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Nombre de personnages dans les tableaux, classés selon leur milieu et activité
Șerban SavuEn Dérive
Vis
uel :
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Le Lait
Milieu rural Milieu urbain
TravailLoisir
Press Kit
p. 3
Press releasep. 4
Works selection p. 6
Press selection p. 8
Publicationp. 11
Biography p. 14
Rendez-vous / practical information
Exhibition
En dériveof
Șerban Savufrom to
13|04|19 23|06|19Opening on at
April 12, 2019 6.30 pmCurated by Antoine Marchand
3Exhibition from to
13|04|19 23|06|19Opening on at
April 12, 2019 6.30 pmCurated byAntoine Marchand
Prior to the exhibition, an encounter withthe artist is scheduled for Tuesday the 9th of april at 6.30 pm, in the MédiathèquePierre Amalric. Şerban Savu (born in 1978 in Sighisoara (Romania); lives and works in
Cluj-Napoca (Romania)) belongs to a group of Romanian artists living in Cluj-Napoca, a Transylvanian university city not far from Hungary, nowadays regarded as Romania’s art capital. In it, this bunch of friends has developed an extremely rich art scene, whose ranks include various internationally recognized figures, such as Adrian Ghenie, Victor Man and Ciprian Muresan.
Şerban Savu’s figurative paintings usually depict vast post-industrial landscapes in which figures walk about, swim and undertake everyday activities. For the most part, they portray solitary people, caught in the middle distance, isolated, and involved in a specific act. Where his interior scenes are concerned, they reveal people unaware of us as onlookers, absorbed in their tasks. The result is a series of poignant snapshots subtly showing the psyche of “ordinary” Romanians, while the country is undergoing frequent political and economic upheavals.
Şerban Savu offers a critical look at these landscapes. The gap between the pictorial treatment, magnifying the whole—in particular through very precise work on light--, and the pointlessness of the scenes represented lends these pictures a jaded tone. His works conjure up both the late 19th century canvases of the Impressionists, and also echo the works of Jean-François Millet, Pieter Bruegel and Edward Hopper, by their ability to capture a special moment, and suspend time for a brief moment.
These paintings also attest to a now bygone period, evoking dreams of a communist utopia: these cityscapes, which seemed to open the way to a bright future, have become relics in just a few years. It is these two periods of history which intermingle and confront one another in Şerban Savu’s compositions, like symbols of past promises and scenes of present-day reality.
The show at Le LAIT, titled En dérive, brings together works produced by Şerban Savu over the past twelve years, some of which echo the local context and in particular the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Prior to his exhibition in Albi, Şerban has been invited to show his work in the Centre Pompidou. This project, undertaken with his compatriot Ciprian Muresan, is organized around Constantin Brancusi, the figurehead of the Romanian art scene.
Exhibition placeLe Lait centre d’art contemporain28 rue Rochegude81000 Albi
Opening hoursfrom Wednesday to Sundayfrom 1-6 pmFree entry, accessible to all
Group visits on reservationMonday morning to Friday nightBooking : [email protected]. : +33 (0)9 63 03 98 98
AdministrationCarré Public6 rue Jules Rolland81000 Albi
InformationT. : +33 (0)9 63 03 98 84centredart@centredartlelait.comwww.centredartlelait.comfacebook.com/centredartlelait
Press [email protected]. : +33 (0)9 63 03 98 98 M. : +33 (0)6 72 82 22 78
4Works selection
Şerban Savu, Untitled, 33 x 50 cm, oil on canvas, 2006
Şerban Savu, Picnic, 20 x 30 cm, oil on canvas, 2006
5
Şerban Savu, About Love, 60 x 43 cm, oil on canvas, 2007
Works selection
6
Şerban Savu, Random Audience, 134 x 192 cm, oil on canvas, 2014
Works selection
7
Şerban Savu, The Guardian, 175 x 223 cm, oil on canvas, 2015
Works selection
8
What Work Is Philip Levine
We stand in the rain in a long linewaiting at Ford Highland Park. For work.You know what work is—if you’reold enough to read this you know whatwork is, although you may not do it.Forget you. This is about waiting,shifting from one foot to another.Feeling the light rain falling like mistinto your hair, blurring your visionuntil you think you see your own brotherahead of you, maybe ten places.You rub your glasses with your fingers,and of course it’s someone else’s brother,narrower across the shoulders thanyours but with the same sad slouch, the grinthat does not hide the stubbornness,the sad refusal to give in torain, to the hours of wasted waiting,to the knowledge that somewhere aheada man is waiting who will say, “No,we’re not hiring today,” for anyreason he wants. You love your brother,now suddenly you can hardly standthe love flooding you for your brother,who’s not beside you or behind orahead because he’s home trying tosleep off a miserable night shiftat Cadillac so he can get upbefore noon to study his German.[...]
Philip Levine, “What Work Is” from What Work Is, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1991
For the Şerban Savu show at the Le LAIT contemporary art centre, a book will also be published, on the borderline between a retrospective catalogue and an artist’s book. Richly illustrated, with different essays and interviews, this publication adopts a new angle to broach Şerban Savu’s oeuvre, offering an overview of his pictorial work accompanied by texts by the American poet Philip Levine, who, in his poems, casts a unique eye over the world of the American worker.
This is a joint publication by IDEA Design + Print, Cluj, the Plan B gallery, Cluj/Berlin, and the Le LAIT contemporary art centre, Albi.
Publication
9
Volume 1 / Issue 2 / 2011 / p.80
Press Selection
10
1
Serban Savu (right) and Weekend (2006)
Phaidon.com 26 January 2012 Figurative painter Serban Savu's skillfully rendered canvases capture the daily existence of contemporary Romanians at work and leisure. Savu treats his protagonists’ facial characteristics in a generic manner, causing their individual identities to remain elusive. Interior scenes depict people unaware of our gaze and absorbed in their own worlds, viewed through glass and embedded in compositions governed by architectural features. Exterior rural landscapes often portray solitary figures in the middle-‐distance, isolated and overwhelmed. The result is a series of poignant, observational 'snapshots' that obliquely reveal the psyche of the ‘ordinary’ Romanian as the country experiences political change and economic growth. Who are you? Do you expect me to know the answer to this question?! Probably at the end of my days I will have a general idea about who I was. I try to answer this question through my painting because I believe that painting is like a fingerprint, it doesn’t lie about the personality of the artist. What’s on your mind right now? To be honest, I have just returned yesterday from a ski holiday in Austria. I needed a break, but it is always challenging to focus on your work after a break. If before leaving I had a particular logic of ideas, now I feel that a new logic will take over. Anyhow, on the way back to Cluj, my hometown in Romania, I stopped for one day in Vienna to revisit the Kunsthistorisches Museum and to recharge myself with some new energy from the old masters that I love so much.
Press Selection
11
2
How do you get this stuff out? I like to follow what Leonardo said: “Pittura e una cosa mentale” (painting is a mental occupation). In my case, everything starts with an idea, then I do my own photographic research. Afterwards, I feel like a puppeteer when I play in Photoshop to ‘order’ the composition by moving the characters around. In the end, the ‘preparatory drawing’ looks more like a collage. After I do all these boring preparations, painting comes as a relief. How does it fit together? What bounds them together is the language. I try to find the right voice or tone for each painting. It is a mixture of intuition and lucidity and my goal is to find the right balance -‐ balance that gives a certain fluidity to the painting. What brought you to this point? Ever since I was a teenager, I was interested in the subjects that I am painting now, but I didn’t know that they could be painted. After my stay in Venice, Italy between 2002 and 2004 (“Vietato l’ingresso ai non addetti ai lavori”, Cube Gallery, Venice, Italy “Ichtyos”, Spazio Arte Pisanello, Verona, Italy) when I came back to Cluj I was able to see more clearly the reality around me, I could understand better what triggered me and I knew I had found my way. Can you control it? Actually I wait for the moments when I lose control. In general I control everything in my painting, starting from the geometry underneath the painting to the way the light envelops the characters and the surroundings. I consider the moments I lose control to be revelations. What's next? I don’t know what is next and I am not really keen to find out. I like to focus on the present and what I am doing now. Serban Savu is represented by Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles; Galerie Hussenot, Paris, Plan B, Cluj, and David Nolan, New York.
Press Selection
12Biography
Education
1996 - 2001 – University of Art and Design, Cluj, Romania
Grant
2002 - 2004 - “Nicolae Iorga” postgraduate research grant, Venice, Italy
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2019“En dérive”, Centre d’art Le Lait, Albi
2018“Heroes, Saints and Other Figures”, Galeria Plan B, Berlin“Serban Savu”, Museo Pietro Canonica, Rome“All Saints’s Day”, White Cuib, Cluj
2016“New Works”, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles
2015“Pictures at an Exhibition”, Plan B Gallery, Berlin“Manastur”, Dawid Radziszewski Gallery, Warsaw
2014“Sometimes My Eyes Are the Eyes of a
Stranger”, Monica de Cardenas Gallery, Milan
2012“Daily Practice for the End of the World”, Plan B Gallery, Berlin“Overview”, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles
2011“Close to Nature”, David Nolan Gallery, New York“Under the Radar”, Pitzhanger Manor, PM Gallery & House, London
2010 “Unimportant Stories”, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles“Essay on Limits”, Galerie Hussenot, Paris
2009“Recent Paintings”, Plan B Gallery, Berlin“The Edge of the Empire”, David Nolan Gallery, New York “Behind the Walls”, Laika, Cluj
2007“Harvest”, Kontainer Gallery, Los Angeles “Girls”, Plan B Gallery, Cluj“Along the River”, F A Projects, London
2006“The New Man”, Mie Lefever Gallery, Gent“Foaia de pontaj”, H’art Gallery, Bucharest
Selected Group Exhibitions
2019“Ciprian Muresan et Serban Savu: L’atelier sans fin”, Centre Pompidou, Paris“Ex-East, Past and Recent Stories of the Romanian Avant-Garde”, Espace Niemeyer, Paris“La Brique, The Brick, Caramida”, La Kunsthalle, Mulhouse
2018“Ciprian Muresan et Serban Savu: L’entretien infini”, Centre Pompidou, Paris“The State We Are In” Collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Galeria Labirynt, Lublin“Art on Stage”, Art Safari, Bucharest“Double Heads Matches”, New Budapest Gallery, Budapest“BioPerversity”, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles
2017“Hierophant”, Nicodim Gallery, BucharestThe 3rd Mediterranean Biennale “Out of Place”, Sakhnin“Disruptive Imagination. Making Windows Where There Were Once Walls”, Gallery of Fine Arts, Ostrava“On the Sex of Angels”, Nicodim Gallery, Bucharest
Born 1978 Sighișoara, Romania
Lives and works in Cluj, Romania
13
“Disruptive Imagination. Making Windows Where There Were Once Walls”, Ferenczy Museum Center, Szentendre
2016“...Hounded by External Events...”, Maureen Paley Gallery, London“Landscapes After Ruskin: Redefining the Sublime”, Hall Art Foundation, Reading“Layers”, Nicodim Gallery, Bucharest Berlin Show # 4: Inventory, Plan B Gallery, Berlin“George Grosz: Politics and His Influence”, David Nolan Gallery, New York“Track Changes”, Mendes Wood DM Gallery, Sao Paulo“The Factory of Facts and Other (Unspoken) Stories”, Salonul de Proiecte, Bucharest“The Factory of Facts and Other (Unspoken) Stories”, Domino, Cluj
2015“Appearance and Essence”, Art Encounters Biennial, Timisoara“Pocket Revolutions”, Korea Foundation, Seoul“Tracing Shadows”, Plateau Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul“Group Exhibition”, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles
2014“Defaced”, Boulder
Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder“Through the Collector’s Eye”, The Office, Cluj“A Few Grams of Red, Yellow, Blue”, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw“This Side of Paradise”, Sotheby’s S|2 Gallery, London
2013“Nightfall”, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague “Romanian Scenes”, Espace Culturel Loius Vuitton, Paris“Km/h, Utopies automobiles et ferroviaires (1913-2013)”, Musée du château des ducs de Wurtemberg, Montbéliard and Musée de Belfort, Belfort“Hotspot Cluj, New Romanian Art”, Arken Museum, Copenhagen
2012“Nightfall”, Center for Modern and Contemporary Arts, Debrecen“European Travellers. Art from Cluj Today”, Mucsarnok, Budapest“Referencing History”, Green Art Gallery, Dubai“Salonul de vara”, Plan B Gallery, Cluj
2011“ Anthem of People’s Love”, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles “Communism never
happened”, Charim Gallery, Vienna“Salonul de mai”, Plan B Gallery, Cluj“East Ex East”, Brand New Gallery, Milan
2010“Figurative Painting in Romania 1970-2010”, Club Electro Putere, Craiova“After the Fall”, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY “Berlin Show #2”, Plan B Gallery, Berlin“Romanian Cultural Resolution”, Spinnerei, Leipzig“Mircea Pinte Collection”, Museum of Art, Cluj“Route tournante en sous-bois”, Upload Art Project, Trento
2009 “I’ve Watered a Horseshoe as if It Were a Flower”, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles“Invisible Body, Conspicuous Mind”, Luckman Gallery, Los Angeles”Expanded Painting 3”, Prague Biennale 4, Prague“Show Me a Hero”, Calvert 22, London
2008 “Size Matters: XS - Recent Small-Scale Painting, Knoxville Museum
Biography
14
of Art, Knoxville“Re-construction”, Biennial of Young Artists, Bucharest“Berlin show # 1”, Plan B Gallery, Berlin“Closer Still”, Mihai Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles “Days Become Nights”, Galerie Hussenot, Paris
2007“Eastern European Painting Today”, Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin“Across The Trees”, David Nolan Gallery, New York”Expanded Painting 2”, Prague Biennale 3, Prague
2006 “Cluj Connection”, Haunch of Venison Gallery, Zurich“Please Drive Slowly Through Our World”, Kontainer Gallery, Los Angeles
Biography
15
Exhibition from 13|04|19 to 23|06|19
Opening on April 12, 2019 at 6.30 pm
Rendez-vous with Şerban Savu at the Pierre Amalric Library, 30 av. Général de Gaulle, Albi, Tuesday, April 9 avril at 18:15
Rendez-vous / practical information
Partners
Press Contact
[email protected] T. : +33 (0)9 63 03 98 98 M. : +33 (0)6 72 82 22 78
Information T. : +33 (0)9 63 03 98 84 [email protected] www.centredartlelait.com facebook.com/centredartlelait instagram/centredartlelait
Exhibition place Le Lait centre d’art contemporain 28 rue Rochegude 81000 Albi
Opening from Wednesday to Sunday mercredi au dimanche from 2-7 pm Free entry, accessible to all
Administration Carré Public 6 rue Jules Rolland 81000 Albi
Institutional partners
The Art Centre is part of the DCA networks (French Association for the Development of Art Centres), the Air du midi network(Regional Associations of Midi Pyrénées Art Centres) and the LMAC (Midi-Pyrénées Laboratory of Contemporary Art Mediations)
Exhibition partners