The exhibition “Péter Jecza – Form as Presence”, hosted by Alma Vii Fortified Church from Sibiu County, is open to the public until August 20, 2025. The sculptor Péter Jecza (1939–2009) is one of the essential figures of post-war Romanian sculpture.
Curated by Cosmin Florea and Irina Motroc, the exhibition proposes a dense and layered reading of Jecza’s work. The selection brings together bronze and concrete works, made between 1974 and 2007, in a subtle dialogue with the sacred spirit of the space. Alongside the sculptures, the exhibition includes a series of visual and textual interventions that add depth, rhythm and a touch of intimacy to the visitor’s experience.
“The exhibition unfolds on four layers that do not exclude each other, but complement each other, offering the viewer a deeper understanding of Péter Jecza’s work. They mark different types of presence – plastic, spiritual, mental and personal – which together outline the profile of a discreet but rigorous artist. The sculptures enter into dialogue with the sacred space of the church, bringing the forms into relation with the history and silence of the place.
The monumental photography opens the imagination to the space of the workshop, where matter is thought and transformed. The sketches, suspended like fragments of visual thought, activate the space of plastic reflection, revealing the path of the idea to form. And the diary text introduces an intimate space, where the artist becomes a witness to his own life through his practice. Together, these planes configure a sensitive and unitary path, in which the exhibited object is not only looked at, but understood, traveled.” (Excerpt from the curatorial text)
The exhibition marks the debut of the SIT 2025 project, an artistic platform that brings together the villages of Alma Vii and Viscri in a cultural circuit dedicated to heritage and contemporary art. After the artistic interventions in the fortified church in Alma Vii, the project expanded this month to Viscri, where the King’s House becomes a new meeting place between history and creation.
Péter Jecza (b. 1939, Sfântu Gheorghe – d. 2009, Timișoara) was a prominent Romanian sculptor, professor of sculpture at the Faculty of Arts of the West University of Timișoara and member of the Hungarian Academy. He exhibited widely in Italy, Yugoslavia, Germany, Spain, the former USSR, Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Greece, Syria, Sweden, Brazil, Jordan, Iraq, the former Czechoslovakia, Hungary, France, the USA, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands.
The exhibition in Alma Vii is organized in collaboration with the Mihai Eminescu Trust Foundation (MET), the organization that initiated and supported the restoration and reactivation process of the fortified church, and is carried out in partnership with Jecza Gallery, the institution that manages and promotes the artistic legacy of the sculptor Péter Jecza.
SIT 2025 – Sessions in Transylvania is an independent initiative that proposes contemporary artistic interventions in two emblematic spaces in the Transylvanian villages – Alma Vii and Viscri –, cultivating a lively dialogue between heritage, community and contemporary art. The project is coordinated by Cosmin Florea (scenic designer and ceramist), Irina Motroc (visual artist) and Tavi Angheluș (visual artist), with the support of the Mihai Eminescu Trust Foundation. The first edition of SIT takes place in the summer of 2025, in the fortified church of Alma Vii and in the King’s House in Viscri.
