Sacrifice by Mihai Topescu Romania
Being in time and space is not a notion that can be quantified either
directly of implicitly. An artist’s life and work bears the memory of
the cultural space where he lived. My perspective upon this topic,
being in time and space, by an artistic project, Sacrifice is due to
these traditions, which marked my artistic creativity.
This personal approach may constitute an appropriate correlation to the generous syntagm of the Biennale. The presentation of the
topic, now elaborated in a final form, does not have the initial
protean character, but is closer to my sensibility, it is oriented by
the coordinates of my spirituality and it is an anchor to a historic
fact: the beheading of the Romanian Christian ruler Constantin Brancoveanu together with his four sons and his close counselor, in Istanbul, in 1714.
The sculptures through which I transmit the message were carefully selected and conceived with elements that enhance the symbolic value of my meanings. I started from six ovoid shapes made of wood, representing the martyrs’ heads, covered with thousands of
glass and metal nails, symbols of their suffering; gold is the only
colour I used, for its symbolic value, with some of the heads. These
heads are laid in polished bronze recipients—with a similar golden
shade,—and the contrast between the glass and the rusty metal
nails enhances the effect, the idea of Sacrifice, interpreted in the
key of a spiritual conversion, as a process of suffering or being.
Lastly, it is about conditio humana, about the relationship between
being (life), passage (death) and becoming. The lack of spirituality
saddens me, in a time dominated by the quantitative and the material, and I try to send a message of spiritual regeneration of the society, invoking my experience that triggered this presentation, which has a symbolic value for me.
Sacrifice by Mihai Topescu Romania
Being in time and space is not a notion that can be quantified either
directly of implicitly. An artist’s life and work bears the memory of
the cultural space where he lived. My perspective upon this topic,
being in time and space, by an artistic project, Sacrifice is due to
these traditions, which marked my artistic creativity.
This personal approach may constitute an appropriate correlation to the generous syntagm of the Biennale. The presentation of the
topic, now elaborated in a final form, does not have the initial
protean character, but is closer to my sensibility, it is oriented by
the coordinates of my spirituality and it is an anchor to a historic
fact: the beheading of the Romanian Christian ruler Constantin Brancoveanu together with his four sons and his close counselor, in Istanbul, in 1714.
The sculptures through which I transmit the message were carefully selected and conceived with elements that enhance the symbolic value of my meanings. I started from six ovoid shapes made of wood, representing the martyrs’ heads, covered with thousands of
glass and metal nails, symbols of their suffering; gold is the only
colour I used, for its symbolic value, with some of the heads. These
heads are laid in polished bronze recipients—with a similar golden
shade,—and the contrast between the glass and the rusty metal
nails enhances the effect, the idea of Sacrifice, interpreted in the
key of a spiritual conversion, as a process of suffering or being.
Lastly, it is about conditio humana, about the relationship between
being (life), passage (death) and becoming. The lack of spirituality
saddens me, in a time dominated by the quantitative and the material, and I try to send a message of spiritual regeneration of the society, invoking my experience that triggered this presentation, which has a symbolic value for me.