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ARTBEAT
Art of Glass

Andreea Sarcani

People are by nature able to understand art, if they are just willing to open their minds. Our imagination confronts us with reality, and anybody can think and feel inspiration. But artists have the courage and ability to express it. Art is not a consumer product; rather, it is something that lasts, that which sends a message, yet addresses every human being and not just an elite.

“The idea that we need some kind of special training to visit an art gallery is a result of a great shortfall in education. Every day I see people in the street who are tempted to enter a gallery. It has attracted their attention but, for whatever reason, they hesitate and pass by. I find it extraordinary that in the West parents take their children by the hand to art galleries with drawing books, where they freely interpret what they see, without any embarrassment or shyness,” said Alexandru Ghildush, who is the deacon of the Faculty of Decorative Arts and Design at the Bucharest University of Art. His work can be found in the private collections of Jacques Chirac, Luciano Pavarotti, and Michael Jackson.

In design, he has sought to find a balance, a connecting point between art and the the sciences. “Art has a profound cultural and educational aspect. To be an artist means, in one way, or another to be an observer of society,” said Ghildush.

He expresses a dislike for being pigeonholed into a single professional category, however important the notion of being a specialist may be. He worked in the optical industry, went into graphic design, then product design, and has contributed to the creation of the images and logos of many companies.

“For all my admiration for things done professionally, I don’t see the virtue in the idea of being a specialist in a particular area. In general, Latin peoples have more curiosity in creation. In all that they do, they have more daring in taking on the new, even in fields they haven’t necessarily managed to master completely. It’s a necessary exercise, which saves us from complacency,” he said.

All his work is characterised by continuous seeking, and by novelty and experimentation. Concerning glass sculpture, the field to which he is most devoted, Alexandru Ghildush is the patent holder of inventions for making inscriptions and designs on glass: “The precise, difficult tehnology involved in working with glass usually obliges you to opt for smaller sizes. By combining optical glass with ordinary glass and by a new assembly technique, I managed to make much larger glass sculptures. It’s difficult, especially as every step is done manually,” he said.

Alexandru Ghildush is also the winner of a contest launched for the building of a monument commemorating the heroes of the Revolution, which is soon to be constructed in Piata Revolutiei.

The underlying idea of the monument concerns the symbolism of the pine tree in Romanian culture, which brings to mind the unity of those who engineered the Revolution. The wreath, which is in fact an ellipsoid made of brass, symbolises the souls of those who were killed, who permanently watch over and measure the passing of time.

“I’d like this monument to become a symbolic space,” said Ghildush, “the bearer of a message that will resonate with the profundity and meaning of the event in those who will stop in this place. The way it was conceived suggests two moods: on the one hand that of remembering, pondering and, on the other, that of physically looking forward and suggesting a feeling of optimism in the future. Especially as I have in mind the image of the Romanian person walking in the street with his head down, burdened with worries and problems, which makes me sad.”

His desire for art to be more accessible to people is the basis for his involvement in the Cow Parade, which Alexandru Ghildush is participating in along with 350 other artists. Having visited cities such as New York, Chicago, London and Prague, Cow Parade is set to arrive in Bucharest this month.

“The underlying idea of the Cow Parade experiment is to ignore barriers, whether cultural, social or geographic. It’s being looked forward to by those who need art, colour, interpretation and as as a charity event to assist the mentally handicapped. Art will hit the streets in the form of 105 painted fibreglass cows, which will be displayed in a number of areas of Bucharest. Cows are well-loved animals that evoke youth, life, purity and simplicity, and which draw our attention to the world around us, and at the same time to our own existence,” he said.

People are by nature able to understand art, if they are just willing to open their minds. Our imagination confronts us with reality, and anybody can think and feel inspiration. But artists have the courage and ability to express it.

In this universe of obsessive dichotomies, of its yes and no philosophy, this confrontation between real and artificial, between sombre and happy, between prayer and blasphemy, between truth and fiction, proposes to us in a subtle way a world beyond good and evil, a world of nuances. Ana Banica’s works abound in originality, going well beyond the zone of the experimental and into the chromatic, generous in a different way, and find their sense in a system of values which wants to be reinvented.

“We should not be obsessed with the idea of originality. Originality is not higher than sincerity. Probably everything has been experimented with in one form or another. Criticisms of taking and using methods and elements from other artists are unjustified and even hilarious for as long as it is clear that we live in a time of interpretations and especially of reinterpretations. The artist should be predominantly spontaneous in his or her expression, and in no case a placid bookkeeper, who like Sisyphus looks for a means of expression, which nobody else has discovered or ever used,” affirms Ana Banica.

Romania is her source of inspiration, almost exclusively. The fact that she was born here is not a coincidence at all. Romania is a paradise from the point of view of ideas, because it offers a rowdy, primitive reality, with just a garnish of Western influence. “The relationship with the outside world is necessary for us, not in order to demonstrate our talents or to receive a sort of Western artists’ visa through the prizes we win abroad, unfortunately so necessary to Romanian critics in order to give us truly positive assessments, but to measure our degree of sincerity.”

Although she doesn’t like to say she has certain favourite artists, Ana has a special affinity for Marina Abramovic, Pipillotti Rist and Frida Kahlo.

One of the projects she recalls with particular warmth is “Opus Murivale” which took place during 2003, and which aimed to attract attention to homosexuality in Romania through art. “It was a novel experience, in which we had the opportunity to understand that people who are isolated and marginalised from society and by the prejudices of others, perhaps have more to offer in human terms. I don’t understand why these spiritual mutilations exist in the twenty first century.”

The swing of the pendulum between reality and fantasy can constitute a plea against prejudices, against clichés, in which the human mind is very vulnerable. The world can be different if we allow ourselves to think it. Ana Banica’s art doesn’t offer a solution, it just asks itself and us, literally and figuratively to leave the limited universe of the black and white world.

An exhibition of Ana Banica's paintings entitled Sarut mana pentru masa runs at H'art Gallery until April.