New Genres: landscapes

“Virtual landscapes” – an art project that explore new pictorial forms and experimental drawing

April 10, 2021 | Cosmina Marcela OLTEAN ArtPage

Recently, students and teachers from UNAGE –National University of Arts “George Enescu” Iasi, presented live and online the artistic project called “Virtual landscapes”, a project that explore, practically and theoretically, pictorial forms and experimental drawing. “Painting is a form of human manifestation, a form of knowledge and self-knowledge, through which the artist and implicitly the viewer, have the opportunity to acquire, on a horizontal and vertical axis of time, their own feelings and fundamental concepts. In the contemporary period, pictorial practices vary, from "physical" to virtual art. And if by the beginning of 2020, virtual art seemed to have a distant horizon, the events of the pandemic period made the interaction with virtual space take on a global scale and in an accelerated form. Thus, today's artists have adapted to the new media as a useful tool for online presentation of openings and exhibitions, but also as a stimulus to inventiveness in terms of contemporary art in the net art area”, points out Adrian CRÎȘMARU, one of the coordinators.

Andreea Budaș - "Brasov 2", oil on canvas

„Painting-specific techniques have been interacted with new visual media - photography, video and more recently with images generated through computer programs or phone applications. Most of the time, artists were attracted to new technologies to develop technically and conceptually on the visual arts scene. Together with the teachers and students of the Faculty of Visual Arts and Design - Iași, we generated and developed experimental / interactive projects using the new painting and conceptual techniques specific to the virtual environment. Thus, three projects, coordinated by the undersigned, were completed, through exhibitions / presentations in the online environment: "Sketch Phone" - project made exclusively from the phone - February - May 2020, "Virtual Plein Air" - painting camp online March 23 - April 4, 2020 and "Virtual Landscapes - Live" October 2020 - January 202. Therefore, the project "Virtual Landscapes - Live" took place over four months, during which students visited / watched, weekly, on the YouTube website, places from different corners of the world such as: Venice - Italy, Tokyo - Japan, Plan City - Florida - USA, Brașov - Romania, Olifants River - South Africa. Therefore, after watching and selecting aspects of the Live landscapes on youtube, the students sketched and painted, in a virtual plein air, numerous works in different painting techniques: pencil, watercolor, charcoal, marker, acrylic, oil, mixed media and digital painting”, he adds.

Alexandra Macarie - "Landscape from Brasov", digital painting

“The works of the exhibiting students "connect" two different areas of study, present in the courses of scenography and experimental drawing. The idea of scenography is particularized - in a sense much closer to the specific (and interest) of the painting section - as a science of signage that can be studied during a virtual journey through museums. In this context, Mr. Crîșmaru proposes, as an area of artistic investigation for experimental drawing, the work according to models offered by the online space. The artistic expression of such an approach to the practice of drawing is one with an important conceptual stake that brings to attention the cultural changes implicit in the presence of virtual space in the life of the contemporary individual. (…) If the traditional practice of drawing generally assumes the logic of a direct visual relationship between the designer and his natural model, the works exhibited in Virtual Simes are made in a different logic. The reality to be represented is, in this case, one already culturally mediated, through video editing practices, through the representational limit of some technologies or through the framing limits of a screen”, concludes Mihail TARAȘI on the project.

Ana Moldovan - "Africa", mixed media

The artists involved in this project are Cristiana-Ioana ANIȚĂ, Gabriela- Elena BEJINARU, Simona - Mihaela BÎCLEA, Andreea-Geanina BUDAȘ, Valeria BRAȘOVSCHI, Laura - Ștefana CANDET, Victorița-Alina CUCORANU, Elena-Karina COJOCARU, Roxana - Gabriela FUSA, Valeriu GORGAN, Larisa Elena ILICĂ, Alina MANOLE, Ana-Maria MOLDOVAN, Alexandra MACARIE, Ștefan PAVLIUC, Ana STOICA, Smaranda VÎRNĂ. Project coordinated by Zamfira BÎRZU and Adrian CRÎȘMARU.