OVERLAYS/ SUPRAPUNERI is a collaborative project initiated and coordinated by the visual artist Răzvan Neagoe and marked the opening of the E T A J Photography platform. OVERLAYS starts from the premise of an experiment centered on the double exposure technique: a photographer is invited to “consume” a preset film, which he sends on to another photographer, who builds compositionally over the exposed film with the latent images of the first.
“Starting from the idea that photography is the meeting place of some concepts with reality, I thought of a series of dialogues/conversations between artists, guided by the photographic technique itself. An experiment of this type offers a different perspective on one’s own themes and searches by juxtaposing them with those of the other artists involved in the project, thus formulating new visions on old themes or already explored by each until now. This can be the point where other concepts and other representations are born”, Răzvan Neagoe.
OVERLAYS. Blitz is the third manifestation of the Overlays project and represents a selection of images that were not exhibited in the 2022 and 2023 editions. The artists involved in the exhibition at E T A J artist-run space are Mircea Sorin Albuțiu, Olimpiu Bandalac, Cătălin Burcea, Ștefan Dinu, Ioana Dumitrescu, Cristina Garabetanu, Laurentiu – Alexandru Maxim, Irina Dumitrașcu Măgurean, Lucian Sandu Milea, Mircea Modreanu, Răzvan Neagoe, Mihai Răuță, Andrei Şendrea / Reg, Claudia Retegan, Andreea Elena Teleagă, Mihai Zgondoiu.
In 2022, OVERLAYS took place over a period of 5 months, and the photographic film corresponded with various spaces and locations such as Spain, Great Britain, and the various regions of Romania. The artistic act proposed in the “OVERLAYS-2022” project represented a meditation on the identification of a community, where photography on film was centered as an approach between artists, the collaboration highlighting the specific possibilities of the so-called drawing-with-light. The project was exhibited in separate molds for a week in E T A J artist-run space, 2/3 Galeria, Atelier 030302 and Carol 53.
In 2023, the project invited the curator Horațiu Lipot. S2023 was split into two stages “Left Hemisphere: The Egyptologist’s fear of radiation in every newly discovered tomb” and “Right Hemisphere: something that twists once in the air and then disappears.” Each stage had a different concept and the results were exhibited at E T A J artist-run space and 2/3 Gallery.
About the co-authors
All those involved in the project are from different artistic backgrounds or practices, performing successfully in their professional activity. The participants considered two types of realities that coexist without cancelling each other: the personal and the professional experience that they recomposed in this experiment. The “meetings” between them took place, in the vast majority of the time, online. The current social context has not affected the artistic approach in any way; on the contrary, spaces have been recreated, and itineraries and photographic formats/frames have been reinvented.
