“Fragile Objects of Desire”, the last group exhibition of this year at the Ivan Gallery, brings together four artists: Elijah Burgher, Giulia Crețulescu, Ivana Mladenovic, Ecaterina Vrana, which addresses concepts such as fragility and desire, using diverse mediums of expression.
“Elijah Burgher positions his works on the border between real and imaginary, intervening with painting on some photographs taken during a performance. Through symbolism and the occult, Elijah Burgher lays the groundwork for a fantasy and abstract world that explores queer sexuality. Magic, ritual, religious iconography and all the mystical chaos that preoccupies the artist reflect at the same time the vulnerability of eroticism and desire that sinks into mystery, but also the tenuous line, often barely sketched, between the real and the imaginary.
Giulia Crețulescu’s stainless steel objects represent healing artefacts. Starting from the relief drawing on the textile material that is visualized by the artist as a scar, these objects that make up the Weapons series were created. Giulia Crețulescu explores self-harm, and in this context, the sharp objects represent the weapons that produced the pain and which then remained exactly like a fossil, just a proof that they existed. Archiving the object that caused the pain allows for healing. Pain was petrified into these weapons as a way of self-protection.
Ivana Mladenovic treats in her video “The Leaves of Grass” from 2016 the fragility of the human being by creating a parallel between the story of two twin brothers who practice boxing and Walt Whitman’s poem, Song of Myself. The possibilities are endless, but the future is uncertain. Training does not guarantee a title, it is only a temporary activity. What could be is in a dangerous balance with what is in the end. The balance is fragile, but the public is invited to generate new meanings, the work being open to interpretation.
Like Elijah Burgher, Ecaterina Varna’s works cover the edges of the real and the unreal. The exhibition includes two large paintings made in the last years of the artist’s life. Through her honest, direct compositions, Ecaterina Vrana opens the door to a gloomy world where words complement the image through the opposition between a positive message and a dark landscape. In these works, raw honesty and pure emotion co-exist, vulnerable.
Every desire, moment, action, thought, man is fragile, right for which shattering is a probability more than a possibility.” (excerpt from the curatorial text)
The exhibition can be visited in the space of the Ivan Gallery within the Malmaison Workshops on Calea Plevnei 137C, Building B, Floor. 1, until January 25, 2025, from Wednesday to Saturday between 15-19, but also by appointment.
