Project for

Ropes in torsades

Find us at booth B10, artist Mihai Țopescu

 

 

 

         Twisted ropes are knotted and set on pedestals (bronze sculptures) or suspended (charcoal on canvas works). Under the symbol of the ROPE and KNOT, MIHAI ŢOPESCU chose to develop a whole art show for VOLTA BASEL. His compositions bring into focus the Romanian identity elements.

         The knots of twisted ropes can be found carved on the wooden gates that let you into the courtyards of Gorj county. The ropes represent nature’s vital forces, no matter if they are illustrated tale e quale or as the snake and sun motifs. The Snake that can be found on the carved wooden gates of Gorj county appears as a twisted rope, standing for the family members in a protective role. The Sun is the symbol for nature’s rebirth, life, warmth, and light; without it, life could not be possible on Earth. In traditional architecture, the Sun is made of twisted rope and it is represented as a circle, a form that can be often found on the Maramuresh county gates.

         The torsade column – one of the presented works – hints at the Infinity Column of Constantin Brancusi. It is not by chance that Mihai Ţopescu chose this landmark of Gorj county, especially that his predecessor had as an inspiration source the traditional motifs of the Oltenia region. The rope in torsade represented a favourite theme of Constantin Brancusi’s art, so he created more columns, varying in size and form, but his masterpiece remains the Column from Targu Jiu.

         Symbol of ascension and infinity, the Column is also a repetitive motif in Mihai Ţopescu’s work. In a postmodern language, the vertical form of the column is represented by the painted poles from the Garden of Paradise. The project for which an entire forest painted by the artist was transmuted under the form of mobile poles. As a protest aimed against illegal deforestation, the coloured poles were set in front of some emblematic social and political buildings in order to set an alarm at the institutional level.

         At Volta Basel, Mihai Ţopescu rebuilds a Romanian pavilion with identity roots bringing in his work decorative motifs from the traditional art as the torsade rope and the knot – both motifs also found in universal art. Let’s consider that from ancient times the rope was used on construction sites as a working tool. In Antiquity, the Egyptians used the rope with twelve equidistant knots in order to create the right angle. At a symbolic level, the rope is a spiral that stands for the aspiration toward heights while the knots have magical meaning. The knotted rope merges the heavenly space and time with the terrestrial space and time. With the help of the knotted rope, the heavenly order is restored on Earth (see the two charcoal drawings Node 2 and Node 4).

          Let’s not forget about the Gordian knot that metaphorically stands for a very complicated situation whose solution is not easy to find. The origin of this concept is found in a legend about the Emperor Alexander Of Macedon. In 333 b.C., Alexander the Great enters Gordium and reaches the Gordian knot. According to a local legend, the person who was capable to untie the complicated knot would conquer Asia, which actually happened. With a single sword cut, Alexander of Macedon cuts the knot and thus manages to untie it. There are some interpretations suggesting that the Gordian knot may be a monogram kept by the priests and priestesses of Gordium. In The Greek Myths (1960), the essayist Robert Graves suggests that under this monogram the name of Dyonissus may have been transmitted further to the kings of Phrygia.

         The expression „the Gordian knot” was used in literature, theatre, psychology etc. In Henry V, William Shakespeare mentions the untieing of the Gordian knot. In his work, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Carl Gustav Jung says the fact that „the strong natures prefer to cut the Gordian knot instead of untieing it”.

         The symbolistic area of the rope in torsade is a vast one and can be explored endlessly. In this presentation, I wanted to point out several important aspects of this subject. The materials out of which Mihai Ţopescu creates his works swings between the fragility of the charcoal and the robustness of bronze. The twisted ropes compose conglomerates with the specific Romanian substrate and convergences from universal symbolism.

                                                                                    Raluca Băloiu, Project manager

       

 

MIHAI ȚOPESCU lives and works in Targu Jiu (Gorj county, Romania). He is a member of the Association of Fine Artists from Romania. Graduate of the Fine Arts Faculty „Ion Andreescu” from Cluj-Napoca, graduation year 1981, student of the master Mircea Spataru.

For over three decades, Mihai Ţopescu molded glass, passing his work through the incandescence of the kiln. He embodied cultural quotations or everyday reality instances that he illustrated as symbolically loaded scenes. Key images that eliminate the narrative are left in the viewer’s reach to be decoded.

In recent years, Mihai Ţopescu concentrated on the in situ sculpture and land art. Maybe now,  more than ever, his work moved to the conceptual area.

Presently, parts of his work are exhibited at Venice Art Biennale, at Bembo Palace, where he also exhibited in 2015. His land art projects were exhibited in spaces like Chateau de Beloeil, in Belgium (at Europalia Art Festival, in 2019) at the premises of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Venice, in Lisbon (2018), and at the Cuhnia of Brancoveanu Palaces (Cultural Center of Brancoveanu Palaces in Mogosoaia, 2018).

The works of Mihai Ţopescu can be found in Art Museums from Dusseldorf, Coburg, Germany; Albenga, Italy; Ebeltoft, Denmark; the collection of the European Parliament, Bruxelles; Prague, Check Republic; Craiova, Romania and in private collections.

The artist from Gorj county has had a series of personal exhibitions in France, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. He was part of group exhibitions at Beijing Art Biennale, China; in Japan, France, Germany, and Belgium.

 

RALUCA BĂLOIU is a curator and an art historian who lives and works in Bucharest, Romania. She graduated from the Faculty of Arts History and Theory, Arts University of Bucharest. She is a member of the Association of Fine Artists of Romania, Critics department. She graduated from several courses in cultural management, cultural policies of strategic management and cultural financing at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, Faculty of Art History and Theory (2004-2008). She also attended professional training such as the professional training courses for the position of manager of cultural organizations, the National Institute for Cultural Research and Training, under the Ministry of Culture (2021). She owns a Certificate of Project Management course organized by the Royal Foundation Margaret of Romania within the project Young Talens – Supporting the Artists and the Professionals of the Creative and Cultural Fields (2022). Starting with 2014 she has been performing project management (coordination, implementation, and project writing).

She managed and curated exhibitions for art fairs: Viennacontemporary, Austria; Contemporary Art Ruhr, Germany; Art Market Budapest, Hungary.

She wrote the texts and researched for the Plan B Gallery for its participation at Vienna Biennale, Austria and Art Basel, Switzerland.

From 2007 she has been publishing articles in books, encyclopedias, catalogues, specialized magazines and she has been participating in radio and TV broadcasts.

Raluca Baloiu curated exhibitions and wrote professional texts for the National Museum of Cotroceni, Arts Museum from Constanta, the Cultural Center of Brancoveanu Palaces from the Gates of Bucharest, for Art Galleries such as AnnArt, Galateea, Senso, and Carol Galleries where she has been the manager since 2018.

Presently, Raluca Băloiu is in charge of managing and curating independent projects.

 

Contact: Raluca Băloiu: +40.741.962.678/ ucabaloiu@gmail.com