VIAE FERRAE[i]

Andreea Medar & Malina Ionescu

The basement of the Național Museum Constantin Brâncuși, Târgu Jiu

The map unraveled by Mălina Ionescu and Andreea Medar continues and revisits the theme of spaces that are re-constructed by folding and compression. In Viae Ferrae #1, in 2019, the common map was a result of the dialogue between the two artists – a conversation that brought together important places – containers of the personal or shared experiences. The reality of this restructured space corresponds to a series of emotional realities, more relevant in the communication, memory, narrative and therefore representation than their respective geographical accuracy. The places receive a new identity (buildings, streets, roads and geographical elements): the identity of a place is defined by the interactions with it, as scene for emotional experiences rather than form solely their concrete attributes. These very different and (often temporally) distant spatial instances are brought together, repositioned and resized spontaneously, in a process that translates directly the communication, narrative and direct association – the discovery or the search for convergences, extensions and additions. The locus of the narrative and memory is in this chapter the in-between, the interval: initially a neutral territory, essentialized and covered by the same unifying grass, it gradually makes room for several visual elements that speak of and define the collaboration of the two artists: the (inconspicuous or obviously) artificial space, the play with mirrors and the cancellation or doubling of space, the virtual space and the multiple, overlapping referential layers of a place. In addition to the shared themes the project also unravels another new dimension of referential fields, sense and quotations:  the relationship between the visible and the palpable with the various plays upon perception and with the reality (not less present) of the virtual environment. The insert of mirrors, the video projections that cite the online and the light that alters and transforms shapes and colour sometimes add unexpected expressions and references, and more often reaffirm and validate the specificity of the collaboration between the two artists.

[i] A bow to China Miéville

Viae Ferrae II 2021, Constantin Brancusi Museum, Tg-Jiu, intervention in space, earth, wheat, rubber, mirror, live projections