On Sunday, February 16, from 19:00, the performative installation “Original spaces / Legalized gestures” will occur at /SAC @ Malmaison (Calea Plevnei 137C, building B, floor 2). This iteration will also conclude the cycle of performances within the current installation at /SAC @ Malmaison.
The performative installation is made by Simona Dabija (choreographer and performer), Ioana Marchidan (choreographer and performer), Rucsandra Pop (playwright), Dimitrie Gora (visual artist), Maria Ghement (architect), Justin Baroncea (architect), Alexandru Suciu (music ), SET workshop (set design production), Ilinca Pop (graphics) and Alex Radu (curator).
ORIGINAL SPACES / LEGALIZED GESTURES
“A collection of old newspapers, binoculars, cans, two paintings, some mink furs, eggs boiled perfectly so that the yolk is neither hard nor soft, police books, anatomy treatises, the smell of fried potatoes or fresh linen washed and pressed, a gold tooth, eye color, a pair of trousers hanging on a hanger, money, houses now occupied by other families or empty rooms, some keys falling on the floor, fluffy hands, classical music, a stove communist on which a duckling floats imaginary. The legacies left by those who are no longer are embodied in countless objects, small gestures that we carry forward, emotions, traits in which we find them, in tastes and smells that project us into the past or dictate the choices we make when we are currently doing them.
Starting from family stories that they feel they carry with them, Ioana Marchidan and Simona Dabija propose a performative mapping of the idea of inheritance. The performance space, designed by Maria Ghement and Justin Baroncea, puts the physical and emotional objects belonging to the two performers in dialogue with the artistic objects created by Dimitrie Gora. The performance is constructed and will be presented to the public first in an exhibition at the /SAC space at Malmaison, a building that is, unfortunately, a symbol of how we as a society treat collective legacies. Placed in this symbolic framework, the creative process of processing the idea of heritage proposed by Simona Dabija, Ioana Marchidan and the team that accompanies them in this personal and collective identity reconstruction acquires the value of a ritual of community reflection and regeneration. The approach will be itinerant to Baia Mare and Cluj.
The chosen title invokes another collective heritage, the novel “Acte originale / Copii legalizate” by the 1980s writer Gheorghe Crăciun. The body and corporeality were themes that preoccupied the author to the point of obsession.
Legacies can be material, genetic, emotional, sensory, cultural or status. The two artists creatively explore using their bodies and funny, tender or painful memories, all sides of this Rubik’s cube that is heritage. Things we treat with indifference as long as grandparents or parents are alive gain importance when these people disappear and raise new questions. How responsible are we – the young – with what we receive from the adults? What does a dying man really leave behind, beyond some items that are divided among the descendants fairly or in ways that create tension and strife in the family? What do we inherit, and what do we do with this inheritance? How do we negotiate the pressure to carry on what was started by those before and the temptation to start from scratch without caring what came before? How do we resolve the tension between “they did their job” and “I do mine”? Do we burden ourselves with history and unresolved issues, or do we see our lives? And can we really see our lives without a consciously undertaken process of healing?
We all live, consciously or not, with these questions within us, and none of these questions have a simple answer. Choosing to let the intelligence of the body search for answers where the mind cannot find them, without pretending to make order in this existential chaos, is perhaps the most honest way to explore the subject. And things become all the more interesting because, although the artists start from very different family stories, they reach conclusions that intersect.” (excerpt from the curatorial text)
Entrance is free. Duration: 1h For reservations, you can access the following link:
https://forms.gle/TAgdCJv92jQMxMbu8
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rFII6ZZxrE
