OTNOT

A highly respected figure of the artistic scene in France, Tania Mouraud has her first personal exhibition in Romania, a meaningful country with respect to her family background. Using the entire gallery space at EASTWARDS PROSPECTUS [now Gaep], the exhibition includes works from the beginning of the ‘00s up until now, which gravitate around photography, video art, sound and digital art. 

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from the famous De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things) by Roman philosopher Lucretius. In the translation of the doctrine written by Epicurus, Lucretius describes the creation of the world, the emergence of civilization and the episode of the great plague in Athens, as a parable of the contemporary stakes for saving the human species.

Photography works are presented on the first floor of the gallery, among which the latest series, Balafres (Open Wounds). This series, initiated in 2014, immerses the viewer deep in the heart of Germany’s lignite mining sites, symbols of schizophrenia in a society which idealizes energetic transition and renewable energy, while half of its energy production comes from highly polluting combustion of raw materials, achievable only through mass destruction of the landscape and every living soul. Through her works, Tania Mouraud succeeds in showing the real proportions of this disaster caused by humans, by means of continuous movement between the surface of artificial lunar landscapes and the Earth entrails. The artist brings out a surprisingly paradoxical beauty through composition and materialism that derives from her classic painting knowledge. 

The public also enjoys the opportunity to see the premiere of Tania Mouraud’s latest work, Pandemonium, in a subterranean journey enriched with digital works whose messages resonate with the purpose of the show. 

The work of Tania Mauraud is also present in public spaces, being faithful to the spirit in which she developed her projects since the ‘70s. The artist makes an urban intervention in Bucharest, Pitești, Bacău, Iași, Sibiu, Cluj-Napoca, Buzău, Craiova and Roman, the birth place of her father. By repeating Benjamin Fondane’s (B. Fundoianu) verse “CRIERTOUJOURSJUSQUALAFINDUMONDE”, this urban intervention represents a confession addressed to those who take their time and draws their attention to decrypt these words almost unreadable, placed on numerous billboards. It is the first time that Tania Mouraud intervenes on billboards in several cities simultaneously.

Tania Mouraud was born in 1942. An uncategorizable artist, she hasn’t ceased to reinvent her practice, starting with the late ‘60s. Her work brings into question the relation between art and social links, through the use of different artistic mediums: painting, installation, photography, sound, video and performance. Since 1998 the artist works with photography, video and sound in a close relation with painting, analyzing the different aspects of history and life. The committed art of Tania Mouraud should be understood as the responsability of any citizen to speak out. Her perspective is the one of an artist who lives with her eyes open towards the world.

Text by Elodie Stroecken, curator