Romanian catalog for Webpage - Flipbook - Page 22
Ghenie’s practice is concerned with so much more than
practical proficiency and new techniques. His works always
have a story to tell, narratives that center around the key
events of the twentieth century, which the artist regards
as a “Century of Humiliation.” In Ghenie’s hands, such
concepts spin off to address fundamental questions: What
seeds were planted to wreak so much misery and havoc?
What environments were nurtured that were so conducive
to the creation of monsters? The Happy Host (2017)
depicts an aged Darwin at home in his garden. While the
figure undoubtedly sports Darwin’s famous beard, there is
a dark shadow under the nose, suggesting the distinctive
mustache of Hitler, and it is as if Ghenie is saying the signs
of trouble were there, disguised but not invisible.
Even more directly, Doctor Josef 2 (2011) introduces
the Nazi physician and war criminal Mengele, thereby
confronting all the horrors of the Holocaust. Fast forward
to now, and Ghenie has returned to the self-portrait as
subject. Home Alone (2021) references the artist trapped
in his Berlin flat during the pandemic. Part human, part
machine, and a mess of tubes and coils, this is the most
corporeal of Ghenie’s works to date. There are seemingly
no boundaries of form, no skeleton to give shape and
substance. This, Ghenie seems to be saying, is the future
— the new age where everything can be virtual. We just
need to plug in.
Surprise Party (2018) by Oana Farcas depicts a girl with her
head covered amidst a joyful, carnival-like scene. In the
background are a number of masked figures, one looming
Oana Farcas,
Surprise Party
(detail), 2018,
illustrated page 63
20
Hortensia Mi Kafchin,
Universe is Feeding
Time with Events
(detail), 2014,
illustrated page 80
large in the top right corner. Farcas was the first woman
to show with the so called “Cluj School” artists. Like Dan
Perjovschi, she has her own highly distinctive style and
an ability to infuse her works with an engaging liveliness
and energy.
Hortensia Mi Kafchin is unique amongst the Romanian
painters. She has her own canon of motifs that reflect the
kaleidoscopic nature of our world today, dominated as it is
by social media and the virtual realm. Here, people are no
longer living within a tangible reality; they are neither fully
present nor even fully human. Kafchin’s is a fascinating
iconography, one where science fiction can exist quite
easily alongside ancient or folkloric myth, and humans
interact and forge relationships with machines. Kafchin’s
singular vision allows her to imagine new worlds and
scenarios that are not tied to the familiar or terrestrial.
Instead, she is inventing new possibilities for a future that
is ever expanding.
Mircea Suciu’s startling work Still Life (4) (2014) depicts
a barely visible soldier in camouflage. Immediately,
our senses are heightened by the incongruity of a title
that suggests a benign arrangement of static objects, as
opposed to confronting combat-ready military personnel.
The artist combines art historical and pop cultural
references to create a very particular visual language.
The image hovers between figuration and abstraction,
deploying a distinctive and layered graphic style that
the artist calls “monotype.” Striving for iconicity in a
world dominated by a multitude of images, Suciu returns
time and again to the themes of anxiety, violence, and
oppression that have always been significant to him
and his work. Growing up under communism left the
artist interested in how images function — how they can
manipulate or emancipate.
