Page 55 - World of Art magazine (2000)
P. 55

emphasize onto internal society-rules of the   were viable). However, as none of the other
         fairy kingdom, beside the telling of the   entities from the other worlds has a purely
         important gifts fairies made illo tempore   economic or juridical relevance, it would be
         to humans (Dizionario della fiaba, 1998,   absurd to consider their incidence as a threat
         p.165-166). Romanian folklore makes   and nothing else but a threat toward the
         humans meet with fairies a lot more inci-  woman or the girl who did not finish spinning
         dentally and insists onto some parallelism   and weaving. There must be another reason
         between our world and their other world;   for sequencing ordinary time with ordinary
         from this, the extremely fragile boundary of   - but still efficient - laws. The most dreadful
         the culturally admitted custom into dealing   is the personification of the Thursday on the
         with them; and this fragility begins with the   Passions’ Week (Joimarita - I.Muslea, 1972,
         impossibility of naming them on the generic   p.213-237; I.Ghinoiu, 1997, p.101); but there
         name (they are called: iele, zane, zanioare,   are also forbidden Fridays for the fairies -
         sfinte, soimane, danse, frumoase, iezme,   ielele- and forbidden Tuesday evenings, per-
         fecioare, rusalii, milostive, miluite, maiestre,   sonified in another terrible demon called
         puternice, doamne, imparatesele vazduhului,   Martolea, Marti-sara; she is also an old
         ursoaice), with the interdiction of talking,   and ugly, even deformed, woman, torturing
         imitating their song or letting on any way   women who do not know to protect them-
         their presence to be guessed while those fair-  selves and their homes (I.Evseev, 1997,
         ies are accidentally surprised, on the terrible   p.210-212, 257-258; A.Fochi, 1976,
         respect that is to be paid to their dancing,   p.196-197, 182-186).
         places, songs and forbidden days (O.Birlea,   A lot of things remain uncovered in the field
         1976, p. 196-199; I.Muslea, O.Birlea, 1970,   of mythological imaginary; we underlined just
         p207-218; A.Fochi, 1976, p.138-146).  a few traits and tried to lighten some connec-
          Another entity, this time a purely forester   tions that Romanian mythological representa-
         daemon, is the Maid of the Forest (Fata Padu-  tions bring into understanding. A lot of work
         rii, Padureanca - M.Ionita, 1982, p.34-91;   awaits the scholar who wants to unravel some
         A.Fochi, 1976, p. 12-122); a lot more savage,   true assumptions about our native propensity
         she still sings but hasn’t the appearance of   toward the transcendent, the other, more and   SuzAnA fânTânARiu
         a normal woman, tempting young boys with   more distant, worlds; moreover, his task gets          RoMaNia
         her strange feminity; the children resulted are   complicated by the accelerating process of dis-  PORTReT ASTeniC i
         to be changed by theft with the children of   solution of traditional culture and way of life.   1998 MixeD MeDia
                                                                                                         20 x 20 cM /
         inattentive mothers. Here she plays a double   In the context of the total transformation of       8 x 8 iN
         role into the life-cycle of a person: as a child   realities within our modern society, we will very
         and as a young man. For the young man, she   soon find ourselves in front of the same silent   paRTicipaTioN
                                                                                                        WoRK oN THe
         may harm him in a similar way with the iele   type of archive as any historical archive is; we   1ST MASkS in veniCe
         (cf. the nympholeptic enthusiasm of the Greek   will, of course, subsequently define a new Eth-  iNTeRNaTioNal exHiBi-
                                                                                                             TioN
         mythology).                        nology - the pair of the horror concretization of           oRGaNiZeD BY
          Romanian traditional imagery contains   this new world’s longing for the Other.              aRT aDDicTioN
         another type of figures: they regulate domes-  Worlds - but what has to say our still-present   palaZZo coRReR
         tic activities of women through the year (or at   day field, Romanian field in our case, would be   VeNice iTalY 1998
         least did so for that long that those activities   very soon completely unused, and so forgotten.




                                                              CRiSTiAn neAgOe
                                                              HollaND
                                                              ghOSTS
                                                              1995 oil oN caNVaS
                                                              80 x 60 cM /
                                                              31½x 23½ iN
                                                                               CORLATAn vASiLe
                                                              paRTicipaTioN         RoMaNia
                                                              WoRK oN THe           unTiTLeD
                                                              MOST TALenTeD ART-  1999 oil oN caNVaS
                                                              iSTS                 20 x 12 cM /
                                                              iNTeRNaTioNal pRiZe   8 x 4¾ iN
                                                              oRGaNiZeD BY
                                                              aRT aDDicTioN      paRTicipaTioN
                                                              STocKHolM           WoRK oN THe
                                                              SWeDeN 1997
                                                                            1ST SPRing AnnuAL in
                                                                                     veniCe
                                                                          iNTeRNaTioNal exHiBiTioN
                                                                                 oRGaNiZeD BY
                                                                                 aRT aDDicTioN
                                                                                palaZZo coRReR
                                                                               VeNice iTalY 1999






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