ELENA SCUTARU: Avatar
21.05 - 20.06.2021
SANDWICH OFFSPACE
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Elena Scutaru: AVATAR
Opening: Fri, 21 May, 4 - 8 pm
Sandwich Offspace
(Atelierele Malmaison, Calea Plevnei 137C, side B, 2nd floor)
Exhibition open: 21.05 - 20.06.2021, Thurs. - Sat., 2 - 6 pm
A group of almost identical faces, suddenly and collectively glancing at us, can be intimidating or it can be exactly what we were missing. We find it hard to place them either in the past or in the future, to understand where they come from or whether they are coming for us, to make sense of their empty gaze. These hybrid avatars built gradually are never fully finished, new layers of various materials are added, even after many years, they borrow elements from each other and are left pending.
Elena Scutaru’s synthetic humans belong to a future in which the esthetic is irrelevant, and equally to the ancient times in which the image of the human, vertical and doubtless, is central. Although references are many, the structure of these characters is that of mannequins, in their turn imitating human shape. With their inquiring arms and unfinished surfaces, they are neither human, nor abstract, nor fictional.
We don’t see ourselves in these apparitions, they are not mirroring the present human. It is precisely their lack of empathy that reminds us why we’ve missed meeting real people, alert people, loud or even tiresome ones. We congregate, humans and avatars, of different heights but side by side, and promise to never let time pass by again.
Starting from the image of herself, through casting and modeling, Elena Scutaru multiplies characters, faces and bodies, up to abstraction. Since the 90s, her art practice has known various stages and transformations. She is a university lecturer PhD at the National University of Arts in Bucharest.
This event is part of the Program “Sandwich Club 20-21”. A cultural program co-funded by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The program does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The AFCN is not responsible for the content of the program or the manner in which the results of the program may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.
