“TRAGEDY IN THREE ACTS” Graphics Exhibition: Art Review by Reka Lapohos, 2nd year Conservation

            The BA and MA students of the Department of Graphics at the University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca had an exhibition on Tuesday, 28th of May, 17:30, at Tranzit House.
 A "Tragedy in three acts" about the relation between human and nature in the contemporary world, as understood and imagined by: Andreea Hoha, Flavia Chicin, Lőrincz Tímea, Petra Barta, Erdély Bálint, Adriana Mihaela Pop, Cătălin Tăvală, Laura Trăilă, Zsófia Bernát, Biborka Fejer, Vass Kamilla, Ioana Turcu, Moldovan Time, also featuring the BA students of the Department of Art History of the University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca: Ioana Trușcan and Cristina-Iulia Ciulei. The exhibition was open between 28-29th of May.
            These 13 artists created an ecosystem of images and symbols, where every artwork is a milestone from the path Nature-Human intervention-The end. Personal micro-narratives: own fears, nightmares and worries are a part of the “Tragedy” where the characters-artists are faced with a superior force: the degradation of the environment in inevitable relationship with the degradation of their own body and psychic.
            The artists used many different techniques: colography, linocut, aquaforte, aquatint, serigraph, cold needle, mezzotint, indigo, monotype and mixed.
            The title is a reflection on the “Three Act Tragedy” which is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie. When the visitor of the exhibition faces this title s/he might think that the exhibition is about something frightening. This expectation is not fully completed by the artworks, because only some of them represent the tragedy (ex. Changes- Bernát Zsófia, The end of the road- Erdély Bálint, Overturned- Cătălin Tăvală)
            From the effects that our actions have on the future, such as the fragility of an aluminium sheet that is not applicated with the right pressure, to the seduction of ideological currents that do not keep up with the real challenges. From the renunciation of the ego to the reorientation of the discourse to a cause, to the reflections on its own degradation. We pass through a multitude of forms and expressions and adaptations of techniques, in fact, a number of coping mechanisms that each alert person develops in what happens to the environment. The open question is how we assemble the mechanisms so that they act as a blasting system,  not just suffocate, which create, not only destroy. 

            There were two works of art that seemed to be the most interesting for the receivers:

                The first one is the Labyrinth, Ravaged by Adriana Mihaela Pop, which was created in cold needle and mezzotint techniques. The Labyrinth gave the people the opportunity to get involved and be a part of the creation by the action of scratching down all the things they want to change in the world presented by the artist. This was only an illusion because in a short time all the vanished parts got back to the original.
In half an hour the artwork got vandalized with a key and was damaged permanently.                                                  

    Labyrinth, Ravaged
           

             The other interesting artwork was “I also give up the title” by Laura Trăila. Through this installation, the artist attempts to take the first step towards giving up the ego (at least artistically), destroying the multiplication plate without printing it for the audience. In addition to the actual destruction of the work, any option of archiving this facility will be avoided. The public has access to a private moment of reflection. The content of the work is linked to the stories of the martyrs who have been martyred by decapitation, who then lifted their heads and continued to walk and preach, in the same way that this work would take the message further after it melted. The used techniques are mixed.
            I also give up the title

            Every artist had a unique style and a different way to create. Some of them made installations from different materials like wax or T-shirts, combined with the graphic techniques mentioned before. The common point was the path itself: Nature-Human intervention-The end. This made the experience whole.

Transmission Cluj: He who spoke to the plants - art review by Ana Sisoi, 2nd year ITA

  An era during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment, the Anthropocene or, as some would call it - Capitalocene (arguing that what changed the modern history was, in fact, the capitalism) is, undoubtedly, a time of major, irreversible climate change.

In an attempt to draw attention on this controversial subject, on the International Light Day, that is 16th of May, the artist-researcher and President for life of Ouest-Lumiere Company, Yann Toma developed, within his Transmission Roumanie project, belonging to the 2019 France-Romania Season, a transmission chain of light Morse signals using modules placed in different points across Cluj-Napoca: Centrul de Interes, Horea Street, Unirii Square and Alexandru Borza Botanical Garden. Taking place at a national level, the project started off in Bucharest, on April 19th, in the context of Spotlight Festival and will continue in Iași and Timișoara.

Professor of art and art science at the Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne University and member of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Science and Technology, Yann Toma is a French contemporary artist who developed the concept of artistic energy, as a means or an “impulse which would enable us to link to each other without us being forced of asserting our culture, our religion, our ancestry”. Through his artworks, he approaches the topic of collective energy and solidarity, getting involved at the same time in political and social events.

Within the episode of Transmissions that took place in Cluj, Yann Toma’s installation made use of the plants from the Botanical Garden and the former Tehnofrig plant, that is the current building of the Centrul de Interes, generating a narrative that raises the topic of planetary ecological consciousness. Thereby, Yann became the translator of these plants and transcribed their thoughts on the walls of the expositional space, hence the subtitle “He who spoke to the plants”. On the night of May 16, these thoughts were conveyed through light in the central places  of Cluj-Napoca mentioned above. 

The reference to plant intelligence or consciousness which, as well as climate change, is a largely debated subject, is easily recognizable in the concept of Yann’s installation. There are numerous studies that suggest that plants are sensitive and problem-solving organisms. However, there are people who accuse those who believe that plants are capable of humanlike, intelligent behavior of anthropocentrism. Nonetheless, some specialists argue that plants are capable - without the brain activity and self-consciousness that we assume is necessary for intelligence - of storing memories and learning from them, memories that our artist, by his means (consisting, among others, of some special sort of technology) - maybe a little difficult to understand for the rest of us, even for the general curator of the exhibition, Cristian Nae, as he admitted within the discussion with Yann that took place before the exhibition opening - manages to gain access to.

Although it was an only one-day exhibition, by approaching a controversial topic with appeal to the masses, yet transposed in an installation with a narrative that talks not only about climate crisis and the need for a planetary ecological consciousness, but also about memory, energy flows, about the relationship of the individual with the world, Yann Toma’s project manages, beyond the aesthetic dimension of the eye-catching installation and schemes with jungle vibes to sensitize the viewer regarding the future of humanity and raise a series of questions of rather a philosophical nature. 

We might, therefore, say that Yann’s project and artwork, in general, is a visionary one, trying to find a meeting point not only between contemporary art, science and philosophy but also between people from different generations, social classes and with different origins.