ART CITIES:Bucharest-Mihai Zgondoiu

Mihai Zgondoiu is an artist, curator and gallerist, who holds a master’s and a doctorate degree in the field of visual arts. His artistic practice consists of a variety of genres and techniques, ranging from drawing, collage, experimental print to video installation, performances, and urban interventions. His projects recall critical thinking (as well as self-critical thinking) towards clichés in our current society, mocking its socio-cultural values and icons, which were created by the new media through different kind of fake news propaganda.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Mihai Zgondoiu Archive

Mihai Zgondoiu’s interactive installation “Fight with Mozart” consists of a boxing bag tapestried with rug representing “The Abduction from the Seraglio”, two boxing gloves tapestried as well, and a sound system playing fragments from the opera “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” by Mozart the viewer/participant can literary interact with the installation boxing to the music of Mozart. As the artist says “A very fashionable item throughout Romanian homes 30 years ago, the rug representing “The Abduction from the Seraglio”, an opera by Mozart, turned nowadays into an old school symbol of contemporary kitsch. It was erased from the popular collective memory after ’89, making new space for the new consumerist products”. “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The plot concerns the attempt of the hero Belmonte, assisted by his servant Pedrillo, to rescue his beloved Konstanze from the seraglio of Pasha Selim. The work premiered on 16 July 1782 at the Vienna Burgtheater, with the composer conducting. At that time thehe opera was a huge success. “The duplicating mechanism of some objects relevant for the past seems a response to anxiety. An anxiety of the present projected on a past, suggested by objects which now appear to be irrelevant. Mihai Zgondoiu is an artist who chooses to analyse apparently ordinary aspects in order to lead us towards a sociological understanding of an era” as the curator says

Info: Curator: Răzvan Ion, creArt Gallery, Square Alexandru Lahovari no. 7, Bucharest, Duration: 14/6-8/7/18, www.creart.ro