In early December, the Pavel \u0218u\u0219ar\u0103 Modern and
\nContemporary Art Museum in Bucharest (MAMCO) hosted the opening of an
\nexhibition bringing two generations into a dialogue. The exhibition, entitled Maxim
\nDumitra\u0219 – Son and Father, is curated by Pavel \u0218u\u0219ar\u0103 and Dalina B\u0103descu, and
\nwill be open until the beginning of February 2024. We asked one of its curators
\nabout the significance of this exhibition in the contemporary art landscape and
\nabout what makes it unique in Romania:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Pavel \u0218u\u0219ar\u0103:
\nIndeed, it is a special-even more than special-event. It is unique in that
\nsuch an exhibition is impossible to organise again: even if in principle someone
\ncould retrace the same scenario, the characters that made this exhibition
\npossible would be missing. It is an art exhibition, at a basic, superficial
\nlevel, and obviously we have all the art’s conventions present, we have
\npainting, graphic art, sculpture, all the classical genres, but what makes it
\nunique is its human content, its birth and its development, its substance. It
\nshowcases the last period in the life of Max Dumitra\u0219’s father, who, in order
\nto alleviate his loneliness and fears, was asked by Max to draw lines over a number of compositions by Max Dumitra\u0219. What seemed to be a stereotypical
\nkind of work and a routine movement grew into a form of shelter from anxieties,
\nfrom loneliness, from the imminence of death which he obviously felt coming. It
\nbecame a sort of curtain, a sort of fence separating his world and the world
\nbeyond, which was the world shaped and created by Max. But with these lines, Max’s
\nfather created a protective screen, where he was safe from his own fears, and
\nwith time, this fence became a sort of radiograph or a map of his physical and
\npsychological state. The lines become more and more faltering, less precise, more
\nand more fluid, until eventually it becomes completely random and unnatural. So
\nthis makes the exhibition a meditation on life and death, a sort of redemption through
\nart, a kind of therapy for one’s dreads, a space where the certainty of
\nexisting is still meaningful. It is yet another certainty.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\nWe also asked Pavel \u0218u\u0219ar\u0103 what place does the
\nartist Maxim Dumitra\u0219 hold in Romanian contemporary art:<\/p>\n
Pavel \u0218u\u0219ar\u0103: He is an institution. Apart from having
\ncreated institutions, Maxim Dumitra\u0219 is an institution himself, in what he
\nachieved and in how he created events around him, organised symposiums,
\narranged a natural space, some ravines which he turned into residences and work
\nareas for artists. And he did not embellish nature, he did not introduce
\nartificial elements in a natural setting, but integrated art in a natural
\nsetting, thus proving that art in general, creation, is not separated from the
\nworld for which we are not responsible, but rather a form of continuity and a
\nform of noticing its harmony.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Pavel \u0218u\u0219ar\u0103 also told us about the plans MAMCO has
\nfor the year 2024:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Pavel \u0218u\u0219ar\u0103: We have already scheduled exhibitions
\nfor the entire year. We have a joint project with the Art Biennale in Plovdiv,
\nBulgaria and we are partners in 2024. There will be 10 Romanian artists showing
\ntheir works there. Towards the end of the year we will have the miniature
\nsalon, which we have turned into a biennale. All in all, we have some 6-7
\nexhibitions scheduled for next year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In turn, the artist Maxim Dumitra\u0219 also gave us details
\nabout the process behind this project completed together with his father in the
\nlatter’s last years of life:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Maxim Dumitra\u0219: I started it 8 years ago, I worked
\nwith my father. He worked on the composition’s vertical axis, I worked on the
\ncolour. We intervened and we worked together on these items, which are in fact
\nsome canes which turned into something else over time, just like the father
\nline. They turned into objects that must be touched, we called them objects of
\nbetter. I worked on some 150 drawings with my father, we made some books
\ncalled Bags of dreams, in which he also made the lines and I did the colour. Between
\nthe ages of 71 and 92, he was my apprentice in the atelier every day. When he
\nwas younger, I used to be his apprentice, then we switched roles and he became
\nthe creator-apprentice. He was a sort of philosopher, a person of exceptional
\nfairness and elegance.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
At the end of the interview, Maxim Dumitra\u0219 told us
\nabout his accomplishments in 2023:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Maxim Dumitra\u0219: I always try to simplify things, but
\nevery year they get more and more complicated. I made a monumental sculpture,
\nsome 15 tonnes in weight. I had an exhibition in Bistri\u021ba and several other
\nprojects in S\u00e2ngeorz-B\u0103i. It was a very prolific year, so to say. (AMP)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An exhibition opened in December at the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum in Bucharest (MAMCO)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":588196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44685],"tags":[33514,31341,32349,116732,75839,45208,35037],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-622375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-of-culture","tag-art","tag-death","tag-exhibition","tag-father","tag-maxim-dumitras","tag-pavel-susara","tag-son"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n