[Nettime-ro] invitatie - Vioara Bara - Miere de spin, vineri 14 noiembrie, ora 19, la galeria H'art

[Popescu Dan <event@hartgallery.ro>]

Vernisaj pe 14 Noiembrie la H`art Gallery - ora 19 Åi pe 15 Noiembrie la Masaryk 25 - ora 14. 







Curator Erwin Kessler.



For English scroll down.

Erwin Kessler 
Miere de Spin

Vioara Bara este pictor. Vioara Bara este femeie. Ar fi simplu sÄ o 
numeÅti -neutru-  pictor-femeie aÅa cum cere gramatica corect 
politizatÄ, care recomandÄ sÄ o consideri un pictor ca oricare altul, al
 cÄrui gen doar este feminin. Numai cÄ Vioara Bara este mai degrabÄ 
femeie-pictor, un pictor care picteazÄ cu femeia dinÄuntru, ca Åi cum 
aceasta ar fi o enormÄ pensulÄ ÃnzestratÄ cu tot ceea ce poate sÄ 
Ãnsemne o femeie, de la bust la pubis pÃnÄ la afectivitate Åi isterie, 
de la maternitate la absurditate. Ãn aparenÅÄ, Vioara Bara picteazÄ cu 
culoare, dar Ãn realitate ea picteazÄ 
doar cu feminitate, acea umanitate ireductibilÄ care uneori este 
uimitoare ca un miracol iar alteori este uimitoare ca o oroare.
IdenticÄ cu sine mereu, Vioara Bara a pictat pÃnze vioarabara de la 
debutul ei ca artist, la mijlocul anilor 80. Atunci s-a numÄrat printre 
primii (tineri) artiÅti care au ÃmbrÄÅiÅat neo-expresionismul. Ea 
aparÅine micii grupÄri care a re-inventat pictura figurativÄ dupÄ 
prÄbuÅirea realismului socialist dar Åi a succesoarei acestuia din arta 
romÃneascÄ a acelui timp, arta oficialÄ sau fÄcutÄ potrivit comenzii 
sociale, Åi care ÃntÄrea cultul personalitÄÅii liderilor de partid, Ãn 
ultimele douÄ decenii ale regimului comunist.
AlÄturi de figuri 
intens tulburate precum Aniela Firon, Vioara Bara s-a aflat de partea 
sÄlbaticÄ a picturii, nu doar de partea pÄrelnic sÄlbÄticitÄ a acesteia,
 de partea Ãnfloririi decorative a ego-ului supradimensionat cultural, 
ce a caracterizat re-modernizarea temperatÄ a artei romÃneÅti din anii 
80. Opera sa a fost Ãn chip simptomatic picturÄtoare, aruncÃndu-Åi 
simÅÄmintele Ãn faÅa privitorului, ca pe un afront. Exaltarea, 
frustrarea, anxietatea, plÄcerea, disperarea, pierderea credinÅei, 
dorinÅa, totul era despachetat brusc Åi trÃntit pe pÃnzÄ, Ãn culori 
brutale, forme ÃnvÄlmÄÅite Åi naraÅiuni sincopate. Precum o enormÄ 
albinÄ invertitÄ, ea producea miere din lipsÄ, din spinii Åi ghimpii 
unei vieÅi desfÄÅurate sub semnul lipsei: lipsa de libertate, de 
alimente, de dragoste, de credinÅÄ. Dar nicidecum a lipsei de expresie.
DacÄ (neo-)expresionismul nu ar fi existat, Vioara Bara l-ar fi 
inventat.Ea nu a ÃmbrÄÅiÅat expresionismul, ci mai degrabÄ a crescut cu 
el, ca Åi cum s-ar fi hrÄnit dintr-o unicÄ substanÅÄ, aceea a prezenÅei 
stridente a sinelui perplex, ce se afirmÄ Ãn faÅa lumiii ÃnconjurÄtoare,
 oarbÄ Åi surdÄ. Un sine colorat, decupat pe fundalul unei societÄÅi 
terne. Fiecare operÄ a Vioarei Bara reprezintÄ dialectica formelor 
anxioase desfÄÅurate Ãn medii noroioase.
Reinventarea sinelui mitic 
al artistului, deÅi pare atÄt de regresiv acum, a fost o provocare Åi un
 risc asumat Ãn acei ani 80. Pe atunci, toate cele trei tendinÅe majore 
ale artei locale se opuneau acestei reinventÄri a sinelui. Arta oficialÄ
 era cu totul dedicatÄ iconografiei acceptate, ce orbita Ãn jurul 
sarcinilor propagandistice ale regimului, de la demonstraÅii Ãn favoarea
 comunismului, a conducerii de partid, pÃnÄ la portretele liderilor sau 
reprezentarea figuranÅilor anonimi, constructorii societÄÅii socialiste 
multilateral dezvolatate - acestea erau subiectele obligatorii ale artei
 aliniate la cerinÅele sistemului. Pe de altÄ parte, opoziÅia 
neo-ortodoxistÄ emergentÄ Ãn artÄ se ferea Åi ea de sinele 
supradimensionat Åi combativ, dar din raÅiuni diferite, cÄci promova 
umilinÅa Åi reÅinerea ca strategii iconografice centrale Ãn contrarea 
voracitÄÅii figurale rutiniere a regimului. DeÅi mai puÅin influent, dar
 foarte respectat intelectualmente, curentul conceptual Åi 
neo-constructivist Ãmpiedica Åi el dezvoltarea unei arte fixate Ãn jurul
 sinelui, cÄci favoriza demersurile artistice legate de ÅtiinÅÄ, 
orientate spre produÅie Åi spre strategiile de operare Ãn interiorul 
comunitÄÅilor. 
Egotismul strident precum acela al Vioarei Bara era 
rar, radical Åi rebel. Izbitoare, complacerea sa Ãn faptele Åi datele 
aparent mÄrunte ale feminitÄÅii, insistenÅa ei iritantÄ de a profera 
mereu trupul, pÃntecul, ÅipÄtul, dorinÅa, fragilitatea universalÄ, a 
proiectat o nouÄ identitate, nu doar o piho-dronÄ cultural-artisticÄ, ci
 o prezenÅÄ carnalÄ Åi spectacularÄ ce confesa eÅecul repetat dar 
reÃnnoit al inserÄrii Ãntr-o lume nefÄcutÄ pentru feminitate, pentru 
individualitate. Din mediul autoritar din jurul sÄu, masculin, Vioara 
Bara a preluat mijloacele schizofrenice, tari Åi agresive, ale artei 
sale fragile Åi vulnerabile: pÃnzele mari Åi demonstrative, pe care se 
desfÄÅura retorica demonstrativÄ a unui meÅteÅug plastic ostentativ.
Exhibarea sinelui ca perpetuÄ nepotrivire Åi a trupului ca o carcasÄ 
flamboaiantÄ atÃrnatÄ de suflet au contestat profund politicile de 
auto-diminuare a personalitÄÅii ÃmbrÄÅiÅate de cei mai mulÅi artiÅti 
romÃni ai acelor timpuri, care se aliniau, inconÅtient, intenÅiilor de 
obliterare a individalitÄÅii, manifeste Ãn politica regimului totalitar.
 Expunerea fÄrÄ ruÅine de sine a Vioarei Bara s-a numÄrat printre 
puÅinele modele exemplare de asumare a prezenÅei active a 
individualitÄÅii proprii necenzurate. Individualismul ca activism a fost
 nucleul antropologic al practicii sale artistice. Eul sÄu terfelit, 
cÄlcat Ãn picioare prin exhibare atroce nu a fost nicidecum negat 
astfel, ci hipertrofiat prin angajamentul devastator Ãn propria-i viaÅÄ.
 A reclama trupul Åi viaÅa acestuia ca existenÅÄ ultimÄ, ca unicÄ Åi 
veritabilÄ posesie nu era semnul unei retrageri, ci al unei agresive 
afirmÄri. Era un pas major Ãnainte pentru psihicul local al anilor 80, 
cÃnd alienarea individualitÄÅii era plenarÄ, cÃnd nevoile ireductibil 
personale erau aliniate la raÅii Åi porÅii, la norme, ritualuri publice 
Åi standarde generale impuse. De la hranÄ la progeniturÄ Åi de la 
cÄldurÄ la libertate sinele individual era copleÅit de presiunea unei 
legislaÅii ce cÄuta alinierea, alienarea, pentru a distruge orice semn 
al diferenÅei, al disputei, al rebeliunii.
Fundalurile negre sau 
Ãntunecate pe care se contureazÄ figurile ÃnflÄcÄrate ale Vioarei Bara 
reprezintÄ o acutÄ redare a acestui univers scrupulos represiv, a unei 
societÄÅi ca o cortinÄ inertÄ Ãn faÅa cÄreia personaje frenetice ÃÅi gem
 patimile, fricile, misterele, exaltÄrile, erotismul, ratÄrile, 
rÄtÄcirile, Ãntreaga lor umanitate irepresibilÄ. Bezna ecranului social 
pare iluminatÄ de fulgerele izbucnirilor de pofte Åi de spaime. 
Ãmbinate, lubrice Åi lunecoase, lugubre, figurile sale apocaliptice 
izbucnesc exploziv doar pentru a ÃnfÄÅiÅa astfel implozia interioarÄ a 
emoÅiilor de nestÄpÃnit. Ele urlÄ, se rostogolesc, rÄnesc. Putrede 
parcÄ, cu verde, galben Åi albastru de mucegai, formele sale par sÄ se 
dezintegreze pe pÃnzÄ Ãn timp ce se insinueazÄ, febril Åi fertil, Ãn 
ochiul Åi mintea privitorului. Mai tÃrziu, dupÄ mijlocul anilor 90, 
tablourile sale s-au Ãnmuiat treptat Ãn ireale lumini alb-rozalii, ca Åi
 cum ar fi fost acoperite cu un veÅmÃnt asfixiant de bomboane topite. 
Rozul era ÃnsÄ rÄspunsul visceral al Vioarei Bara la consumismul ce se 
Ãnfiripa, la acea supra-abundenÅÄ irezistibilÄ, generalÄ, a cÄrei unicÄ 
excepÅie era fericirea. La fel de critic precum Ãntunericul tablourilor 
dinainte, rozul e culoarea negrului Ãn consumism, e redarea aceleiaÅi 
bezne sociale, acum cu tenta veselÄ a consumului sÄlbatic, ipostaza 
actualÄ a lipsei, atÃt de adecvat travestitÄ Ãn plenitudine. 

Erwin Kessler 
Thorn Honey


Vioara Bara is a painter. Vioara Bara is a woman. She could be easily 
called a woman-painter â neutral as it is, grammar would blandly tag her
 as a painter like all painters, except for that she is a female. Yet, 
Vioara Bara is rather a painter-woman. The painter she is paints mainly 
with the woman inside her, as if with an inner, huge brush endowed with 
everything a woman could possibly mean, from breasts and genitalia to 
emotion and hysteria, from motherhood to nuttiness. Outwardly, Vioara 
Bara paints with paint, but inwardly she only paints with womanity, that
 irreducibly feminine humanity that sometimes makes people marvel as if 
in face of a wonder, or sometimes as if in face of a blunder.
True 
to herself, Vioara Bara has been painting vioarabara paintings since her
 debut as an artist, during mid-1980s. Back then, she was amongst the 
very first Romanian (young) painters to embrace neo-Expressionism. She 
pertained to those who re-invented figurative painting after the 
crumbling down of both Socialist-realism and of its successor in 
Romania, the official painting, made under âsocial commandâ, to buttress
 the personality cult of the authoritarian rulers, during the last two 
decades of the Communist regime.
Together with such tormented 
figures as Aniela Firon, Vioara Bara was indeed on the wild-side of 
painting, not merely on the wild-looking side of art, that decorative 
flourishing of culturally hypertrophied egos characterizing the tempered
 re-modernization of Romanian art in the late 1980s. Her work was 
symptomatically paintful, hurled feelings and affronted viewers. 
Exaltation, frustration, anxiety, pleasure, desperation, disbelief, 
desire, everything was abruptly unpacked on the canvas, in brutal 
colors, twisted forms, and syncopated narratives. Like a huge, inverted 
bee, she fabricated honey out of loss, from the thistles and thorns of a
 life under the aegis of lack. Lack of everything: of freedom, of food, 
of love, of trust; yet not of expression.
If Expressionism didnât 
exist, Vioara Bara would have invented it. She has not embraced it, but 
she has rather grown alongside it, as if feeding on a unique substance, 
the visually vociferous presence of a perplexed self asserting its being
 facing the deaf and blind surroundings: a colorful self, drawn on the 
background of a murky society. Each and every work of Vioara Bara 
displays the dialectics of anxious, screaming forms in the setting of 
uniform, creamy conditions.
The resurgence of the mythical self of 
the artist, as regressive as it might appear now, was a provocation and a
 risky innovation during the 1980s. Then, three different but 
complementary trends prevented it. On the one side, the official art of 
the time was entirely devoted to the allowed iconography revolving 
around the propaganda tasks of the regime. Mass demonstrations in favor 
of the Communist government, the portraits of the political leaders, as 
well as the figuration of the anonymous builders of the âprogressive 
societyâ were de rigueur subjects of the art aligned to the systemâs 
requirements. On the other hand, the emerging, politically and 
aesthetically oppositional, neo-Orthodox art was also eschewing the 
aggrandized and confrontational, hypertrophied self, as it mainly 
prompted humbleness and self-effacing as its central iconographic 
strategies of dissent from the regimeâs figural, voracious routine. The 
less[er] influential, but intellectually respected, conceptual and 
neo-Constructive tendency also prevented the development of an ego-based
 art, as it favored the science-linked, production-oriented and 
community-targeting artistic endeavors.
Boastful egotism, such of 
Vioara Baraâs, was rare, radical, and revolutionary. Ground-breaking, 
her conspicuous complacency in the seemingly trifle facts of femininity,
 her blatant insistency to proffer the body, the belly, the yelling, the
 craving, the universal frailty, boosted a spanking new persona, not 
only an artistic and cultural psycho-drone, but a fleshy and flashy 
presence avowing the nuisance of inserting itself into a world unmade 
for womanity, humanity, individuality. From the authoritarian, 
male-driven milieu around her, Vioara Bara took the schizophrenic means 
of her sheer vulnerable art: the big-scale, demonstrative works, and the
 painterly, rhetorical self-indulgence in ostentatious craftsmanship.
The self as a misfit and the body displayed as a troubling, noisy 
carcass heavily contested the self-diminishing policies espoused by most of the Romanian artistic trends and brands of the time, so subtly 
convergent with the individuality-obliterating intentions of the totalitarian regime. The noisy self-exposure of 
Vioara Baraâs type ranged among the few, exceptional cases of active 
presence, of the unbridled activism as nexus of artistic practice. Her 
thrashed persona and dilapidated self were not means of self-denial, but of a magnified character, energetically engaged into its own life. 
Reclaiming life and body as oneâs own true and only possession was a 
major step forward for Romanian psyche in the 1980s, when the falling 
Communism thoroughly alienated the individuals from their personal, 
irreducible needs, brutally aligned to atrocious norms and mad, 
state-imposed standards. From feeding to breeding and from warmth to 
freedom, the individual self was collapsing under general prescriptions 
aiming at leveling-down any difference, dispute or rebellion.
The 
usually black or dark background onto which the fiery figuration of 
Vioara Baraâs characters unfolds is an accurate rendering of the no-exit
 universe of scrupulous repression, of the society as a dull curtain in 
the foreground of which frenzied figures squeak-out their passion, 
violence, fears, mystery, exaltation, dissolution, eroticism, failure â 
their overwhelming, irreducible humanity. The screen of social dusk 
appears as illuminated by the lightning of bursting crave. Imbricated, 
lubricated, luscious and lugubrious, her apocalyptical figures thrive in
 explosive color only to convey implosive, unbearable emotions. They 
howl, whirl, and hurt. Mold-tainted, with penicillium greens, yellows 
and blues, the contorted figural world of Vioara Bara seems 
simultaneously putrefying on canvas and proliferating in beholderâs 
mind. Later on, after the mid-1990s, her works thawed more and more into
 an eerie, light rose, as if a coat of melted candies asphyxiated them. 
Rose was her visceral visual response to the newly invading consumerism,
 the irresistible, overpowering abundance of almost everything 
imaginable, except happiness. As critical as the previous darkness of 
her works, the recent pervasive rose is nothing but the color blanket of
 the same general, social blackness, now with the specific pink blush of
 rampant consumption, todayâs brand of lack, so aptly dressed as 
affluence.


www.hartgallery.ro
+40722248744
https://www.facebook.com/events/733734956675100/

25 C.A. Rosetti Street, 5th floor, Bucharest, 020011
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