Pe Olt - A Journey with Ștefan Câlția
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CuratorCristiana Ursache
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Date25 June - 18 September 2022
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ArtistȘtefan Câlția
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LocationThe Blue House No. 234, Șona, Brașov
The voyage is a search, an endeavour of the one who wants to reach or become. The step of the traveler is different depending on his destination. The length of the traveler's step is the intensity of his desire. But when you travel by water? Then the step turns into floating.
The Event
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The exhibition On the Olt - A voyage with Ștefan Câltia offers the experience of traveling through time and water - floating in the nature of the Olt. The unknown beyond the water's horizon, the waving line of the sheen, the mystery of time passing and flight reflect the painter's belief that floating is not only physical but also ancestral.
The Olt is often found in the works of Ștefan Câltia, references to it being made in various variants and periods. The river which is part of the painter's childhood and the memory of the Șona village is present in the Olt exhibition in two approaches: the concrete world and the experience.
The concrete world of the Șona village of yesteryear is the one closely linked to the Olt through the daily activities in which it was irreplaceable. It is brought in the form of photographs found in Șona, testimonies of moments such as watering cattle, washing wool and hemp, washing clothes, fishing - some of the actions archived by Diana Iabrașu within the project Șona - Memory of a place and recovered in the village imaginary through this exhibition. At a closer look, one can notice that in the integration of the natural activities of the time in the exhibition, the gestures of tenderness, which were otherwise rare and sincere, are also remembered. The audio testimonies are stories transmitted through live speech that you can listen to in the environment of the voyage in the exhibition. The QR codes refer to audio recordings of a dialogue with the artist about the Olt and voyage and also of a conversation between villagers about fishing.
The experience of the voyage on the Olt narrated and visually recreated in the atmosphere of a barn converted into an exhibition hall by the artist's foundation, becomes a floating journey, through an installation consisting of a suspended cin. The barn is metaphorically divided into the area under the water and the area above the water level on the river bed. The plants in the cin are similar to the leitmotif of the bouquets from Ștefan Câlțiaț̛ s other works which appear and reappear in different forms, as well as in the key exhibit of the exhibition that bears the same name – On the Olt.
The voyage in the exhibition takes you from the oil painting of the artist Ștefan Câltia to the sculptural monumentality of the cin confronted with reality. Thus, the memory, the myth, the story take shape in reality and the atmosphere of floating on the Olt is believably outlined from metaphor to concrete.
The Olt is often found in the works of Ștefan Câltia, references to it being made in various variants and periods. The river which is part of the painter's childhood and the memory of the Șona village is present in the Olt exhibition in two approaches: the concrete world and the experience.
The concrete world of the Șona village of yesteryear is the one closely linked to the Olt through the daily activities in which it was irreplaceable. It is brought in the form of photographs found in Șona, testimonies of moments such as watering cattle, washing wool and hemp, washing clothes, fishing - some of the actions archived by Diana Iabrașu within the project Șona - Memory of a place and recovered in the village imaginary through this exhibition. At a closer look, one can notice that in the integration of the natural activities of the time in the exhibition, the gestures of tenderness, which were otherwise rare and sincere, are also remembered. The audio testimonies are stories transmitted through live speech that you can listen to in the environment of the voyage in the exhibition. The QR codes refer to audio recordings of a dialogue with the artist about the Olt and voyage and also of a conversation between villagers about fishing.
The experience of the voyage on the Olt narrated and visually recreated in the atmosphere of a barn converted into an exhibition hall by the artist's foundation, becomes a floating journey, through an installation consisting of a suspended cin. The barn is metaphorically divided into the area under the water and the area above the water level on the river bed. The plants in the cin are similar to the leitmotif of the bouquets from Ștefan Câlțiaț̛ s other works which appear and reappear in different forms, as well as in the key exhibit of the exhibition that bears the same name – On the Olt.
The voyage in the exhibition takes you from the oil painting of the artist Ștefan Câltia to the sculptural monumentality of the cin confronted with reality. Thus, the memory, the myth, the story take shape in reality and the atmosphere of floating on the Olt is believably outlined from metaphor to concrete.
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