The end of July brings two more openings in the unconventional Celula de Artă gallery spaces. Starting from July 17 and until August 16, at Galeria Verticală (Str. Popa Petre no. 21), viewers can explore the nostalgic steampunk perspective on the 1927 film, Metropolis, made by Daniel Loagăr, co-founder and curator of Celulei de Art, and from July 21 until August 20, at Kulterra Gallery (Str. Știrbey Vodă no. 104 – 106), you can see the exhibition Wrong Freedom by the artist Gizella Popescu, two studies on the human and artistic condition.
“Metropolis” is a brilliant film, full of special effects for that time, but don’t take it too seriously. It’s like a crazy mix between absurdist theater and retro video games, with outlandish costumes and over-the-top set design. If you want to see what it would be like if Charlie Chaplin met Star Wars in a disco, this is the film for you!” says Daniel Loagăr about the film that inspired the exhibition.
Instead, Gizella Popescu’s works reflect both a critique and introspection on the way we perceive the aesthetic heritage, the current values of society, in general, and contemporary art, in particular. The images are fragmented, juxtaposed, or symbolic in an intentionally playful context.
The sets are almost theatrical, and the elements and characters are recomposed and reinvented in skits that invite discourse. A sense of false order abounds, where indistinct forms question reality and values. Each scene is an explosion of color and shapes for the most significant visual impact. The medium of painting is, in essence, a medium dedicated to color, which the artist has fully assumed.
The work Wrong Freedom talks about assuming the condition of a painter in a contemporary world, juggling the theme of freedom, represented by birds, but also with temptations – what exactly we consume and how.
The work After Party is thought of as a closing of the curtain over the last character left at the table, after the ball. It also reflects on the human condition, on who and what remains after we consume everything. The Parisian setting reflects a certain cyclicity of the questions of human nature. What is today was also yesterday.
In her recent practice, the artist explores traditional and contemporary human archetypes in a fluid and slightly ironic style, emphasizing both the dilution of collective memory and the search for deciphering meaning from the perspective of contemporary man.
Gizella Popescu is a member of the Union of Visual Artists from Romania; she has exhibited in private galleries and unconventional spaces, art salons, and group and personal exhibitions. Her works are in private collections in the country and abroad, including in several art catalogs edited by the Union of Plastic Artists from Romania.
Strategic partners: Casa Carol, Kulterra Gallery, Random Space, ArtSafe, Palatul Bragadiru.
Media partners: Radio România Cultural, Radio București FM, Spotmedia, IQads, Zile și Nopți, B365.ro, Happ.ro, Cărturești, Curatorial, Propagarta, Revista Golan, Ziarul Metropolis, Observator Cultural, The Institute, Zeppelin, Modernism, PRwave, Gonext, Bookblog, 4arte, Empower Artists, Iqool, Munteanu, SMARK.
