The exhibition The TWIST. Failing Empires, Triumphant Provinces, opened at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, represents the second stage of a long-term research project, initiated and curated by Călin Dan and Cecilia Ghyca starting with the exhibition The TWIST.. 5 levels for the construction of the eternal Banat, presented at Kunsthalle Bega in Timișoara during 2023-2024.
The project, “a complex inquiry into the visual and cultural history of the TWIST as a motif, originated in a reiterated reading of Plato’s allegory of the Cave describing the “turning around of the soul”: a movement both spiritual and physical, declined in this exhibition in its figurative, morphological, corporeal, and symbolic dimensions.
The concept is illustrated through an unconventional assemblage of archaeology, applied arts, apparel, ethnographic and industrially mass-produced products that establish meaningful dialogues with contemporary art works from the collection of the National Museum of Contemporary Art and from private collections.
The TWIST is a crucial conceptual mediator for the morphological and symbolic exchanges between spiritual and material cultures, a perspective applied here to the millennia of civilisation developed on the territory conventionally named “the Carpathian-Danubian-Pontic space”.
The show tracks the cultural and temporal trajectories of the different regions belonging to this territory that has been, during the long history, the contact zone between the margins of various empires (Greek, Roman, Ottoman, Hungarian, Austrian, Russian, Soviet, etc.). While being formally or informally under the influence of diverse geo-political ambitions, these provinces have developed in time a resilient identity of intersection that gives the notion of “provincial” a dignified significance.
The exhibited objects are both a testimonial of imperial impulses, of their long-cast shadows and of this chemistry of assimilation. Within an unfolding spiralled movement, these echoes have been altered in time and space, and have in their turn been integrated, then abandoned, then rediscovered again at various moments in the history of these provinces, paradigmatic for the conglomerate of Southeastern-Eastern-Central Europe.
The exhibition display creates a space where this intellectual argument unfolds visually: a metaphor for human existence, the TWIST develops on multiple levels and in infinite variations.” (excerpt from the curatorial text)
The exhibition can be visited on the ground floor and in the Marble Hall of the museum until November 10, 2024.
Institutions, collectors, artists who borrowed works for this project:
Institutions: Arad Museum Complex—Museum of Art; “Gavrilă Simion” Institute of Ecological and Museum Research, Tulcea; Geological Institute of Romania—National Geology Museum, Bucharest; Museum of the Highland Banat, Reșița; Museum of Dacian and Roman Civilization, Deva; Callatis History and Archaeology Museum, Mangalia; Museum of History, Ethnography and Fine Arts, Lugoj; Municipality Museum of Bucharest; National Museum of Agriculture, Slobozia; National Museum of Banat, Timișoara; MNIR—National History Museum of Romania; MNLR—The National Museum of Romanian Literature, Bucharest; National Museum of Romanian Literature, Iași; National Museum of the Village “Dimitrie Gusti”; “Prof. eng. Dimitrie Leonida” National Technical Museum; The Iron Gates Region Museum, Drobeta Turnu-Severin; Țării Crișurilor Museum, Oradea.
Collectors: Tiberiu Adelmann, Răzvan Bănescu, Ovidiu Șandor.
Artists: Dan Acostioaei, Florian Lazăr Alexie, Alexandru Antik, George Apostu, Matei Bejenaru, Anca Benera, Horia Bernea, Ștefan Bertalan, Ion Bitzan, Geta Brătescu, Mircea Cantor, Boris Caragea, Ion Condiescu, Roman Cotoșman, Călin Dan, Cristian Dițoiu, Sorin Dumitrescu, Șerban Epure, Constantin Flondor, Marin Gherasim, Dani Ghercă, Nicolae Golici, Ion Grigorescu, Pavel Ilie, Peter Jacobi, Stela Lie, Ana Lupaș, Maria Manolescu, Ana Maria Micu (in collaboration with Alexandra Constantinescu and Radu Constantinescu), Gili Mocanu, Ciprian Mureșan, Paul Neagu, Sorin Neamțu, Mihai Olos, Neculai Păduraru, Romelo Pervolovici, Dionisie Popa, Virgil Preda, Marilena Preda-Sânc, Leonard Răchită, Laurențiu Ruță-Fulger, Șerban Savu, Liviu Stoicoviciu, Patricia Teodorescu, Napoleon Tiron, Titu Toncian, Mona Vătămanu, Dan Vezentan, Ion Vlad, Bogdan Vlăduță, Gheorghe Zărnescu.
