Ivan Gallery has the pleasure to invite you to the opening of the “Going Tornado” exhibition, the second Paul Neagu solo show to be held by the gallery, following the reenactment of the “Cake Man” performance (2012). The event will take place on February 22 at 6:00 p.m.

“Going Tornado” is the final part of a three-step performance elaborated by Paul Neagu between 1971 and 1976 and presented to the British audience as “Gradually Going Tornado” starting 1974. Together with “Blind Bite” and “Horizontal Rain”, “Going Tornado” forms a “performative triptych” based on the research pursued by Neagu using various artistic and theoretic tools concerning the ways in which the physical aspects of life may merge with that which transcends them. The term “going” has a significance of its own, being a reference to the “disintegration of the boundaries of the self”, assuming a “permanent silent quest” and “receptivity at the existential level” (Paul Neagu). “The tornado”, as the peak of the cycle, is defined by a double oriented energy, that expels and absorbs at the same time, surpassing everything which enters its realm. Within the action there is a shift from a lush complexity of objects and relations to a gradual clarification, a purification of the central movement. Speaking of the way in which “Going Tornado” used to involve him, the artist once declared: “I became invisible, which for me is beautiful”.
The exhibition consists of the screening of the recorded performance (“Going Tornado”, 1974), photographs documenting it, as well as a series of drawings belonging to the same area of investigation.
 
[read more=”Click here to Read More” less=”Read Less”]
Paul Neagu (Bucharest, 1938 – London, 2004) has lived and worked in England since 1970, when he left Romania. Important artists, such as Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Rachel Whiteread, Tony Cragg, were among his students and asserted the importance of the artistic paths of exploration that Neagu opened. His works can be found in many public collections amongst which are The Arts Council of Great Britain, The National Museum of Arts (Romania), The National Museum of Modern Art (Tokio), The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, The Tate Gallery (London), The Victoria and Albert Museum (London).
A selection of Neagu’s works are currently part of the exhibition “Report on the Construction of a Spaceship Module” held at the New Museum (January-April 2014, New York).

The exhibition at The Ivan Gallery is organized together with The Paul Neagu Estate London and can be visited until March 18, 2014. Visiting hours: Wednesday-Saturday, from 1:00 to 7:00 p.m.
[/read]