Galeria Ivan_TristxtOTL_Comunicat de presa_RO

Ivan Gallery_TristxtOTL_Press release_EN

We invite you to the opening event of Mădălina Zaharia’s solo show, “TristxtOTL,” on Friday, October 7, between 6-10 pm. On Saturday, October 8, 2-4 pm, a dialogue between Mădălina Zaharia and Diana Ursan, the curator of the exhibition, will take place inside the exhibition space. Throughout the exhibition period there will be weekly guided tours, to be announced at a following date.

“TristxtOTL” is Mădălina Zaharia’s latest film, as well as her second solo show at Ivan Gallery. If the 2016 “The Staging of an Exhibition” related to the gallery space in order to question the process of exhibition-making in itself, TristxtOTL transforms the gallery venue into an immersive, in situ cinema with a site-specific installation dedicated to difficult, unwanted emotions, such as sorrow and grief, more than often repressed and exiled from the contemporary behavioural and emotional personality ideal. Mădălina Zaharia’s film summons a safe and inclusive environment where the ‘negative’ emotions’ potential can be welcomed, explored, and transfigured by means of artistic, literary and scientific processes.

“TristxtOTL is a sad arrangement of letters, abbreviations and Internet slang, weaved together out of a desire to always wear my heart on my sleeve, in life as well as art. Devised as a two-part melodrama, the exhibition starts with the grimacing face of the artist: a diagrammatic account of sorrow meant to expose and re-invent the mechanics behind her psychogenic tears. ‘The Brow of Grief’, ‘The Corrugator’, ‘The Chin Raiser’ – they all amass the luminous account of a muscle in pain, a declarative attempt of putting one’s cards firmly on the table.

TristxtOTL is also a melancholic science-fiction film exploring sadness and grief as instruments for transformation and imaginative thinking. A desolate speech is being rehearsed and delivered at the very same time, a stone becomes the physical manifestation of despair, heavy arms fall to the rhythm of anxiety, while an empty space is incessantly hunted by intrusive blue thoughts. 

Starring performers Fionnuala Kennedy and Ebun Sodipo, the film embarks on a gentle exchange that depicts the grieving body as a collaborator, one that instills empathy and receptivity within a viewing audience by mixing dejection with imagination. Drawing on a multitude of literary and scientific references, this sad sci-fi drama aims to reimagine sorrow as a capable force that can be reassembled and mobilized in order to produce cognitive change; a coping mechanism, whose resignation and paralysis are its best strategies in resisting an impatient reality.” (Mădălina Zaharia)

Mădălina Zaharia (b. 1985, Sighetu Marmației, Romania) is a Romanian artist and filmmaker who lives and works in London. Her film, “Public Figure” – made in collaboration with poet and performer Ryan Ormonde – won ‘The best film in the national competition’ prize at Bucharest International Dance Film Festival 2021 and was also part of the official selection for SQIFF 2021 (Scottish Queer International Film Festival) in Glasgow and GRRL HAUS CINEMA 2021 in Boston, MA. Recent exhibitions include: “VIDEO+RADIO+LIVE” (co-lateral event of the Art Encounters Biennial 2021), Casa Artelor, Timisoara; “So Far So Good,” Budapest Gallery, Budapest; “Viral self-portraits,” Moderna galerija (MG+MSUM), Ljubljana; Art Encounters Biennial 2019, Timisoara; “Reading as Rhythm: A Sonic Exploration of the Visual Vocabulary of Control Magazine,” Tate Exchange Liverpool (2018); “DEBT.,” Tintype Gallery (solo), London (2017); “Identify Your Limitations, Acknowledge The Periphery,” Vitrine Gallery, London (2016); “The Staging of an Exhibition,” Ivan Gallery (solo), Bucharest (2016); London Open 2015, Whitechapel Gallery, London.

The exhibition can be visited in Ivan Gallery’s space inside Atelierele Malmaison on Calea Plevnei 137C, B side, 1st floor, until the 5th of November 2022, Wed-Sat 1-6 pm, or by appointment outside the visiting hours.

Visual identity of the exhibition: Daniel & Andrew.

Special thanks to: Ross Taylor, Salonul de proiecte.

Exhibition organised part of the project “A New Word for Emotion”, co-financed by the Sector 6 Bucharest Municipality inside the Cultura 2022 Program.

The content of this material does not necessarily reflect the official position of the Sector 6 Bucharest Municipality. For official information on the Financing Program of the Sector 6 Municipality, visit www.primarie6.ro.

The “TristxtOTL” film was co-financed by the Arts Council England.

Film credits:

Writer and Director: Mădălina Zaharia

Starring: Fionnuala Kennedy and Ebun Sodipo
Director of Photography: Emma Dalesman
Focus puller/1st Assistant camera: Tanmoye Khan
Gaffer: Justice Akushie Junior
Spark: Daniel Temple
Sound Recordist: Soroosh Gholampur
Sound design: Joshua Fay
Dialogue Editor: Donato Wharton
Movement consultant: Daniel Hay-Gordon
Costumes: Mădălina Zaharia in collaboration with
Anne Taylor, Jordan Taylor and Ross Taylor
Editing: Mădălina Zaharia
Visual effects and motion graphics: Alex Lundström
Colour grading: Jason R Moffat
Production assistants: Alex Lundström and Ross Taylor

Romanian subtitles: Yigru Zeltil
Filmed at London Performance Studios