GAME ON

17 Feb – 16 Apr '23

Exhibition views

Organizer

META Spatiu Association

Venue

META Spatiu Gallery

Bulevardul Mihai Viteazu nr. 1,

Timisoara, Romania

Featured Artists

Dona Arnakis, Mathias Bar, Cătălin Bătrânu, Szilard Gaspar, George Roșu, Sergiu Sas

Curated by

Mirela Stoeac-Vlăduți

About the Exhibition

“GAME ON” exhibition explores the concept of competition, the relationship between art and sport, aesthetics and aggression, rules and chaos. Power is the central determinant of the complex processes that underlie the discourse of tension and rivalry, the kind of power that Michel Foucault states has a dual, apparently antagonistic but essentially identical and simultaneous function: to punish and to heal or educate (Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, 1979). Even though sport/competition and the world of arts may not seem to have much in common, in practice the capitalist system constructs a complex system of power relations impacting all fields.

Since ancient times, the relationship between art and sport has been inseparable. In the attempt to find the perfect form of the human body, since ancient times, artists have appealed to the athletic body (whether we are talking about the body of Sisyphus outlined in the many absurd attempts – to which he is condemned by the gods – to push a huge rock forever, which once reached the top, rolled down again and the cazna was resumed, by Myron's Discoball etc). Another important factor in this intersection of these domains is the function most engaged when we come into contact with them, namely the gaze.

What do all games have in common? Could it be the competition? Or the fact that it provides a source of entertainment? At the beginning of the last century, the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein posed this problem and analyzed how the playful aspect, approached aesthetically, is defined by uncertain limits, opens a possibility for dialogue and perspective projection of the individual, according to his own experiences and limitations.

Dona Arnakis

The artist's concerns deal with the boundary of immediate reality and psychology and are found throughout her work. Her practice is based on correlations between objects, surrounding nature and phenomena, events, people, mental structures in her life. Often these elements are repeated, retaining their previous meaning or acquiring a new meaning. Intervention in space is linked to interspecific and intraspecific competition. The drawings allude, in particular, to certain human typologies and the tendency of some to dominate their own species, but also other species. Eliminating the “less strong and capable” by not giving them opportunities.

Mathias Bar

Mathias Bar explores in graphic and pictorial compositions a fragmented figurative universe, where identity hypostases cannot be delimited with certainty, and the atmosphere charged with silence, mystery and solitude becomes a starting point in a dramatic narrative suggested to the viewer. Pictorial substance, whether emphasized by chiaroscuro or chromatic contrast, is put to work in the representation of bodily details that evoke the tragic in a subtle and subversive manner.

Cătălin Bătrânu

Cătălin Bătrănu's sculptures appear as double, mnemonic images, which do not aim at representing the real, although they could take a figurative form – in this case. While his research focuses on how the mind constructs itself based on this reality, it is more the representation of this construction that is at stake in his creations. Without seeking to represent or reproduce, these objects are imperfect doubles, made from memory.

Szilard Gaspar

Szilard Gaspar explores power and matter in his artistic practice in a conceptual manner, reflecting on aesthetics and composition. Understood as an extension of mind and intention, his sculptures and photographs represent the body as an agent in the creative process. His experimental approach to roles, human behaviours in conjunction with the malleability of matter (be it the human body or the clay the artist often uses in his works), becomes cathartic for the participants/viewers – a cumulative that provokes emotions and stimulates the imagination to reconsider everyday challenges.

George Roșu

His works are part of a series that examines the concept of competition and the concept of the game, of winner and loser, by bringing together concepts and domains, and putting them in a seemingly absurd competition. It invites the viewer not to score, but to become aware of the concept of competition and identify it in everyday personal situations, touching on broad themes such as education, psychology and culture.

Sergiu Sas

The artist presents two works that make a link between art and sport, a video-story (with Vasile Leac) about the desacralization of the monumental complex of the sculptor Constantin Bâncuși, but also the rediscovery of the true profane rites of the neighborhood, through a performative act involving various games (backgammon, football) and a photograph depicting a ball – as a symbol of competition – which is circumscribed by a seed cover – a unifying element, the seeds being used by the supporters of any football team.