May 31, 2017

Tincuţa Marin, "Distorted Realities", by Vlad Dobritan, 2nd year ITA



“The presented project incorporates elements taken from the scenography, street art and everyday imagery, passed through the postmodern filter as a way of composing and by the expressionist filter as a way of pictorial expression. 


My paintings coagulate scenes that do not necessarily subscribe to an aesthetic attitude, but delineate the search for a very personal process of making the image. For me, this project is a complex challenge in seeking and acquiring an own style of state expression through an artistic approach that helps me to reach the unique way of releasing my gesture in response to the chosen subject. The images taken from them are de-structured and re-composed to create various, magical and dynamic compositions, completing the collages through the basics of pictorial-gesture, line, spot and shape.


In my works I discuss the problems related to magic, dream, form and composition, metamorphosis of the perception filters, the characters rendered by me being deformed, with strange atypical faces. I like to reinterpret the facts of reality into a world of mine, full of magic, beautiful, ugly, through deformations, elongations, twists and turns sending them into a grotesque visual area. I want to suggest the atmosphere of dreams, to express an emotion without resorting to narrative clichés. What I am interested in is the absurd, the exploration of the limits of reality, which can bring about an individual reality. "

 
artist's statement (our translation)




Without narratives, without heroes, the postmodern community is composed of masses made of atoms in an absurd Brownian motion  and it’s fine! —because the big social stories break up; individuals find themselves in the nodes of communication networks socially positioning them and allowing them to perform movements in the middle of these language-based societies.

 As the society is atomized in simple language games, any statement must be considered a move made in a game — the players of the games respect the same rules to understand and accept each other; and that’s Lyotard’s greatest gift for us, it means that we can even build our own games as long as we can find someone to play with, someone who accepts and follows our rules of communications. Of course, these may seem like complications.


Those complications — of fitting in a society that works on  Lyotard’s theory of language game — spark in artist Tincuța Marin, in the wicked paintings of her own  distorted realities. She lives in Cluj-Napoca and studies painting at UAD; she lives, like every one of us, in multiple -language games- which bring to every one of us distorted views on things – views that even after expressed, will change their meaning in the eyes of the public. The artist reinterprets the common reality and gives us her own, which is a grotesque combination of ugliness, beauty, anxiety, and alienation – all this using her own language game rules.




 Where do the paintings power emanate from? The grotesque atmosphere is only a foyer to the effect. I think Tincuța’s intense awareness of her own emotions  is part of it — how she tries to find a style that would allow her to express herself in simple  gestures, and to be able to express emotion without narrative  clichés— that quest on itself becomes the source of power  for her works. 

That’s what Tincuța’s show at Expo Maraton’s VII-th edition made  me think about, the postmodern self, the search for a game  you can belong in by finding the rules— or creating your own. How do you face those distorted  realities?


photo credits Vlad Dobritan



May 28, 2017

Iris van Herpen Spring 2017 Couture Collection, by Alexandra Burtiuc

Between the lines            

             Have you seen a dress that vibrates? Or have you seen a dress so thin and transparent that is almost invisible? Well, they exist in the newest couture collection of Iris van Herpen. She is a Dutch fashion designer, who debuted in 2007 in the fashion industry. She is world known for her futuristic designs, her name nowadays being equivalent to 3D printing applied in fashion. The collection for spring 2017, released in Paris in January, is entitled Between the lines, a name that defines the concept and the visuals altogether.  
             The collection is composed of 16 outfits, the majority of them being dresses. And the reason for such a small number of garments in a collection is, firstly, the cost and secondly the complex process of making them. The dresses and the single jumpsuit are made of silicone and polyurethane (PU), combine with cotton and silk for making those non-conventional materials more comfortable for wearing. This means not just the fact that she used non-conventional materials, which may be more difficult to work with, but proving her knowledge and interest in the newest technology. And, of course, having connections around the globe for making it happened. The lines for the dresses made of silicone were hand-painted thorough injection molding, a technique shown step by step in the Process film that she posted on her Youtube channel. The lines for the dresses that were made of PU were laser cut from a block of material in Atelier 13 from Bucharest and sewed together to create the garment. The technology involved in such a process of creating just one dress is not easy to find and is pretty expansive, because of that. But this complex process of creating the dresses and the materials themselves is what makes the collection special and unique. Even the title says that you have to, literally, read between the lines, where the material, the main “character” actually is. 
             When it comes to colors, the collection is monochrome, combining different shades of white and black. When it comes to pattern… well, it is in the title: lines. They were everywhere and in every form. Black, white, thin, thick, curved, in zig zag, forming other shapes, on the dress, cut through, in the background… what a better way of expressing an abstract concept if not through lines? When it comes to structure, some of the garments were made of more layers which showed different degrees of transparency and some were made of a single layer, being so transparent that it could be confused with the skin of the models. 
          The scene (room) where the collection was presented was black, covered in white zig-zag lines, models walking between those lines. The room itself wasn`t too spacious, and the public wasn`t lighted. In my opinion the lighting in the room wasn`t good at all. It was too dark and the dresses deserved to be seen clearer, especially the little details that they had and the material that they were made of.  Or maybe that was the intention. 
             What I found far more interesting about the presentation itself was the background music. Or should I say sounds? Yes, they had a rhythm, but they weren’t actual music. More like a combination of different frequencies and vibrations. And that was the moment I realized what the concept of the collection was. Iris van Herpen never said what was her source of inspiration for this collection, she only said in an interview that she thinks about and gets inspired by abstract concepts and doesn`t use images, because she doesn`t like to recreate them. And music is not an image, even if you can`t define it as abstract. And sound is even more “abstract” that music. That`s why I strongly believe that the concept for this collection is frequency and representing visually the vibration of the sound. And what sustain this theory of mine about the concept for this collection are two dresses. More clear the dresses with number 8 and 9 (in the order they were presented in the show). They literally vibrate! It`s a visual effect created by the layers of the curved vertical lines of silicone put together on a silk dress, amplified by the movement of the model and a special rhythm in the background sound. And the dress number 15 reminded me of a bat. It was because of the A silhouette of the dress and the pitched, chaotic sound that could be heard when it came on scene. And, of course, it`s black color and the pattern formed on its surface. 
             Even though the last dress that had an unusual form and texture, made of silicone, is considered the climax of the show (this can be said because of its presentation), the dresses that I mentioned previously are the ones that, in my opinion, speak more about this collection. I really enjoyed watching this show because I could see what makes this fashion show being an “exhibition” and I sincerely recommend this show to everyone. And I could also see how the future of clothing will look like: the usage of non-conventional materials will be much higher, finding and making such clothes will be easier, the 3D printing will change the way we obtain clothes. Being able to see all of these in one collection proves the talent and the forward thinking that Iris van Herpen is capable of. And this is way I respect and appreciate her so much.
  Sources:
Iris van Herpen spring 2017 couture collection – Amy Verner http://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2017-couture/iris-van-herpen
Iris van Herpen Between the lines – show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWAVV2n4TIk
Process film – Ryan McDanials for Iris van Herpen Between the lines 2017 couture collection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiE3yVULRBY                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                      Alexandra Geanina Burtiuc,
                                        second year at History and Theory of Art and second year at Fashion Design


May 16, 2017

ZAIN Accelerator, by Nicoleta Trif, 1st year, Design


ZAIN accelerator is a program for creative people  which are at the beginning of the road, full of good ideas and bizarre projects. The project consists  a series of mentoring sessions which are aimed at personal and professional development, filtering and developing their ideas, and developing a personal project that benefits from the support and expertise of mentors as well as the possible collaboration of other candidates. The candidate may have either a concrete product or a well articulated idea that falls into one of the three categories: object design, accessory design or fashion design

The period of the accelerator is from 8 to 14 May, in Pta. Stefan cel Mare no. 18. The official program is between 9:30 and 18:00, every day, with the possibility of staying over the program in the space provided to the organizers.

The deadline for joining the accelerator is May 5th and  the link where you can sign up is on facebook on the page of ZAIN
The presentation of the projects takes place on 14 May at 12:00, in the presence of a jury of 3 people they will evaluate the projects according to the rating grid provided by the organizers.

This event does not require an enrollment fee, but if the person enrolling in Accelerator does not attend classes or at the meetings will have to pay a fee of 200 euros.

The Light Festival, by Nicoleta Trif, 1st year, Design



The Romanian Scouts have created the Light Festival, an event that takes you out of daily life and brings you closer to the simple joys of life. The Festival of Light is a national event, organized annually by the members of the National Organization "Romanian Scouts" and young local volunteers. In 2017, the festival reaches its 13th edition, and it Will take place at national level starting in May.The Festival of Light is organized every year in several locations in Romania, with the aim of creating a quiet space, disconnecting the participants from the agitation of everyday life and remembering that the small things around them .Those who are volunteers gain experience in communication, socialization and discover the art of light and the games a single candle can create. This year the festival it will take place in the park cetatuie in 3 june between 9 pm and 11 pm and the park it will be decorate with paper boxes wit candels inside which will show people the art that you can made with some paper boxes, fire, and young people.



May 11, 2017

Henna Workshop, by Bernadett Kovács (1st year, Design)






When?

19.05.2017, 13.00 o'clock



How to apply?

Send a message to Ana’s facebook:


What can we learn?

-Preparation methods

-Why natural henna and not black henna

- How to make your cones and how to use them

-How to prepare your skin before applying henna

-How to maintain a tattoo

-How to get a darker color

-The methods of preserving the paste / henna powder

-A short presentation of some models

-How to build a model from scratch

About Ana:

Ana-Maria Butura is fascinated about Indian culture and the art of tattoos. She decided to combine both of them by learning from tutorials and a friend. She stayed 2-3 hours a day watching tutorials and later she was practicing  on her sister and friends.Her inspiration is from  traditional Indian henna models and Maori tattoos. She also works with free hand without using templates, and every tattoo she is making is unique.

-About henna:

Henna is one of the oldest beauty and cosmetic products in the world. Henna painting art has been practised for over 5,000 years in India, Africa and the Middle East. The dye obtained from the henna tree plants is used to color the nails, the skin, even the hair. In the past, due to henna's cooling properties tribes living in desert  used henna to cool off. The cooling feeling lasts as long as the color remains on the body. It is also said that even Cleopatra used henna for her beauty.