Apparatus 22. To the reading room. We applied ourselves to mid-air visits.review by Cristina Ciulei, 2nd year, ITA

The exhibition was open for visits since the 19th of April until the 23rd of May at Lateral Artspace in Cluj-Napoca.

The team of artists behind it is known as Apparatus 22, an interdisciplinary art collective active since 2015. The members are Erika Olea, Maria Farcas and Dragos Olea. In their work, they explore the relationships between economy, politics, gender studies, social movements, religion and fashion, in order to understand contemporary art. 

The exhibition is composed of four works that were decomposed. This offers the possibility of a different approach towards understanding their meaning and acknowledging each piece for its respective contribution and importance.

The first one in line, “Still Life, M Series” (2016), is an  installation of three pieces of textile with a floral motif, on which text is written that depicts still life images composed of luxury feminine items from the 20s and 30s. The texts are painted on using flourescent paint. Every element of this work suggests  luxury, playfulness and desire.

The second one, “Disco Punch I” (2014), is dedicated to the late Ioana Nemes (1979 - 2011), a former member of Apparatus 22. The piece consists of a concrete rectangle decorated with a curtain of silver tinsel and in front of it is a fan moving continuously from left to right. Because of this, the piece is constantly sculpted. The entire installation is a antithesis between surface and depth, movement and stillness, exuberance and severity, attention and inaccessibility.

The third one, “Above and Beyond” (2019) is once again, as we have seen in “M Series”, an  installation of three pieces of textile with images of the ruins of the rediscovered Pompei, on which text is written that depicts images of underground party scenes in Iran (70s), Romania (80s) and London or New York City (90s) as the symbol of the fight against the oppressive dominant. In the original arrangement of the work, there was positioned semi-transparent red foil  in front of the pieces as a symbol of censorship.

The final piece of the exhibition, “Sky Naive I it begs a Question” (2017), is composed of three raincoats that were part of a performance in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Once again, they all have text written on them. On those particular ones have written  on them messages of empowerment, symbolizing protection from the influence of advertising.

Each work of art has written text that is a crucial element of the strong, loud and, ironically, visual message. The exhibition gives out a feeling of empowerment, playfulness and individuality. It is also a very elegant combination of poetry and visual representation.  I found the duality daring but at the same time refreshing.