Don’t Sweat the Technique @ Lateral ArtSpace
The group show Don’t Sweat the Technique, on view through December 21st, 2016, at Lateral ArtSpace in Cluj-Napoca, is named after the 1992 album and song by Eric B. & Rakim. Such an association is not unusual for the Bucharest-based young generation of artists, whose approach to art and contemporary reality is playful and ironic, comprehensive and insightful, bold and free of prejudice. Refusing to sentence the world to a permanent state of alienation or to narrow it to a romanticized representation, they instead reveal it as it is and as they observe it, without being judgemental or militant but rather incisive, and choosing to focus on less talked about topics such as the issues fueling inner conflicts or social inequality and division. They share their statement, change the perspective, question the hasty conclusions and the predefined paths, embrace the rejected behaviors and proclaimed flaws.
And when it comes to the process of creation: “Studying art then forgetting everything and actually doing art, filling a room with invisible pressure points, making up a safe space where all our differences can coexist. This is a safe room. Lack of mentorship makes you inventive and, in a way, strangely powerful.” As the lyrics of the American hip hop duo suggest, being masterful and relevant is not about sweating the technique:
Compose with physique never weak or obsolete
They never grow old technique’s become antique
Better than something brand new cause it’s original
In a while the style, I have much more value
Classical to intelligent to be radical
Masterful never irrelevant mathematical
Here’s some soothing souvenirs
For all the years you taught to sought the thoughts and ideas
It’s cool when you freak to the beat
But don’t sweat the technique
– Eric B. & Rakim, Don’t Sweat The Technique
Or, as the artists explain: “We never sweat the technique, it follows. We like the rawness of it, the brute force behind it, the clashes, the rhythms, the warm ups and the cool downs.”
The works on display at Lateral ArtSpace connect in a natural and spontaneous manner, from the “Artefact discovery” paintings part of the Ant Generated Future series by Ștefan Ungureanu, to Adrian Preda’s panda, eating canned bamboo shoots outside its natural habitat, in the supermarket. Then there is Lea Rasovszky’s “Fake it till you make it, Cristi” showing her character, reminding of the previous Inner Whimp solo show, in a religious posture, with body marks similar to stigmata and surrounded by phosphorescent rosaries. Virginia Lupu’s installation perfectly intersects with Alina Marinescu’s out of love, but full of desire characters, while George Anghelescu’s “CASTRATION” becomes “a pornographic representation of the aforementioned matters (fears), in the real, aggressive but ambiguous, sense of the word (where sex is missing).” And the artist continues: “Reason is trapped within a liminal space, from which I attempt to extract myself, through symbolic and conceptual exorcism, through castration of these matters. Violence thus becomes an impersonal act, missing its blunt arsenal, where characters cancelled into anonymity are suspended contrastfully in ample, pathetic, baroque positions, finally leading to their glorious, but incomplete death. The corpse is alive. It is a kind of doppelgänger of myself, but, more so, of my existential uncertainty.”
A must see exhibition featuring artists George Anghelescu, Michele Bressan, Roberta Curcă, Virginia Lupu, Alina Marinescu, Florin Pantilimon, Alexandru Petre, Adrian Preda, Lea Rasovszky, Ștefan Ungureanu.
Address: Fabrica de Pensule, 1st Floor, 59-61 Henri Barbusse Street, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
DON’T SWEAT THE TECHNIQUE – HIGHLIGHTS
George Anghelescu – CASTRATION, 55 x 70 cm, oil on canvas, 2012
Ștefan Ungureanu – Artefact discovery red, 24×18 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2014 / Artefact discovery green, 24×18 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2014 / Artefact discovery blue, 24×18 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2014
Adrian Preda – Untitled, 60 x 60, oil on canvas, 2014
Virginia Lupu – Niko Nicoll, 10 x 15 cm, digital print, oversized red thong, 2014
Lea Rasovszky – Fake it till you make it, Cristi, 32 x 22 cm, mixed technique on paper, 2016
Alina Marinescu – Out of Love, papier mache, 2015
Florin Pantilimon – SKMBT, 40 x 30 cm, black ink, watercolor, golden marker, liner, pencil and highlighter on paper, 2016
Michele Bressan – Mike the Headless Chicken, Super8 /mashup, 2006-2007
Alexandru Petre – readymade object/installation with sound, 2016
• •
Photos courtesy of Lateral ArtSpace.
More info about Lateral ArtSpace on their website, on Facebook and Instagram.