Cervantes - Exhibition Hall; Cika Ljubina, 19; 11000 Belgrade ( Serbia )

For the first time in Switzerland, people can discover the beautiful work of Deana Lawson, who's portraying black peoples and communities around the world in her so particular style. The exhibition entitled Centropy, present some of her last artworks, including photograph, movie, installations and holograms.

But what is Centropy ? There's no clear definition about the term, and it sounds more as a neologism built on the word and concept of entropy. If entropy design the degree of disorder in a system, centropy could be understood as his antonym, used to talk about the way elements in a system can be led to work together.

This idea makes sense when you discover the work of Deana Lawson. By exploring borders, the photograph reveals the potential of unity that exists beyond them. From Brazil to Brooklyn, she goes beyond established and visible frontiers, to making new links between people from black African diaspora. Beyond the burst of this people and their nation through History, Deana Lawson gives attention to the persistence of unity, as an invisible and delicate web that grows beside the organized systems that run the world.

Thus, numbers of elements create a feeling of unity, beyond all the differences that can exist between people and families. This unity, or we might say continuity, is surely the particular style of the artist : here again, it's a subtitle dance between document the daily life of her subjects, and the artificiality of the setting, the work of lights, frame, and pose, which transform the background into a grid of symbols, as the Renaissance European painting. All of these points give to the work of Lawson a very recognizable style.

Printed in very big formats, sometimes on mirror, and added by hologram and projection, photographs give us the feeling that people in the room stand in front of us, stare at us, that they are more closer than we think. But, at the same time, all the work around this figures (chiseled glass frames, worked lights, holograms...) made them a bit out of our reality, like we are in front of a stranger god and goddess, mythical figures, kings and queens from a far away world.

Deana Lawson, Chief 2019 | courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, US

Moreover, places share some strong common points : closed curtains, walls often empty except for a little picture, as the tapestry of « The Last Supper », which contrast and give a touch of luxury, a will to personalize the places, to make it more than just a functional place. In contrast, we can notice a lot of details as piles of clothes on the couch, children toys, taped elements as windows... all trivial details that bring a new level of significance, both political and sociological. And even if it's not the point for the artist, that reveal a lot about the social condition of his subject.

Deana Lawson ,Vera 2020 | courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, US

But beyond these common points, and the sociological aspect that can carry, Deana Lawson is looking for the “creative, godlike beings” that exist beyond the social condition, and making their subjects real individuals. And that's a bigger deal than we can think. As white European, we can learn a lot about ourselves from art history and representation. From the only religious and mythical representations, to the modernity and the documentation of « real » people, we came closer to the reality of the body. The exclusion of non-white people from this art history can be explained by historical, political, and geographical context. That's a point. But how understand the fact that nowadays, these people continue to be excluded from representation ?

Moreover, it is not just a deal about representation, and the place that can be allowed to non-white people. It's not about making more Black people embodied super-heroes in Hollywood. Mainstream representations of black bodies exist, by the way, but they obey too much often to some very restrained frames. We can talk about the exotic fetishization / eroticization of the woman's body. The misery-porn of the photographs that keep up showing little hungry kids, or the ways of showing black male bodies, keeping alive the myth of the violent man, powerful, muscled, strong as depicted by a lot of intellectuals, from Frantz Fanon to Paul Gilroy.

Hollywood and big companies can bring to light more “diversity” in their ads or their movies. But, as queer people, female people, trans-people, people of colors, it need more than just another manufactured and standardized representation of heroes. That is what the work of Deana Lawson is as important. As Nan Goldin did in her time for marginalized communities she lives with, Deana Lawson gives to her subject a strong individuality, far away from the common cliche. Even when they play and pose, we can find in their gaze a feeling of uniqueness, and feeling both an empathy for another human body, and the kind of respect for a stranger, unknown person, that we can't easily set in a box just in a look.

Deana Lawson, Axis 2018, | courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, US

Thus, in her way, Deana Lawson reverses the eurocentric gaze we can have. Who's looking at each other in this context ? The strong look all their subjects address to us canceled, paradoxically, the representation mechanism that make all of us labeled a person in a look, enclosed them in a frame, as a picture and projections of stereotypes (and that's what we all do for everybody we can meet in our life, that's the power of imaginary and representation). They are « just » people. People that carry a story, as global as personal. People that can be king, and queens, gods and goddess, but also dad, and mom. Man. Or woman. Young people that haven't decided yet what they want to be in the future.

In an interview with Angela Davis, the activist tells a story about the first Black Live Matter movement. To a politician, or a journalist, who wanted to meet their leader, a member of the movement answers by this beautiful and simple sentence : they didn't have any leader. They were all the leaders. And this part of human history, often relegated to the backseat, shows us that being « just » part of the people can be far more powerful than we can imagine.


Centropy
DEANA LAWSON
9.6. – 11.10.2020
Kunsthalle Basel