12 May Dumitru Gorzo
Pictosculpture – a term that persists in my thoughts with the same tenacity that Dumitru Gorzo ‘s over one hundred creatures installed in his Little Magenta Riding Hood exhibition remain imprinted on my soul. At first, one can assume the genesis of the compelling characters is the result of the Romanian artist’s upbringing in Maramureș, a region renowned for diverse woodcarving techniques and his background as both a painter and a sculptor. Still, one more fascinating factor came into play: they were all created during his fourth Continuous Studio experience, a project where Gorzo moves his studio in a different city for several months and keeps it open to the public.
It takes a special kind of strength for an artist to welcome an audience into the midst of the creative process, at a time and place when they are at their most vulnerable. When they were first exhibited in the place they were conceived, in Timișoara, we kept going back and forth whether we would be able to cross the whole country in order to visit the exhibition, but the logistics of me getting so many vacation days during my residency made it impossible. A few months later, the artist carried on with Continuous Studio at SAC Bucharest, painting The Wall and I was surprised to learn in February that there would also be an exhibition inside the gallery featuring the works from Timișoara, installed in a new manner.
We arrived at the Malmaison Studios at noon, and the bright sun coming through the windows made it impossible to take any decent photos of the monumental mural painted by Gorzo on the hallway, in front of SAC Bucharest, which was created during his fifth Continuous Studio. You can trust me, however, it’s not something to be missed if you are in Bucharest. Take some time to properly observe all the characters, the painting techniques employed, discover the wall both from right to left and left to right and new storylines will be revealed.
The first time they were exhibited, the artworks were evenly spaced in the various rooms of the building Gorzo used as his studio in Timișoara, supported by the walls. Although I only had photos from the event as reference, they somehow reminded me of the beautifully carved wooden pillars gracing the porch of my great grandmother’s house. Growing up, I loved watching closely every small detail and symbol on them and I marveled at their ability to hold up the entire structure. An entirely different story unraveled as soon as I stepped inside SAC Bucharest: the pillar-shaped sculptures installed by the artist into a massive gathering resembled a vivid forest. As I wandered through the delightful maze of playful creatures engaged in dialogue, I also saw the crowd as a tribute to the fruitful conversations shared between the artist and the visitors of the studio during the period he lived in Timișoara.
I am aware of the major role the mode of installation has in an exhibition, but to this day I still marvel at how profound and meaningful each of these two versions is and how different feelings, thoughts and memories emerged as soon as I saw Little Magenta Riding Hood. Perhaps this is also because the fantasy forest is prominently magenta, a color that takes me back to the first artwork by Gorzo I fell in love with, the Cocoon at MARe.
A testament to Gorzo ‘s braveness is his innate ability to paint over the original color of the wood without overpowering the sculpture. By employing his deft brushstrokes and vibrant colors, like the recurring magenta that graces his oeuvre, the artist manages to complete the shapes he sculpts, transforming each one into vivacious entities.
There is something unique this labyrinthine installation choice gifted me: the ability to literally be immersed in a painted universe for the first time. Stepping back, it was as if you had a monumental painting before you. Shifting just a few paces to the left, a new composition emerged, where a figure’s tail became another’s teeth. Afterwards, you could just proceed to move between them and become part of their realm. The superpower Dumitru Gorzo has granted his pictosculptures should make us all wish that someday they will have a designated room in a contemporary art museum, for everyone to experience in a lifetime.
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