Michele Bressan, Lea Rasovszky and Larisa Sitar Curator: Diana Marincu
The exhibition BRUIAJ, the third episode in the series of collaborations between the artists Michele Bressan, Lea Rasovsky, and Larisa Sitar, bears witness to a generation solidarity that sets the frame for a dialogue developed naturally, spanning a long period of time.
BRUIAJ focuses on exploring the topography of memory unfolding raw images, atavistic and enigmatic visions of personal and collective histories, never processed till their deepest layer. Residues lurking in these folds disturb even the clearest of the stories. This disturbance forces the path of visual experience to multiple detours, diversions and surprises stemming from themes such as the aesthetics of the private space, the everyday eeriness, funeral rites, military arsenal, ruin, and disappearance. On the one hand, the artworks of the three artists bring to the fore the innocence of discovering, with genuine curiosity, the inner and outer world, on the other, they let the door open for fiction to set in and build its own version of reality, “enhanced” by 3D modelling or excessive adornment. In between irony and melancholy, the works reflect the artists’ concern for the relationship between a false antiquity necessary for embedding in collective mythologies, including those of the artistic act, and the updated references to personal landmarks, describing their attitude in relation to the passing of time and to history. The “mess” the artists create influence the overall vibe, sometimes intimate and familiar, sometimes harsh and abrasive, of a space outlined by drawings, installations, bas-relief, and in-situ interventions. The positions in which we meet again Michele Bressan, Lea Rasovsky, and Larisa Sitar derive from a core of already existing recent works, but also from new productions, specially made for this exhibition.
Michele Bressan (b. 1980) is publicly known for his work in photography, but in the recent years, the themes he explores have also taken the shape of objects or installations. Michele’s interest in visual perception is based on his view of image as a matrix of the social and historical consciousness, quest which is doubled by his desire to spontaneously or accidentally extract poetic spaces from day-to-day reality. Selected exhibitions: Endless / Nameless, Zorzini F Gallery, Bucharest (2019, solo); La Brique, The Brick, Cărămida, La Kunsthalle Mulhouse (2018); Double Heads Matches, Új Budapest Galéria (2018); Life – A User’s Manual, Art Encounters Biennial, Timișoara (2017); CAMERA PLUS. Contemporary Photography and Dynamic Image Biennale, Iași (2016); PASAJ, The National Museum of Contemporary Art – Anexa (2014); Waiting for the Drama, H’art Gallery, Bucharest (2012, solo).
Lea Rasovszky's works (b. 1986) question the values and the thought clichés of current society, with a permanent critical eye. Everything is filtered through an ironic and rough drawing style, often combined with immersive installations which involve the viewer in order to complete the context. Selected exhibitions: Life – A User’s Manual, Art Encounters Biennial, Timișoara (2017); Out of the Blue, Mobius Gallery, Bucharest (2017); FLIRT, Im Hinterzimmer, Karlsruhe (2016); Building Modern Bodies. The Art of Bodybuilding, Zurich KunstHalle (2015); Din Dragoste. Fapte morale III, Ciclop Garage, Bucharest (2015, solo); Inner Whimp, Lateral ArtSpace, Fabrica de Pensule, Cluj-Napoca (2014, solo); PASAJ, The National Museum of Contemporary Art – Anexa, Bucharest (2014); De la stele la steroizi, Anca Poterașu Gallery, Bucharest (2014, solo); The Savages, Atelier 35, Bucharest (2012, solo), the Romanian Pavilion at the 56th edition of La Biennale di Venezia (2015);
The works of Larisa Sitar (b. 1984) investigate cultural heritage issues, cultural values, national identity, memory and nostalgia, by using different mediums such as photography, video, installation, drawing, object. Larisa Sitar was one of the artists in residence of the WIELS Center for Contemporary Art in Brussels in 2019. Selected exhibitions: the presentation of the artists in residence, WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Bruxelles (2019); Romanian* Art Now, Suprainfinit Gallery, Bucharest (2018); Message In A Bottle, Museu de Angra de Heroísmo, Portugal (2017); Inventing the Truth. On Fiction and Reality, the Romanian Pavilion at the 56th edition of La Biennale di Venezia (2015); WHAT ABOUT Y[OUR] MEMORY, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest (2014); PASAJ, The National Museum of Contemporary Art – Anexa, Bucharest (2014); Care Crisis, Futura Gallery, Prague (2012); Essl Art Award CEE, Winners Exhibition, Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg/Vienna (2011).
