On Monday, August 24, 2009, at 16.00, the sixth exhibition from the Young Romanian Art series will be opened in the New Gallery of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Venice, Italy. The exhibition is entitled 'aggiornamento', and it brings together works by Teo Isfan and No Limits Missionary.
In 1959, the Catholic Church made a decision to connect to the realities of the contemporary world. From a canonical point of view, one of the changes was that the visual language of the historical avant-garde became acceptable for the representation of divinity. Of course, cubism and abstract art turned into stained glass were no longer any news to anyone, as some of their shock effect had already been spent within the specialized field of visual art.
Living in a different cultural space, the Romanian Orthodox Church remained strongly connected to Byzantine icon painting. At a general level, the attempts to place into discussion the dogma and to adapt it to contemporary life were few, if any. The Prolog group, together with Marian and Victoria Zidaru were the most active exponents of the initiative to translate Orthodox spiritual life into a contemporary visual language, by making a transition from painting on one side, to installation and object on the other.
Today, Orthodox spirituality can be easily observed through a contemporary filter by the artists who choose to tackle this subject, without having anything to do with the church as an institution. Their reaction can be one of honest embrace of Orthodox values, expressed in a form completely unlike the Byzantine icon, or it can also lead to a harsh form of criticism of the worldly character and the metaphysical assumptions of the church.
Young Romanian Art is Mircea Nicolae's residency project at the Romanian Cultural Institute in Venice, during which the artist functions as an organizer and a curator. This series of one-week exhibitions aims at promoting young Romanian art during the Venice Art Biennial 2009.
