Fine artists take a stand against the war in Ukraine

Romanian and Ukrainian fine artists' dedicated exhibition in Bucharest

Ion Puican, 26.03.2022, 14:00

Can art be a weapon used against the war? What happens when fine artists get together to protest against todays events? “Bombs and Humans. Artists united against the war” is the theme of an exhibition held in Bucharest over March 12 and April 3rd. The exhibition brings together works by artists from Romania and Ukraine, who thus conveyed their protest message to everybody. Raluca Ilaria Demetrescu is the curator of the exhibition. Here she is, speaking about how the exhibition came into being and about the dozens of exhibiting artists.

“There are 74 artists, of whom 18 are from Ukraine. The crisis and emergency situations call for reactions, nay, they do not call for, they trigger emergency reactions. So impressed weve all been with what happens in Ukraine that we chose to express how we feel about it the way we, the artists, know how to do it: scratching the surface a little bit, taking a closer look at the citadel, at the citadels drawbacks, at the worlds drawbacks, and we reacted to that. It all happened so fast, in the second day of the war we said, Its about time! Were gonna get this exhibition going! Humanitarian aid was collected at the Art Cell and Carol 53, which is the venue of the exhibition and Daniel Loagar, the one whos the coordinator here, said, Raluca, why dont we put this exhibition together, Bombs and Humans. Easier said than done. And we launched a call to artists, whose unanimous answer was Were all here. Some of them had works on the war theme. Weve got an artist whom I hold most dear, he hails from Bessarabia, he had an exceptional work about the previous conflicts in Ukraine. I invited him with that work, Valeriu Schiau is his name. Otherwise, almost all artists have created dedicated works for this exhibition. Beaver, who also made the poster and the Facebook and the Instagram covers, the emblem of the exhibition. Alexandru Ranga, who created a special object, a sculpture, which is very interesting. Denis Nanciu, Mircea Diaconu, who created special works, in metal, they are sculptors. Ștefan Radu Crețu, who make a graphic work, I have known Ștefan Radu Crețu for a long time now, and his drawings about this conflict, about this war, have been posted on Instagram. We have a war reporter, Alfred Schupler, with some bewildering images. We have snapshots of the protests Romanians staged in Paris, those are photographs, so that is also a photo coverage, Maria Scarlat Malița. Three Ukrainian artists worked with Daniel Loagăr, the one with “The Art cell” and the NeoNlithic project”, where he included artists from the entire Balkan area as well as its adjoining territories. One of those women artists invited artists, people she knew, friends of hers, activists, and all of them answered her call. Of course, we could not have the real-size works, we cannot receive anything from Ukraine, only humanitarian aid is allowed. And they sent texts, images, drawings, everything is tremendously disturbing. And thats how weve reached out to 18 artists form Ukraine.”

Fine artist Daniel Loagăr is the co-organizer of the exhibition. Here he is, also speaking about the endeavor by means of which the project kicked off, and about the complexity of the works that are on display in the exhibition.

“This is an exhibition by means of which we sought to express our solidarity, our support and our sympathy for neighbors and friends. In effect, through the studio I am working in, I have been carrying “Wood Be Nice”, an international project I initiated two years ago with Ukrainian and Romanian artists. It was themed “NeoNlithic 2″. We have stayed friends ever since, me and a couple of artists in Cernauti, and now that the war has knocked at their doors, we rushed in to help them out. Starting from the second or the third day of war, we collected humanitarian aid every day, donations, and once in two days, or thereabouts, we sent a van loaded with food, with medicine, with warm clothes in Cernauti and even farther, I understand the last shipment has reached Kyiv. This exhibition, the Bombs and Humans project, weve jointly staged it with curator Raluca Ilaria Demetrescu. One night, while we were speaking about the actual existing threats, about the nuclear threat, to be more specific, I sent Raluca this idea, made of a couple of projects, themed Sweets and Humans, Flowers and Humans, and she was quick to respond, she contacted artists from Romania who joined in for the projects, part of them I brought myself, as for those from Ukraine, I also brought them, with my colleague at the Wood Be Nice artists studio. There was no limit as regards the techniques. We have sculptures, we have linocut works, we have graphic art, we have installations, we have painting, we have video installations, we have movies. There were no limitations for us. The message we conveyed to the artists was something like: create about what you feel this very moment, about what you think right now. And, of course, all of us are against the war and all of us have been trying to support our neighbours in Ukraine. It is a message of hope, in its initial stage, a message of solidarity, of friendship and I also think theres another message that needs to be conveyed, we cannot go on like that, weve had enough of it. All the works have been put up for sale, 20% of the purchase price goes to Ukraine, all artists have agreed on that.”

Here is Raluca Ilaria Demetrescu once again, this time touching upon the moments weve been experiencing, upon the charity dimension of our project, also touching upon a prospective path, for the future.

“A state of emergency. A local and planetary crisis. The war against Ukraine is the topic that brought these artists together, they all managed to get their work done at such a short notice. It is a protest-exhibition, “Bombs and Humans. Artists united against the war, it is also a charity exhibition. It is venued by an underground area, it is not mounted in an institutional area, weve staged it with the clear purpose of emphasizing the emergency. You dont go to a comfortable place, with white walls, a clean space, when what you have to say is urgent, theres no room for you to do that either. All the seats have been taken. All these people have gathered, they worked especially on this theme, the overwhelming majority worked on that theme of the war waged by Putin. It is a war waged by men, aggressive and strong, against women, against children, against civilians, against a people who did them no harm in any way, save for their wish to get closer to Europe. On the opening day we had some sort of admission ticket, meaning that visitors had to bring aid, like canned food, unperishable foodstuff or hygiene objects, for the victims of the war and for the refugees from Ukraine. We sold various objects created by the artists. We keep on selling them. A little bit of funding has also been raised. With the money we got we shall buy objects the refugees and the victims of this war need. The message is that the war must end, right now. It is a message of peace; it is a protest against the war. Some more artists have turned up even after weve had the opening event. We can continue, it depends on the available premises were going to find. By all means, artists are going to work focusing on this theme. Besides, we should not forget were vulnerable any time. “

(EN)