Vlad Nanca, In the natural landscape the human is an intruder, by Tania Turcan

The Modern and the individual. What is the connection between these two? The response of the inquiry is offered by Vlad Nanca in his exhibition "In the natural landscape the human is an intruder" at Galeria Sabot, Centrul de Interes, in Cluj-Napoca, between 30.03-12.05.2018.

The first thing the visitor interacts with is the separation, the essential element of the exhibition. A large wall in the middle of the exhibition space, on which 13 welded designs are installed, makes you question: Me versus what? In the first half of the exhibition, Vlad Nanca intervenes with the figures that result from enlarging de-humanized micro-silhouettes as architectural sketches to a 1:1 scale.

                                                    

         

 

  

This initial narrative tries to offer an insight in the contemporary understanding of a being, a creature immune to all the economic mash-up, but at the same time, with large inquiries regarding the verticality of the modern structure. The signs of the wall represent themselves another separation, as Vlad Nanca puts it "the separation of modernism from functionalism'', signaling the problematic of our obsession with the new. The signs look almost like a new coded/extraterrestrial language of the modernism, an accumulation of disparate forms and meanings that triggers the need to find out, what is on the other side? Continuing his journey, the visitor interacts with the plant holders on the other side of the wall, some of the artist's beloved elements used in other exhibiting contexts, as well.

The aesthetics become more striking, the narrative more significant. The modern is present even in outer space, a thought especially suggested by the "The sculpture of to-day" and "Colonisation of space". The human urge to change everything depending on its needs and understandings can bring more unwanted and unconscious consequences, accelerating the Anthropocene.

  

Sculpture of to-day    (left)                                                  Colonisation of Space (right)

 The manner in which Vlad Nanca tries to send this message is quite subtle but is more suggestive in the "Gaze into the Abyss". 

Worth of our consideration are also the empty spaces.  As one might think, there is a rather playful connection between the lack of the interior of the de-humanized silhouettes and the obscure void of the outer space. On the other hand, the three columns composing a grid are of a main interest, apropos the verticality of the modern structure.  We can see how the problematic is more palpable in the second half of the exhibition, urging us to meditate more upon the "invasion" of the natural space.

The exhibition offers a rather insightful and updated picture of the reality. It is also a good opportunity to see how an author such as Vlad Nanca handles the notion of the modern sculpture and the exhibiting space in creating connections. In the midst of the created atmosphere and the generated context, the visitor has to give the last proposition.

Gaze into the Abyss