米尔恰·康托尔
מירצ’ה קנטור
МИРЧА КАНТОР

Arch of Triumph

source: cafedaumnet
Mircea Cantor a étudié à l’université d’art et d’esthétique de Cluj-Napoca et à l’école supérieure des beaux-arts de Nantes Métropole.
Ses travaux témoignent d’une réflexion critique sur les aspects (positifs et négatifs) de la globalisation. Dans le sillage de Marcel Duchamp, Mircea Cantor recourt aux objets ready-made ou encore à l’iconographie afin d’exposer l’ambiguïté de la vie quotidienne au postmodernisme, c’est-à-dire à une époque où l’on témoigne au processus de métissage culturel dû à l’effondrement des différentes frontières (géographiques, symboliques, culturelles, etc.).
Les supports d’expression‍ de Mircea Cantor sont très divers : vidéo, animation, sculpture, dessin, peinture et installations. Ses travaux figurent dans les collections de plusieurs grands musées tels le Museum of Modern Art (New York), le Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), du Philadelphia Museum of Art (Pennsylvania).
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: kulturologiaru
Mircea Cantor родился в Румынии в 1977 году. Как утверждает сам, сейчас живет и работает на Земле. Известен в первую очередь за свое утонченное видение проблем современного мира, которым посвящены все его разноплановые, лишенные логики работы. Среди проблем, к которым обращается художник – вопросы глобализации, ее плюсы и минусы.
Более разностороннего художника, чем Mircea Cantor, представить трудно. Он работал с бетоном, глиной, бытовым мусором, металлом, деревом, золотом, бутылками из под чего-то там, снимал фото, делал фильмы, что-то связанное со звуком, просто рисовал. Кроме того, он является ярчайшим представителем так называемого “готового” искусства (found art) – искусства, в котором для создания художественных композиций используются вещи, на первый взгляд, к искусству отношения не имеющие. С помощью этого самого готового искусства, зачастую лишенного логики, Mircea Cantor выявляет двусмысленность каждодневной жизни и то, как множество разных культур перекрывают друг друга.
Каждая его работа способна озадачить, от некоторых голова просто кипит. Например, от проекта “По следам счастья”, представляющего собой замкнутый круг из метущих пол женщин, или его работа пятилетней давности, в которой он поместил в одну среду волка и оленя. Над темами, затронутыми художником, интересно размышлять, и пусть не всегда его работа – это что-то красивое, зато он умеет показывать что-то новое каждой своей работой, не выходя при этом за рамки дозволенного (как бы радикальны его работы не были, них нет ничего отвратительного .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: reecrire

Quelle symbolique cette couleur a dans nos esprits ? Les premiers rayons d’un soleil jaune vif nous posent la question, eux qui nous revigorent mais peuvent nous brûler la peau. À quelle image inconsciente se rattache une création artistique ?

Si le jaune rappelle à notre mémoire instinctive la chaleur, les oiseaux et éventuellement le logo de la poste, le jaune est une couleur ambivalente : celle de la vie éternelle dans de nombreuses croyances, de l’opulence mais aussi de la peau humaine quand la mort approche.

Paradoxalement, dans la cosmologie mexicaine, le jaune est la couleur de la terre fertile au moment des moissons et représente le mystérieux mouvement cyclique du renouveau, de la nouvelle vie. C’est le signe de la survie de l’âme après la mort et de la résurrection dans l’Eglise catholique. Le jaune est donc une évocation particulièrement puissante et royale, sa force brille et sa vision régénère.

Dans nos têtes d’occidentaux, on y voit un signe de richesse, c’est le soleil et l’or, ce métal en fusion qui coûte une blinde, que tous les traders s’arrachent sur les marchés boursiers et que les femmes vénales rêvent de posséder en monture.

Mais c’est aussi la couleur des dieux, des rois et donc du pouvoir. Qui dit pouvoir dit abus d’où l’ambivalence de sa signification. C’est l’autre versant, l’envers de décor. Le noir est son opposé et son complémentaire dans la tradition chinoise.

La luminosité du jaune peut passer du côté obscur de la force par l’orgueil et la perversion. La croix des juifs persécutés est jaune elle aussi.

Le plasticien Mircéa Cantor n’en rit pas jaune. Lauréat du prix Marcel Duchamp en 2011 et dernièrement en exposition au Centre Pompidou, on notera une récurrence des brûlures humaines, du feu, du mais et de beaucoup de jaune dans son travail plastique questionnant les rapports entre vie et mort.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: artforworldexpo

The Arch of Triumph gathers together and updates universal symbols from a very distant period. In the region of Maramures, in northwest Romania, inhabitants used to have imposing carved wooden doors in their houses, decorated with the tree of life, supposedly to repel evil forces. This symbol is replaced in Cantor’s recreation of the door by the contemporary symbol of universal life: the double helix of DNA. The Arch is designed as an urban monument, covered in gold foils, celebrating contemporary humankind, inspired by an ancient humanistic tradition. The 24-carat gold leaf covering, as specified by Cantor, endows the gate with a presence we might associate with an iconic sign, a fairytale or perhaps a rite of passage ritual. For the artist, the DNA strand symbolizes both the desire for certainty and what he describes as “the continuation of tradition” in another form. As these doors usually marked the entrances of important houses in the region, walking through this gold leaf covered gate, signifies passing through and under symbols of aspiration and continuity.

Mircea Cantor

Born in 1977 in Oradea, Romania.
Lives and works in Paris, France and Cluj Napoca, Romania.

The visual artist Mircea Cantor has received wide acclaim for his subtle commentary on issues of contemporary society. Cantor’s work is included in The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris as well as in other collections worldwide.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: pomeranz-collection
Born in 1977 in Oradea, Romania
Lives and works in Paris, France & Cluj Napoca, Romania
Having grown up in Eastern Europe during the Communist era, Mircea Cantor frequently draws on his own memory to explore the realities of power and the disintegration of cultural boundaries. He often positions himself at the crossroads between worlds, acting as an observer of societies and cultures and encouraging comparisons between differing attitudes and beliefs. The use of a simple and direct language, strongly poetic and evocative, composed of a glossary of essentialist images such as bread, maize, fingerprints, DNA helix, offers layered levels of perception.
The picture of an incandescent light bulb as will not be seen anymore in a few years time, rendered obsolete by energy saving policies, is shown in Which Light Kills You in an almost anatomical way, lit this time by means of a light box, rather than illuminating by itself. Some flies are stuck to the bulb, with their wings burnt in their suicidal determination to reach the light. This strong image naturally leads to this parable: because light and heat attract as a source of pleasure, they can also burn, therefore becoming a source of danger.
The video Tracking Happiness features a group of barefoot women clad in white, walking in a circular movement across fine white sand. Their footprints are continuously swept away by their broom-wielding successors. A brilliantly harsh light blurs the edges of their surroundings into the infinite, and a slightly mystical feeling about the tableau makes the women look like angelic figures, although the everyday banality of their straw brooms disrupts this impression. In this film, Cantor examines the paradox of an age in which traces are perpetually left then deleted, as well as the struggle towards the pursuit of happiness.
Chaplet (a string of beads for counting prayers) is the representation of barbed wire imprinted directly onto the glass wall by the artist’s fingers dipped in ink. This line, with its unequivocal motive, is displayed in a strangely expressive manner. The multiple fingerprints give a striking feeling of the body’s strength, while the pattern is obviously a symbol of violence and coercion that prevents freedom for human beings. The aggressive form, with its peaks and its tension, is here violently linked to the tender and sensitive flesh of the fingertips. At yet another level, this refers to the question of surveillance, such as biometric identification. Our contemporary societies are full of invisible barriers and increasingly insuperable restrictions, which have become in the past few years the new border guards, while most of the walls have collapsed or dream of doing so.
The installation Geschäft ist Geschäft plays with symbolic reflection. The work is composed of a neon sign, forming the cynical proverb “Geschäft ist Geschäft” (Business is business) which can only be read in a mirror on the facing wall, also including the viewer’s reflection. Broken mirror shards evoking diamonds are stuck into horse manure and complete this device. With the mirror, the faeces and the false gemstones topped by the proverb, the artist refers with very ordinary images to an economic sphere made of pretences and swindling.