Exhibition review from Romania: Exploration, not justification - a guide to THE TWIST. Five Provincial Stories from an Empire

Engage in the exhibition space! Curators intend to spark dialogue through sizable wooden capsules housing relics, aesthetics, and historical artefacts. Head to the antechamber – let arguments manifest in tangible objects, revealing size, shape, and movement tied to the twist concept. Push ideas to their limits—blend opinion with logic, embrace the impure nature of operational concepts persistently. Seek conflicts, not convergence. Challenge the habit of categorisation; opt for a recursive visiting dynamic. Build associations gradually, identify elements and synergies with deliberate effort. Embrace a state of limited knowledge.Estimate and embrace probabilities. Approach with a curiosity that thrives on uncertainty! Examining an object too closely generates residual energy, as we often fail to truly see. Redirect your focus at the start of the exhibition; shift your attention between the capsules. Avoid fixating solely on one artwork, view the exhibition as a mechanism of distraction.

DISPLAY CASE 1:

Real solutions to real problems arise through spinning and rolling (Chassis — Rogova / 20th century/ wood, metal, rope / The Iron Gates Region Museum, Drobeta Turnu-Severin // Spinning wheel — 20th century / wood / The Iron Gates Region Museum, Drobeta Turnu-Severin). The most human tradition of human design is proposing tentative solutions, not always products. The thread, the rope. In themselves, these are useless. They become products when in use. The expressions “was gone,” “was past,” “was through,” “was beside,” and “was up” do not express real facts or states but rather imply an unknown and undefined trajectory of movement. A materiality of omission (Architectural ornament — (fragment of a pseudo-corinthian capital) / Roman era, 2nd century / marble / The Iron Gates Region Museum / Drobeta Turnu-Severin) lacking extensional substance is produced by leaving out kinetic components. It is enough to mentally commit anything in order for the finished structure to have an effect of achievement; the structure itself need not be explicit.

DISPLAY CASE 2:

Fire alarm (Manual fire alarm — 20th century / metal / Museum of the Highland Banat / Reșița) and tablecloth (Macramé tablecloth —1975 / textile / Timișoara National Museum of Banat, / Timișoara); nostalgia isn’t humor. But there are many nostalgic things that raise a smile. Table macramé may well amuse a foreigner, as these knotted textile decorations sometimes adorned even TV sets (hard to find and thus an extravagant deal) in communist Romania. 

DISPLAY CASE 3:

Definitions range from noisy outbursts (George Marianovici — self-titled (serbo-croatian twist), aprox. 1960 // Tanz-Party, Twist Twist Twist, approx. 1970 // Fruit bowl with female statuette / Pécs (Hungary) / porcelain) — to overt functionality of information (High productivity tool — ICM Reșița factory / 1985 metal / Museum of the Highland Banat Reșița // Shoes — Arta Guban brand / Victoria factory / aprox. 1980 / Timișoara National Museum of Banat / Timișoara // Distaffs—aprox. 1901 – 1925 / wood, glass / Lugoj Museum of History / Ethnography and Fine Arts / Lugoj). Its onomatopoeic function means it is ‘often impossible to separate the sound from the action’, an inseparability of the material and its mediation that provides a structuring problematic of this collection. The crash is a ‘noise’ constantly in the background of the spread of communication. Consider the notion of twisting present in Distaffs as a form of elaborate reinforcement.

DISPLAY CASE 4:

Here, the act of making one look at something is made into the act of pointing.

The ‘couple’ as a form of intertwinement (Tiberiu Bottlik — Self-portrait with Tania Billayre / 1884 /  oil on canvas / Museum of the Highland Banat / Reșița). The difficulty of knowing the full story of the painting is mirrored if the gaze moves to (Fragmentary bust statuette —Pojejena Roman castrum / 2nd – 3rd century / marble / Reșița Museum of the Highland Banat). It’s worth noting here the manner in which a body can move, but it can also be moved.

DISPLAY CASE 5:

Things that mean something to people. People everywhere have homes, eat, drink, and enjoy food. An object reflects the spirit of its maker. Vision comes before technique; it gives direction to the spirit. These are humanistic designs. Energy-saving device (Coffee Grinder — late 20th century / brass, steel / Călin Dan collection), simple to use. Simply twist the outer handle to grind the coffee beans inside. There is no product fetishism here. It was actually rejected. These objects don’t compete with one another in their category; instead, they sell a way of life (Fishing sinkers — clay, semi-fine paste, sand, pebbles / Museum of the Highland Banat, Reșița // Bowl — Bronze Age / clay, semi-fine paste, Reșița Museum of the Highland Banat, Reșița)

DISPLAY CASE 8:

The unforgiving movement of the hours hand (Mantle clock — mid 20th century / wood, brass/private collection) coupled with a baby’s environment: the baby bed cradle swinging movement and the stimulus around it (Toy / The Roman Era / 2nd – 3rd century /clay, brick paste / Reșița Museum of the Highland Banat, Reșița // Ornamented object (whistle) —12th – 13th century /  Ilidia – Funii / bone / Museum of the Highland Banat, Reșița), hint at sleeping or dozing. The United States of Greater Austria (also United States of Greater Austria) was a never-implemented idea of ​​a group of political thinkers around the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Specifically developed by the lawyer and politician Aurel Popovici and published in 1906, it aims at potentiality and pioneering ideas. It proposed not only social reforms but also reforms of the state structure of the Empire and its nationality policy. He aimed to replace the centralised empire with a federation of five states: a German state, a state of Bohemia and Moravia, Galicia as a Polish state, and the state of historical Hungary. 

DISPLAY CASE 9:

The “Thracian Horseman,” a famous ancient Greek motif dating back to the 4th century BCE, depicting a horseman in dynamic motion (Thracian horseman—votive relief / 2nd – 3rd century / marble / Reșița Museum of the Highland Banat, Reșița), interplays with the horizontality of the carpet (Carpet —19th century / Ilovăț / wool / The Iron Gates Region Museum, Drobeta Turnu-Severin) within its registers of representation as a form of synthesis. The art of movement in stillness through ethnographical interests. Orthodox, frozen, and primal, more benevolent and docile.

DISPLAY CASE 7/10/12:

How to respond to a technical opportunity (Sewing machine — Singer factory / 1895 / metal, wood, pearl / Reșița Museum of the Highland Banat, Reșița // Compass — approx. 1880 – 1895 / wood / Lugoj Museum of History / Ethnography and Fine Arts, Lugoj), with fragile ideas that are materialised in products benefiting an entire society (Headpiece —Paltim brand / Paltim factory / approx. 1980 / National Museum of Banat, Timișoara // Headpiece — local manufactory / interwar period / National Museum of Banat, Timișoara). No design acrobatics, decorations, or trimmings. In reality, enabling technology sometimes takes years to catch up with ideas. What is to be considered here is how a ‘tentative thought’ (Ferdinand Gallas —Seated country woman / approx. 1930 / bronze / Arad, Museum of Art, Arad) evolved into a product. These objects represent part of the core of the Romanian home spirit. Sewing is not just sewing. It is our closest work environment. Clothes; good work clothes are at least as important as a good tool and a good work environment. 

DISPLAY CASE 6/11:

The interplay of striations and canvas/celluloid surfaces breathes life into representations. A juxtaposition of support and animation is observed through the (Film projector APT 16-4 —, Romanian Optical Company (Bucharest) / 20th cent. 8mm, plastic, metal, glass / Museum of the Highland Banat, Reșița), while the enduring impact of cinema intertwines with the scientific tools and profound symbolism depicted by (Ammonites/cephalopod mollusk —Jurassic / limestone / The Iron Gates Region Museum, Drobeta Turnu-Severin). Costume (Folk costume (front of a skirt) — 20th century / Butoiești, Stângăceaua / wool, cotton, velvet, metallic thread / The Iron Gates Region Museum, Drobeta Turnu-Severin), alongside landscapes like the Bocșa scenery (Bocșa landscape — unknown author / 20th century/oil on wood / Museum of the Highland Banat, Reșița) embody both organic and constructive principles, encapsulating growth, nature, and the rich tradition of handcraft.

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THE TWIST. Five Provincial Stories from an Empire

Curators: Călin Dan & Celia Ghyka
Concept: Călin Dan
2023 — 11.02.2024

Kunsthalle Bega

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