Past
Renovation & collateral effects
Curator : Ami Barak
Press release
Three artists from the East were approached for this project. Two of them live and work in Romania and the third in China. They are all different but they have nevertheless a sort of family likeness. First, they approach painting as a genre to be rehabilitated in the context of multiple after modern. It is an intimate and personal approach that is intended to stay detached from a constraint form, which match the zeitgeist. But on the other side it appears that this genre, which has survived the ages and has given the impression of reaching the end of its history, is not as ahistorical than that, according to our protagonists.
The East is still living with the ghosts of the past, pegged to the body. Obviously, the last century was traumatic, but it appears that the new generations are constantly investigating the past and trying to exorcise it, particularly those stories that have not been experienced live but were by proxy through parents and grandparents. But there are not only the narratives, there is also the setting stage and the paraphernalia that has not completely disappeared under the assaults of globalization. There are still indelible marks and trappings that do not lie for them and appear uncanny to us.
The side effects of the Cold War are experienced by the new generations as collateral damages. And paradoxically, it is through painting, especially figurative, that the subject is addressed. One might have expected that the photograph or the video were more conclusive. Technically, the painting science is perfectly mastered but it is mostly the subject that takes the scope and the scale in an analytical mood. It is in turn that the subject is highlighted acts on our consciences and reappears in retinal impact.
Ami Barak