On June 1st, “The End is Over”, the new exhibition by artist Nicolae Comănescu, opened for the first time the doors of the Pittner School Cultural Center from Reșita. The event, organized with the support of the Reșita City Hall, marks the revitalization and transformation of the school into a new cultural and exhibition center. Over 50 works by the artist are presented in the new cultural center composed of a photography museum, a library and other related spaces. The exhibition concept also extends to the Banatul Montan Museum, the institutional partner of the event, where a guided tour will take place on the opening day.
Part of the collateral program of the Art Encounters Biennial (May 30 – July 13, 2025), the exhibition, curated by art historian and critic Ada Cruceanu-Chisăliță, brings together dozens of photographs, which define a journalistic direction in the practice of artist Nicolae Comănescu, taken around Furnal no. 2, the Steel Plant and the Funicular in central Reșița, alongside paintings from the “Scrap Metal Kaboom Orchestra” series – presented in an exhibition organized by the artist in 2021, among the ruins of the former Pittner School, before they were anchored in the city hall’s restoration program.
Nicolae Comănescu graduated in 1998 from the painting department of the University of Arts in Bucharest, in the group coordinated by Ion Sălișteanu. Comănescu formed the Rostopasca group (1997-2004) in the dense clouds of cigarette smoke, together with Angela Bontaș, Dumitru Gorzo, Alina Pențac, a group that marked the years of transition from socialism to capitalism.
Humor, irony, social intelligence, versatility and civic protest spirit made the artist a survivor of city life. Also nicknamed the star of Berceni (the neighborhood where Comănescu is living), he showed a major interest in the theme of recycling, the accumulation of matter and its reuse in various aspects, from dust, slag, ash from the grills of small children, cement and adobe, to textiles and objects from his household inventory.
The solo exhibitions, representative of this approach, clarify his artistic path over a span of approximately 8 years: DUST 2.0 (26 Gallery, Bucharest, 2008), MUSTARD, ASH & DUST (26 Gallery, Bucharest, 2009), Dust and Powder (H’Art Gallery, Bucharest, 2010), Berceni (National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest 2011), DNA: Dust Narrative Analysis (Zorzini, Bucharest, 2012), The Grand General Scheme of All Things (Invitro Galleries, 2017, Cluj Napoca), The Grand General Scheme of All Things. The Beginning (Galleria /SAC, Bucharest, 2023), SCRAP METAL KABOOM ORCHESTRA (traveling exhibition in: Former Pittner House, 2021; H’Art Gallery, Bucharest, 2021; Constanța Art Museum, 2022; Pygmalion Gallery and Subterana Artelor in Timișoara, 2022; Transylvania University Multicultural Center in Brașov, 2023) and LOOKING AT THE BIG PICTURE FROM THE INSIDE (Site-specific installation, Artist’s Studio in Amzei, 2024).
He participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Romania and abroad, including the 2001 Venice Biennale, together with the Rostopasca group, Rostopasca Insert in Context Network, 49 Venice Biennale.
About Pittner School:
On Furnalelor Street no. 13 in the Historical Center of Reșița Montane, at the beginning of the first decades of the last century, in the midst of the economic and social expansion of the municipality of Reșița, the private primary school ’’Pittner Schule’’ operated, right in the Pittner family house, on its ground floor.
Between 2021 and 2025, the Pittner School Cultural Center was part of the “Program for Restoration and Revitalization of Cultural Heritage – Exhibition and Event Center – Pittner School-Reșița Municipality” – a project supported by the City Hall of Reșița through the EEA Grants and the RO-Culture Program.
The building hosts local events that will help both to revitalize the historical monument and to improve the management of cultural heritage, by bringing it back to the attention of citizens. Local events will include film screenings, concerts, restoration/painting workshops or theatrical performances.
The exhibition can be visited until July 15, 2025.
