“Pilgrim”, a drawing exhibition by the late Vlad Ciobanu

Visual artist Vlad Ciobanu is one of the best-known contemporary Romanian sculptors.

Eugen Cojocariu, 27.01.2024, 14:00

At the beginning of December last year, the Bucharest Metropolitan Library (BMB), hosted, within Artoteca BMB, the opening of an exhibition by one of the most appreciated and valuable visual artists: Vlad Ciobanu. Entitled Pilgrim, the exhibition, which was Ciobanu’s last one, included drawings by this special artist, who was also known as one of the best Romanian sculptors. A graduate of the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest, he participated in numerous salons and personal and collective exhibitions, both in the country and abroad. The Pilgrim exhibition was opened by the special guest of the artist, the well-known art critic Pavel Şușară.

Vlad Ciobanu, who unfortunatelly suffered a sudden death this January, told us more about the exhibition, in one of the last interviews he gave: I exhibited works, drawings from two cycles, mainly from the Pilgrim cycle and from the Praying Earth cycle. You saw that it’s kind of figurative, in the sense that I started from the idea that the pilgrim has a target, a quest and the target and that quest transform him and he becomes that stake, that target, that quest. The praying earth means the many religious landmarks in this world. And that land is transfigured, because it is a land of prayers, consecrated in this sense. Moreover, man himself is a praying earth, because Adam, as we know from the translation, means red earth. I also exhibited a few more works, starting with red, yellow and blue, a tribute to this country that we love less and less, unfortunately. At the same time, in keeping with the symbol of chromatic representations, blue is for the Father, red is for the Son and yellow is for Holy Spirit. And there is the character who detaches Himself from the Trinity and descends to save us. All three are related and to me they are more like rugs. Maybe there is also a kind of contemplation, of reflection, but to a large extent for me they are forms of praying. And I have two more drawings, after Nichita Stănescu, after one of Nichita’s Elegies. We were brothers and I felt that, marking 90 years since his birth and 40 years since his death, now, on December 13, I felt the need to evoke him and make a reference to him.

How was the year 2023 for the artist Vlad Ciobanu? And why his exhibition, Pilgrim is made up exclusively of drawings? Vlad Ciobanu: I worked, not very much though, but the searches are seen less than in the moments of success. I wanted to bring sculpture as well, but first I wanted to see how the drawings fit together, if they build a world, and then bring in the sculpture as well. And to the extent that the drawings became parasitic, I would extract them. I would have kept only what was organically included in the exhibition. I didn’t bring the sculpture anymore, because between December 21 and January 7, the exhibition was closed, because this room belongs to the Sadoveanu Library. And then I said it’s quite an effort and it’s almost impossible to visit. But I’m going to do this exhibition again, we’ll see, in another room. That’s also quite small and, unfortunately, quite inconspicuous, as you know. But, for me, this exhibition is made primarily to understand if things can continue on this path and if they, apart from the works themselves, constitute a universe, a world, if they propose something. And it seems to me that I can go on. So, in conclusion, 2023 was a good year, since I was able to reach a conclusion, although provisional, but nevertheless a conclusion.

Since we are at the beginning of a new year, but also of work and full of cultural events, Vlad Ciobanu told us what he expects from 2024 and what he is preparing in terms of exhibitions and artistic symposia: You are invited to symposia. Maybe I will hold it in Ploiesti, I don’t know, but I am preparing an exhibition for Iași, for the Cupola Hall, and a large, somewhat retrospective exhibition at the Palace of Culture in Iași. Being a Moldavian, I want to start there and I will probably be focusing a lot on it. I’m also working on two or three books, but only from time to time, not systematically, because sculpture doesn’t allow me.

Vlad Ciobanu planned a large exhibition for next year, at the Palace of Culture in Iasi. The exhibition may still be organized, but unfortunately, posthumously. (EE)