Facts about which there can be questions

Ștefan Sava

05.12.2013 – 31.01.2014

In this exhibition, Sava takes as a starting point the positivism which characterises the beginning of anthropology in the 19th century in order to circumscribe a critical space which triggers a reflection on the present condition, further exploring the coordinates of the artist’s own identity.

In one of the works in the exhibition, the artist repeatedly draws the line of the horizon on a backdrop made of old sacks sewn together. These performative gestures take place in the setting of the Baragan Plain. The perception of the horizon which follows the coordinates of the Euclidian space is doubled by an attempt to imagine a zone of constant renegotiation of the artist’s own identity in a present situation marked by perpetual instability. In another work, Sava “imprints” his own breath on the surfaces of 55 wax tablets, alluding to the mnemonic techniques from Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The futility of this act mirrors the intrinsically ephemeral nature of this ancient technique. Within this process of identity exploration which entails an abstract negotiation with oneself, the appeal to the image is constantly renewed. The image is either put to use in an analytic-descriptive manner – as in the case of the performative actions – or is made to invoke the problems of representation which are inherent to the appearance and function of images.

Special thanks:  Dumitru Cojocaru, Monica Negutescu, Sorin Popescu, Magda Radu.

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