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From: --- Category: Art Date: 26 September 2006 Time: 09:28 AM Review: INDIAN LAVA & RITZ MOOD GURU Present SALVE FIAT ROMULI NEPUS Artist Dumitru Gorzo and Curator Liviana Dan are thrilled (with a reason) to announce the opening of Gorzo's solo-show on the 5 th of October 2006, starting hours: 7.30 pm, at the 1st Floor, in the Romanian National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) in Bucharest, Romania. QUICK FACTS: The exhibition – titled "INDIAN LAVA & RITZ MOOD GURU Present SALVE FIAT ROMULI NEPUS" will be opened until the 15 th of December 2006 in MNAC and after its' closing it will be relocated in the Brukenthal Art Museum in Sibiu, Romania from 30.12.2006 to 25.01.2007. A special series of artist's work will also be displayed in H'art Gallery, Bucharest – Romania from 6 October until the 15 th of October 2006. The exhibition's catalogue (1st edition, 160 pages, full colour, hard-cover) will be released in the late of October 2006, featuring a special introduction by Michele Robecchi, Senior Editor of Contemporary Magazine, London, UK. The exhibition and the catalog are produced in partnership by the Romanian Institute for Culture (ICR), Romanian National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) and Brukenthal Art Museum and are also supported by corporate and private sponsors. MAKING OF: The work displayed in the "INDIAN LAVA & RITZ MOOD GURU Present SALVE FIAT ROMULI NEPUS" has been produced in 2006 and it is publicly presented for the first time. The work consists in new paintings, more than 40 pieces, acrylic on plain or carved wooden panels and also on canvas. The artist and curator had an initiating journey in preparation of this project through Maramures (MM) County and Transylvania. They returned with an impressive luggage of cultural relics: a complete dinosaur, a statue representing the cult of worshiping the Headless Horseman; strange metal birds and metal fruits naturally growing in real trees and folk adaptations of the most trendy fashion design shoes. In her traveler diary, Liviana Dan noted : "The reason of being thrilled with the opportunity to announce the opening of the actual exhibition is endorsed by the triple challenge it represents. It is challenging to open an exhibition in the MNAC, considering not only its actual location (The House of the People aka Ceausescu's Palace) but also the moment in time (pure painting exhibition are no longer promoted in the new emerging, nevertheless trend-followers contemporary art museums of Eastern Europe). It was also hard to work on this project with Gorzo as Gorzo is spontaneous, rebel, charismatic. Gorzo provokes the radical forms of politics, of sex, of risk. Gorzo traumatizes the system. Gorzo makes beauty and aggressive radical. Gorzo is an artist with certain Romanian identity who legitimates hypermodernity. And in the conceptual mess we live in, to work with an artist who likes the projects of hyper-modernity is fascinating. " As from Gorzo's behalf, his statement concerning the actual exhibitions is empowering the impression that the show is not a milestone, but a trivial break in his artistic discourse: "About painting I believe that – unlucky for itself – it will never come to pass – and this fact will be a major barrier by preventing some fellows to ever praise painting not only as technique, but also as a major category in visual arts. I am not (even if I have been accused to be) – I am NOT A POST-FEMINIST! Maybe I am a post- Illuminist and I really treasure the intellectuals- and please receive my apologies for that. My recent work – without being conclusive - is synthesizing my observations on painting and I choose to display them in a manner resembling less to the opening of a book and much more similar to opening the doors of the tramway no.8 – which I know for sure it has nothing in common to the other tramways." TRIVIA: INDIAN LAVA & RITZ MOOD GURU are the hidden identities of the curator and artist (according to http://wordsmith.org/anagram ) -INDIAN LAVA is the anagram for Liviana Dan, metaphorically describing her approach to artistic creation, since the state of lava is consuming in flames everything that cannot resists and it is solidifying on shapes that deserves to last -RITZ MOOD GURU is the anagram for Dumitru Gorzo revealing its appetite for re-writing the 5 stars standard to fit his own moods and values by treasuring the exquisite palinca of Maramures, fresh pork lard for surimi, the straw hat and plain ticket attached; - SALVE FIAT ROMULI NEPUS it's the quotation of Joseph II of Hapsburg-Lorraine (Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia and Hungary, Sovereign of Transylvania, son of Maria Theresa) who addressed the Transylvania's people during his visit (cca. 1790), by saying: SALVA FIAT ROMULI PARVA NEPOS (Hail, Little Nephews of Romans!). Deeply appreciated by the people for its citizenship reform (he was an enlightened despot), they named 5 villages by this quotation, for his visit to always be remembered. The villages still exists nowadays in Bistrita-Nasaud County in Transylvania, and they are named: Salva, Fiad, Romuli, Parva and Nepos. ###