Comprehensive conceptual frame of Pending Works as well as Bureaucracy of Objects with references to works from 2010 to the present. Insights into TAH29 - The Artist and Himself at 29, with studio photos from Sweden, and the archives of GAM - Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Milano.
Published by Sabot.
With art spaces across Europe currently showcasing Romanian art and with a bunch of young artists, many of which are based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, are gaining notoriety internationally, C-print had a talk with Daria Dumitrescu, founder and director of Galeria Sabot, about running a gallery anything but conventionally under the keynotes of abstraction, collision and incongruence.
(excerpts)
C-P: You are currently exhibiting Alex Mirutziu with a show titled "Each thought's an instant ruin with a new disease". I read somewhere that Mirutziu has been labeled "l'énfant terrible of his generation". Could you tell us a about this current exhibition and what earns him this label?
D.D: Mirutziu was my first choice for Sabot. A brilliant, flamboyant mind, juggling an overdressed aesthetic and an exquisite imagery. At the beginning of his career, he was oscillating between being critically queer, performing gender, and questioning the power systems and their bearing on ideology, language, and discourse. Not difficult to imagine that the Romanian scene was not prepared to embrace this approach… And I’m wondering if things seem easier now, when Mirutziu pushed his long-term engagement with performance and media critical installations even further: into the Internet of things, high-end technology, post-language, and beyond. His current show is a mise-en-scène based on the artist’s philosophical notations. An artist book elaborating on his object-oriented research will be launched at the exhibition's finissage – compulsory reading for any ‘label designer’ around!
Interview by: George Robescu
Alex Mirutziu / 32 / Sibiu / Artist
How do you wish to die?
In my sleep.
What’s the last show that you saw?
Archimedes. Art and Invention Science — Capitolini Museum, Rome.
Describe a typical day in your life as an artist.
Mostly in front of screens, either of laptop or other devices.
What’s the most indispensable item in your studio?
I guess books, and notebooks. My studio is in my head.
Where are you finding ideas for your work these days?
It’s a mess. From everywhere: a buss stop sticker to anti-philosophy.
Do you collect anything?
Mainly images, that speak to me.
What is your karaoke song?
I don’t do such thing, but I know many David Bowie songs by heart.
What’s the last artwork you purchased?
A limited edition “Venus in Furs” book.
What’s the last great book you read?
The State of things (Office for Contemporary Art – Norway)
What work of art do you wish you owned?
Vir Temporis Acti by Adolfo Wildt.
What (under-appreciated) artist do you think people should know about?
Charlotte Moorman — one of the key figures in the New York Avant-Garde. Her influence in the experimental art is unparalleled but somehow her legacy is overlooked.
What are your hobbies?
Traveling abroad.
What is your present state of mind?
Post-exhibition detachment.
Look at your watch. What time is it?
13:34 Rome time.
Drag every day or only on special occasions?
Not for me.
What turns you off?
Vegetative time.
How about pleasure?
Accuracy.
Explain what you do in +/- 100 words
A dancer who walks for a living.
What’s your strongest memory of your childhood?
Going at the cinema with my father.
What jobs have you done other than being an artist?
If I need a job I prefer something that has nothing to do with art.
What is your dream project?
I don’t have one. It’s something that I don’t think about.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Fuck your circumstances.
Know any good jokes?
I’m afraid not.
What was your first work of art?
Myself.
Did they say you had natural talent in art school?
Yes.
What advice would you give to a young person who wants to become an artist?
Polish your ideas kids, you’re gonna need them.
Do you think the art world is dead?
The discussion is maybe — if the art world is still interested in art and not life itself.
Who do you think is the best business artist in the world?
I guess Jeff Koons.
Do you think artists of the future will form companies or go public and sell stock?
Maybe why not.
Do you ever think about politics?
Art degrades into politics. It implies a political way of dealing with ‘art.’
Do you think your work will go up in value when you’re gone?
I don’t really care. To clear the air in some instances maybe, is of interest.
What time do you get up in the morning?
Usually around 10.
What do you do in the morning?
Common things nothing out of the ordinary.
Are rich people different from poor people?
Depends on where you stand. Money empower people, but after all we are on the same foot.
Do you ever feel like an imposter? Why? Why not?
I feel more like a boxer…punching clean an attitude era.
Did you ever feel like giving up on art?
Sometimes I cultivate an indeterminate drift and mock the idea of art.
How do you feel when (if) you discover another artist who does something very similar to your own work?
Look very attentive. Nothing really comes from the same source and develops similarly. Artists may produce similar artworks but their motivation defer.
Do you have the ambition to change things with your work (art, society, people)? Does it seem important to you?
It is important to massage a conceptual locus or to layer a specific field of practice.
How many times did you break up with art?
Honestly – never. It’s an affliction.
Do your works need explaining? Would you like everyone to understand them? Do you think it’s ok to have a target audience?
Explaining an artwork turns it into something else. A way of enriching my practice is to touch places that only writing with can do.
Is nail art art?
It’s crazy isn’t it. Who knows?
What would your super power be?
Do you really think I would lay it out? Occultation, for the sake of asking the question.
When were you happiest?
This question is damn personal, it will overshadow everything else in a split second, reason why I prefer to keep it to myself.
What’s your favorite post-gallery bar?
I don’t have one.
What would you do to get it?
The question is to get what? Success? Money? Fulfillment of any sort?
Who’s your favorite living artist?
I have one actually but at this time I rather keep it to myself.
What was your most embarrassing moment?
Forgetting names in conversation, other than that I can’t squeeze anything out now.
What is your favorite word?
Porosity.
What is the worst thing anyone’s said to you?
People are nice to me you know! It’s mutual.
What do you owe your parents?
I prefer not to respond, reason being that it will take too much effort to put it in words.
What does love feel like?
Right now, like an iceberg in pink light.
How do you relax?
Traveling is one way.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Oh, my God! To be patient.
Do you believe in progress?
Absolutely.
Would you under any conditions accept to show your works under anonymity?
I did that this year.
Do you care about who buys your art? What kind of people, institutions? Would you refuse someone?
My work self-selects in a way its possible buyers. It is radical enough to appeal to whom considers it relevant.
Do you like artist collectives?
Yes, I am in one.
Does being an artist make you a better cook? A better lover? Does your work influence other aspects of your life?
Not really. On the contrary, it can be a wrecker.
Do think it’s important to be self centered in order to succeed as an artist?
In one way or another, one has to be self-centered.
Would you prefer your art to be timeless or timely?
The patina of time is so beautiful. It informs, it gives place, creates meaning. Therefore timely.
What is the contemporary meaning of the death of art?
Art transition into life itself.
Is Peaches more attractive than Mona Lisa?
They both rock. But Mona Lisa is a score hitter no matter what.
Do you know who said “art is whatever gets you laid”?
Who?
What’s your favorite art themed funny shirt?
Have none.
Would you turn down dinner with Marina Abramović because you find her distinctly annoying?
Have no idea if she is annoying. Is she? I wouldn’t turn her down.
Did you ever look at an Arcimboldo painting and got hungry?
Uuu, never.
Did you think that was a happening?
(?)
Do you buy postcards at museum stores?
Often.
What’s better: your art on a tote bag or on a notebook?
Tote bag.
Look or look at me?
Look.
What rhymes with art? The Louvre or The Commune?
Louvre.
Who in the art world deserves most to be punched in the face?
No one really.
What did you ever do to cure loneliness?
Go out.
You have 50 masterpieces of standing male marble nudes. What would you do with them?
They call for an alley to be placed in.
What do you fear more: no reviews or bad reviews?
No reviews.
How much is too much for a painting?
Nothing is to much for any work of art.
I say catastrophe, you say..?
Candy.
A can of kerosene is the answer. What was the question?
Something related to Jasper Johns? Hmmm…
Did you ever write a fan letter to Bryan Cranston? Why not?
Who is this guy?
What program do you use for pirating music?
Many.
How did your gang initiation go?
What gang?
What should burn first: Christie’s or the Parliament?
Christie’s.
Is there enough art for all the money?
Believe me there is.
For the love of god. Who would buy a diamond skull?
I would. I like that work.
What art themed tattoo would you get?
Do less more.
Would it be better than a diamond skull?
(?)
Did you think that was a happening?
(?)
Seriously now. What’s the maximum time to spend in a museum?
From morning till dawn.
“Would the fact that Governor Rockefeller has not denounced President Nixon’s Indochina Policy be a reason for your not voting for him in November?”
You must be joking.
When’s the last time you read the newspapers?
I read them quite often.
What did you learn?
(?)
When can you go into the supermarket and buy what you need with your good looks? America is this correct? I saved Latin. What did you do?
My good looks got me photographs on the street, hugs of a slut, and occasionally free drinks.
Do you have social disease?
They are not really diseases.
What’s the outside of a gallery?
Another gallery.
What mechanism do you reproduce?
None.
Can art be collective again?
It always been collective.
How do you feel as a capitalist entrepreneur?
Masterful.
*
What is a curator?
Carer of things.
What to do with the contemporary?
Leave it in the now.
What is the public?
What is the artist?
What is an exhibition?
A gathering of ideas in a specific place.
What about collecting?
Something to think about.
What is the future of art?
No art.
What is the process?
Being in the project.
What about responsibility?
Responsibility gives stature.
What’s the first artwork you ever sold?
Back in high-school. A couple of paintings.
What project are you working on now?
A sound installation called Scotopolitic objects.
What’s the last show that surprised you? Why?
David Bowie is.
Do you make a living off your art?
Often.
What’s the weirdest thing you ever saw happen in a museum or gallery?
Surveillance cameras are weird.
What’s your art-world bête noire?
Don’t have one.
Where is the poem, 2013 [from 'performance for prepared poem and one hand', based on 'Politics' by Graham Foust] and Weight of sleep as temporary sculpture present in flesh of face 2013-SIBIU, archival print on paper, 88,9 x 70 cm
OPENING
WORKS AND INSTALLATION VIEW
Each thought's an instant ruin with a new disease
Alex Mirutziu
Friday, November 15th, 7 - 10 pm
Exhibition on view through January 10th, 2014
Sabot - Paintbrush Factory, Cluj-Napoca
“Off-the-wall outcome of the artist’s philosophy-driven research into the art theory and practice, Alex Mirutziu’s second solo show with Sabot is proving again the artist’s appetite for deconstruction and critical dissection. Informed by his ongoing series of Pending Works, the recentBureaucratic Objects are activated by Mirutziu’s rendering of the Reality of Never and its Design.
L’enfant terrible of his generation, Alex Mirutziu dynamited his way into the art world with frantic performances, resistant to monolithic definitions. His work is regarded as provocative and intensely philosophical to deeply entangled and juxtaposed, where closure and heartbreak seem always in need, of an unpalatable and constricted reality of each millisecond, as time itself might be a result of a violent and catastrophic event that needs re-establishment in history. He declares being influenced of writers rather than visual artists, voluntarily exiled himself in his hometown with which he has a love hate relationship masochistically overstated as nomadic existence. His affiliation to classicism is visible when drawing extensively from Adolfo Wildt and Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruisdael, reworking ‘The Jewish Cemetery’ among other romantic works, following a path that only Constable took seriously in 1797. A Romanian artist in his early thirties, Alex Mirutziu goes beyond his fragile frame and apparent shyness to fastidiously perform the unperformable, moments of silence to thoughts that die never looking like art as in his latest series of works called ‘Pending Works’.” - Björn Olsen (independent writer and occasional curator, researcher at University of Manchester)
“I refer to a space in which thought can operate—a nexus of processes, interactions and mediations that are clearly distinguishable as non-linear, non-cumulative, and task-based. The focus is not on what is happening, but on when it is happening. What is expressed neither describes nor represents existing matrixes of recognition, rather reformulates possibilities.
There is an interior design of objects that eludes us at any instant, suggesting that there is more to things than our representations of them and more depth than we are able to see.
My Pending Works never directly encounter one another, but only relate to one another through various translations. Any object is here, once it is here, not sooner, and in order to be here, it needs different levels of translations and mediations. It adapts to the dynamic of translating information through time, but with no claim of definite form, it rather points out to exchanges within its environment. It does so either by itself, or by coexistence with its neighbors.
Here we are, trying to make sense of the object through its own bureaucracy, through its own internal affairs.”
(excerpts from Mirutziu’s essay Pending Works and Bureaucratic Objects, published on the occasion of this exhibition)
