Gheorghe Ilea
29 May - 13 Jul 2014
GHEORGHE ILEA
Povestea mutarii / The Relocation Story
29 May – 13 July 2014
Galeria Plan B Cluj is happy to invite you to the opening of the personal exhibition The Relocation Story by Gheorghe Ilea, on Thursday, 29 May at 7 pm.
The first stage of the project The Relocation Story was presented in November 2012; the artist displayed the painting Ciucea-Galpaia on the facade of The Paintbrush Factory in Cluj for five months, thus testing its resistance and at the same time its fragility in relation to the exhibiting space – different from the protective environment of the studio – and to the thermal changes. In keeping with the proportion of the partly deteriorated original painting adorning the interior of the wooden church in Ciucea, made by Ioan Pop din Romanasi more than two hundred years ago, the work is a copy thereof and depicts the way in which time has left its marks on it.
The second stage of the exhibition, The Relocation Story, further develops the theme of the project and reconstructs from fragments of images and texts the artist’s long lasting relationship with the history of this church; the central piece of this show, The Paper Church, is a large scale frottage that transposes directly the imprint of the church exterior on a sixty-five meters square paper sheet.
”I am now trying to figure out on paper the theme of these exhibitions. The outline seems to be quite permissive, although unclear in some places; I am lingering while trying to draw the contact paths between apparently two different areas.The keywords are: surface, text, drawing, writing, cloth, weaving, paper, paint, canvas, relocation. I have been interested in each and every term mentioned above for a long time now and the exhibitions are a great opportunity to bring them together in dialogue. What connection could it be between these keywords and the objects, the artworks included in these exhibitions? I’m struggling to understand the meaning of surface, coat, text, relocation, not by their dictionary definitions, but rather by the link between their material essence and their spiritual quality. [...]
Everybody knows something about drawing and paper. What exactly could we possibly search beyond the surface of a draw on paper? Perhaps the search should be done on the other side of the surface – within us. But what is a surface? What kind of unit do we use to measure it? Is it millimeter, micron, quanta? There are drawings and paintings – especially paintings – that cancel the surface and take your eyes and mind beyond themselves. The realistic and surreal ones have this kind of power. The drawings and paintings of children and those created at the very beginning of civilization get straight to your mind, without any mediators. But our eyes are not clean enough and we see these artworks through all the clusters of art history. [...]The relocation is the last element left on my list. Nobody can evade the final «relocation». I am talking about death, of course. My grandfather used to call it «the only justice in this world». Perhaps he was telling the truth, although using a radical terminology. But until then, we are bound to live with small relocations. Galpaia old church was no longer useful to its village – a new one was built and the old one might have been destroyed, as it happened to many other churches in the country, if it wouldn’t had been moved to Ciucea.”
(Gheorghe Ilea)
The solo exhibition of Gheorghe Ilea will be accompanied by a publication distributed at the opening consisting of the documentation of the project The Relocation Story, and of an artist’s intervention on one page of each issue of the publication.
The exhibition design was realized in collaboration with architect Attila Kim.
Gheorghe Ilea (b. 1958, Bucea, Romania) lives and works in Zalau. Among his most recent exhibitions, we cite: 2013 – KM/H, Utopies automobiles et ferroviaires 1913-2013, Tour 46, Belfort & Musée du Chateau des ducs de Wurtemberg, Montbéliard, FR, Ciucea-Galpaia, Plan B Cluj, RO (solo), 2012 –Tronicart 1300, Sala Dalles / MNAC Bucharest, RO (solo), 2011 – Ceaţa-Fog-Brouillard, Art Museum Cluj, RO, 2010 – Figurative Painting in Romania 1970 – 2010, Romanian Cultural Resolution, Spinnerei, Leipzig, DE / Club Electroputere, Craiova, RO, 2009 – Excelsior – 10 Romanian Painters, Sol & Bartolomé Gallery, Santiago de Compostela, SP, 2007 – PAUSA, Muzeul de Arta Cluj, RO (solo).
Povestea mutarii / The Relocation Story
29 May – 13 July 2014
Galeria Plan B Cluj is happy to invite you to the opening of the personal exhibition The Relocation Story by Gheorghe Ilea, on Thursday, 29 May at 7 pm.
The first stage of the project The Relocation Story was presented in November 2012; the artist displayed the painting Ciucea-Galpaia on the facade of The Paintbrush Factory in Cluj for five months, thus testing its resistance and at the same time its fragility in relation to the exhibiting space – different from the protective environment of the studio – and to the thermal changes. In keeping with the proportion of the partly deteriorated original painting adorning the interior of the wooden church in Ciucea, made by Ioan Pop din Romanasi more than two hundred years ago, the work is a copy thereof and depicts the way in which time has left its marks on it.
The second stage of the exhibition, The Relocation Story, further develops the theme of the project and reconstructs from fragments of images and texts the artist’s long lasting relationship with the history of this church; the central piece of this show, The Paper Church, is a large scale frottage that transposes directly the imprint of the church exterior on a sixty-five meters square paper sheet.
”I am now trying to figure out on paper the theme of these exhibitions. The outline seems to be quite permissive, although unclear in some places; I am lingering while trying to draw the contact paths between apparently two different areas.The keywords are: surface, text, drawing, writing, cloth, weaving, paper, paint, canvas, relocation. I have been interested in each and every term mentioned above for a long time now and the exhibitions are a great opportunity to bring them together in dialogue. What connection could it be between these keywords and the objects, the artworks included in these exhibitions? I’m struggling to understand the meaning of surface, coat, text, relocation, not by their dictionary definitions, but rather by the link between their material essence and their spiritual quality. [...]
Everybody knows something about drawing and paper. What exactly could we possibly search beyond the surface of a draw on paper? Perhaps the search should be done on the other side of the surface – within us. But what is a surface? What kind of unit do we use to measure it? Is it millimeter, micron, quanta? There are drawings and paintings – especially paintings – that cancel the surface and take your eyes and mind beyond themselves. The realistic and surreal ones have this kind of power. The drawings and paintings of children and those created at the very beginning of civilization get straight to your mind, without any mediators. But our eyes are not clean enough and we see these artworks through all the clusters of art history. [...]The relocation is the last element left on my list. Nobody can evade the final «relocation». I am talking about death, of course. My grandfather used to call it «the only justice in this world». Perhaps he was telling the truth, although using a radical terminology. But until then, we are bound to live with small relocations. Galpaia old church was no longer useful to its village – a new one was built and the old one might have been destroyed, as it happened to many other churches in the country, if it wouldn’t had been moved to Ciucea.”
(Gheorghe Ilea)
The solo exhibition of Gheorghe Ilea will be accompanied by a publication distributed at the opening consisting of the documentation of the project The Relocation Story, and of an artist’s intervention on one page of each issue of the publication.
The exhibition design was realized in collaboration with architect Attila Kim.
Gheorghe Ilea (b. 1958, Bucea, Romania) lives and works in Zalau. Among his most recent exhibitions, we cite: 2013 – KM/H, Utopies automobiles et ferroviaires 1913-2013, Tour 46, Belfort & Musée du Chateau des ducs de Wurtemberg, Montbéliard, FR, Ciucea-Galpaia, Plan B Cluj, RO (solo), 2012 –Tronicart 1300, Sala Dalles / MNAC Bucharest, RO (solo), 2011 – Ceaţa-Fog-Brouillard, Art Museum Cluj, RO, 2010 – Figurative Painting in Romania 1970 – 2010, Romanian Cultural Resolution, Spinnerei, Leipzig, DE / Club Electroputere, Craiova, RO, 2009 – Excelsior – 10 Romanian Painters, Sol & Bartolomé Gallery, Santiago de Compostela, SP, 2007 – PAUSA, Muzeul de Arta Cluj, RO (solo).