ROMANIAN WAY IN VISUAL ARTS
Between '60 and '90

My work presents the situation of the Romanian Art during the last 30 years, with no intention to cover it in its entirety. My work is an artistic gesture that touches a general phenomenon. That’s why I prefer a visual language instead of a rigorous, scientific one, which is usually rigid. I provoke you to a workshop where you can invest art and criticism as much as I did. You will receive some papers and I invite you to express your questions, thoughts, opinions, dreams and discontents in words, or in drawings or other languages that are there for us to discover them.
The workshop that we are all going to be part of will be in the spirit of the Experiment. The catalogue printed in 1997 offers the hints of Romanian way in visual arts before and after the Revolution in December 1989.
My scientific advisor, University professor Dorel Gaina, is one of the artists who fully experienced the events of the last 30 years. All the way through my work he was the most discreet and friendly guide an artist can have.
The main idea of my work is the team spirit.
Art and Humanity thought us that as an individual it is difficult to resist to political pressure. The group is more efficient because it gives to its members the courage of expression and protects the individual from the impact of the failure. The authoritarian measures the communism regime imposed on Romanian visual art had both a negative and a positive, constructive impact. Artists gathered in groups, experiencing the group ethics. They used to have initiate travels in province where they were allowed to have exhibitions. A group is so much of a world to itself that need no surroundings. It is also a great force. The artists embraced the revolt (against the system) that developed from hysterical aggression to intelligent and constructive art expression.
During the `60s three artistic centers became the core and background for the experiment, vanguard and synchronization of the Romanian artistic movement with the international contemporary art.
In Timisoara, Radu Cotosman, Constantin Flondor, Doru and Elena Tulcan, Stefan Bertalan formed the group “Sigma”. They acted on the ideas of Bauhaus School and they promoted in a pompous way the artificial materials: the plastic used as surfaces and structures for their projects. They were also the first who tried the activities engagement: the happening, the performance and the action.
Bucharest innovates and experiments in two directions: an experimental attitude in op-art expression, kinetic and cyber art with Paul Gherasim, Serban Epure and a dialog with the laic, mystical and religious archetype. Horea Bernea is the initiator of neo-ortodoxism.
In Cluj-Napoca Ana Lupas, Stefan Koncsura, Cornel Ailincai, Mircea Spataru, Corneliu Brudascu, Nicolae Maniu have a more severe experimental attitude. They take it less as an adventure and more as a tribute to tradition and classic skills.
In the `70s the dictatorship approved the formation of the Youth Artistic Circle. It was the only framework that allowed professional manifestations. It was carefully supervised by the totalitarian State with the help of the Romanian Union of Visual Artists. Their purpose was to control and prevent any type of revolt of the young artists.
Nevertheless they did nothing but offer the artists the possibility to experience the Group advantages, to exchange opinions and to act against the system. The group activity was visible in Bucharest where Geta Bratescu, Wanda Mihuleac, Decebal Scriba, Ion Grigorescu, Alexandru Chira, Sorin Dumitrescu were leaders of opinion. As the Youth Circle extended, it became more of a danger, due its nonconformist attitude. Subsequently it got dissolved in 1980.
In 1983 the State tried once again to control the artists by creating a new organization called “Atelier 35” dedicated to artists younger then 35 years old. The State’s hope that it will tame the artists, failed again. They used this opportunity to express their opinions against communism and its concept regarding art. This type of workshop was organized all over the country so it became difficult for the State to have a total control. In every town they organized exhibitions, which proved to be great opportunities to communicate. During this period they had the opportunity to travel a lot and gather artistic information that offered them the chance to synchronize with the international contemporary art speech.
During `90s, after the Revolution, the team spirit lost its substance. It lasted for three more years and than it slowly died away. A new era begun, the era of the singular artist who tries to succeed on his own, eventually assisted by a more or less professional curator or a gallery, or by The Union that is by now out of fashion and inoperative in relation with what was fashionable in the west.
Some rhythmical artistic manifestations contained the new hints in their projects: The Art Event in Iasi, organized by Matei Bejenaru, the Acting Festival from the Lake Sfânta Ana organized by Uto Gusztav, the State Without Title from Timisoara and Arad which was a multimedia art manifestation, The Earth, East-West, the yearly festivals Zone.
In Bucharest, Calin Dan and Irina Cios were directors at Soros, which is the International Contemporary Art Center that imposed some new standards for multimedia and intermedia art.
Some art critics: Magda Cârneci, Calin Dan, Erwin Kessler, Alexandra Titu, Adrian Guta, Ruxandra Balaci and the magazines: Atelier, Arta and Balcon (later entitled Idea) encouraged the artistic activity all over the country.
In Cluj, new spaces for exhibition were opened: Syndan Center, Protokol Gallery the Transit House. The ex-rebels of “Atelier 35” became University Professors at the Art Faculties in Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi, and Oradea.
They are now guiding the young artists, overstepping the didactic process and provoking them to express themselves not only during the classes, but also in research and extension of visual arts.

The new visual proximity

The contemporary artists do no longer experience the group spirit. Soon everything will get back to normal, but for the moment people don’t have the patience to look inside themselves and inside others because of their earge to communicate with the exterior (travels, the easy access).
Art used to be the perfect hiding place, where people could create and imagine a colorful world, totally opposite to the gray, dark imprint of the communist ideology. Now everything changed: we are invaded by loud, shining images and cultures, some of them good quality, the rest kitsch. Usually the most aggressive visual things are the most accessible ones: advertisings, information poisoning, quick images, most of them ignoring the aesthetics. We are not yet capable to distinguish which has value, and we risk to be confiscated, hypnotized, and drugged by this new visual universe. A work of art can’t compete with Television shows like life terrorist attacks, rocket launchings or Olympic opening shows.
The following images are from Cluj-Napoca, a city in Transylvania, a land where Romanians, Hungarians and Germans have lived together for centuries. As you will see, Cluj-Napoca is a city of life and images, a city that became an exhibition itself. Because of insufficient space, art invaded the streets.

Elian, model of the contemporary Romanian artist

I chose to present Elian because she is a person that is open to dialog more then other artists and she is capable of expressing her art in different ways: she paints, she makes sculptures, social movies, installations. She totally represents the contemporary Romanian artist: she is not neither rich nor poor, neither happy nor unhappy, neither young nor old, thus she is living the Purgatory of the Romanian art.

2004 Copyright © Ovidiu Muraru, Alina Muraru, Dorel Gaina