când eram tânăr credeam că scriu pentru a învinge moartea
pe care o purtam țanțoș în buzunarul de la piept
printre bomboane țigări și prezervative
fițuici muguri de brad și cartușe uzate
dar moartea e un strigoi din alt univers
mai târziu am încercat să scriu pentru a îmblânzi moartea
care se cuibărea tot mai vie în lumina ochilor
căutând disperat să-i ating curbele feline
și să-i opresc salturile sinucigașe printre crengi de nuc
dispărând dintr-un curcubeu înfoiat în altul
dar moartea e un strigoi din alt univers
acum când primăvara e mai vie ca niciodată
și moartea dansează flamenco în jurul meu
împrăștiind cu frenezie cadavre sigilate în saci negri de plastic
laolaltă cu obiecte intime și telefoane care sună întruna
eu scrijelesc singur fiecare literă aburită de sânge
încercând să o iubesc cu toată ura lumii
dar moartea e un strigoi din alt univers
Suceava, 7 aprilie 2020
DEATH IS A GHOUL FROM AN UNALIKE UNIVERSE
by Constantin Severin
in my prime I thought I was writing to defeat death
which I unabashedly carried in my chest pocket
among bonbons cigarettes and condoms
paper rags fir tree buds and duds
but death is a ghoul from an unalike universe
later I tried to write as a way to tame death
which nestled ever more vivid in the sight of my eyes
despairingly seeking to touch its feline curves
and stop its suicidal somersaults among walnut branches
slipping away from within one puffed rainbow into another
but death is a ghoul from an unalike universe
now that spring is livelier than ever
and death dances flamenco encircling me
frantically scattering corpses sealed in black body bags
together with personal belongings and mobiles that keep ringing
I scribble alone each letter etched out in vapoury blood
striving to love it with the hate of all humankind
but death is a ghoul from an unalike universe
Suceava, April 7, 2020
(c) CS, translated into English by Dan Nicolae Popescu
LA MORT EST UN STRIGOL D’UN AUTRE UNIVERS
par Constantin Severin
quand j’étais jeune, je pensais que j’écrivais pour vaincre la mort que j’en portais un peu dans ma poche de chemise, parmi les cigarettes les préservatifs bonbons bourgeons de sapin et cartouches usées
mais la mort est un mort-vivant d’un autre univers
plus tard j’ai essayé d’écrire pour apprivoiser la mort celle qui est plus vivante à la lumière des yeux cherchant désespérément à toucher ses courbes félines et arrêter son saut suicidaire parmi les branches du noyer celle disparaissant d’un arc-en-ciel à l’autre
mais la mort est un mort-vivant d’un autre univers
maintenant, quand le printemps est plus vivant que jamais et la mort danse le flamenco autour de moi frénésie saupoudrant des cadavres scellés dans des sacs en plastique noir Avec des objets intimes et des téléphones qui continuent de sonner Je sculpte chaque lettre cuite de sang chaud, essayant de l’aimer avec toute la haine du monde
mais la mort est un mort-vivant d’un autre univers
Suceava, 7 avril 2020
(c) CS, traduction de Khal Torabully
This is my first poem written after 20 years, in my interviews after the year 2000 I declared that I will renounce to write poetry and I will replace it with painting, my first love.
But the global earthquaque of the coronavirus and and the advices of two friends, the major poets Wang Ping ( „keep writing, my friend, poetry is so needed these days”, she told me) and Erkut Tokman (who invited me to join to the new Open Poetry movement, which includes 50 of the best poets in the world) made me change my mind…
In the same day when I wrote the poem, a major Romanian writer, Liviu Antonesei, announced my comeback as a poet on his blog:
After some days, the poem was translated into English by my amazing translator, professor Dan Nicolae Popescu from the „Stephen the Great” University, Suceava and a major poet and artist, the French-Mauritian Khal Torabully, the father of the „coolitude” concept, translated my poem in French and included it on his cutting edge project, „CHRONIQUES AUX TEMPS DE CORONAVIRUS”, with an impressive comment:
„Bibliotecarul Infernului” este una din acele cărți de o profunzime unică, de o inteligență narativa rară, care m-a tulburat și emoționat. Pe măsură ce am înaintat în captivanta poveste, am simțit că mă identific cu personajele , devenind din lector, parte a acțiunii, personaj la rândul meu, al romanului.Confesiunea epistolară a lui Giovanni Esposito este confesiunea celei mai intime părți a fiecăruia dintre noi.
Generația mea și următoarele, am cunoscut insula Ada Kaleh doar din povești sau din cărți poștale. Astfel că imaginarul, magia au fost întotdeauna cele care au înconjurat această frumoasă și unică insulă înghițită de apele Dunării.
Ideea existenței unei biblioteci secrete sub insulă, unde au fost expediate și depozitate incunabule, cărți blestemate și numeroase manuscrise medievale interzise de Inchiziție, dar și unele având paginile otrăvite, o adevărată Bibliotecă a Diavolului, alimentează imaginația fiecăruia și pune inteligenței noastre, subconștientului zeci de întrebări erudite, ale căror răspunsuri pot fi găsite doar în timp, în imortalitate sau poate niciodată; de unde și universalitatea lor și identificarea noastră cu personajele.
Giovanni Esposito va traduce tăblițele de smarald ale atlantului Toth, devenind nemuritor. O nemurire cu numeroase vieți trăite, în perioade diferite, alături de oameni și idei diferite, în diversele locuri ale peregrinărilor sale. O nemurire trăită cu intensitate … ce durează până la dispariția insulei iar intâmplările, oamenii cunoscuți, poveștile de iubire, toate ne stimulează imaginația si crează imagini aproape picturale. Personajele sunt vii, aproape palpabile și atât de aproape intelectual de fiecare dintre noi. De fapt, nemurirea e în noi.
Mulțumesc pentru acest fascinant roman fantastic, psihologic și polițist, scriitorului , artistului vizual și OMULUI Constantin Severin și îl recomand a fi citit . Este pasionant.
Text and Time 113 (Archetypal Head), oil on canvas, 70×90 cm, 2016. Private collection, Bucharest
Art will continue to be a light in dark times. I’m thrilled to announce that the prestigious art platform ARTDEX from New York decided to feature my artwork Text and Time 113 (Archetypal Head) and my new awarded art concept/movement, the archetypal expressionism, on Instagram. They sent a newsletter about my art to art collectors and art lovers worldwide:
FEATURED MEMBER
CONSTANTIN SEVERIN
Artist
Suceava, Romania
Born in 1952 in Baia de Arama, Mehedinti, Romania, Constantin Severin is the founder and promoter of a new and awarded artistic movement known as Archetypal Expressionism. He is a visual artist focused on paintings, installations, post-literature, and photography. Severin is also the founder of the ‘Archetypal Expressionism Group’ and co-founder of the International Art Group ‘3rd Paradigm,’ as well as a member of the European Artists Association in Germany, and a member of the Ottawa Art Association.
Over the years, the majority of art experts have asserted that only the figurative and the abstract are the only two major paradigms. Yet, with his Archetypal Art, Constantin Severin has convinced the art community that there’s also a third. The archetypes have been used for thousands of years by numerous populations around the world. Their secret power lies in the fact that they are part of everyone’s hidden inner life. Though a new concept, Archetypal Expressionism depicts an immemorial artistic reality, recalling an ancient tradition of art-making. The style is defined by vivid colors, deformities, and a strong sensitivity towards the world.
When talking about inspiration, Severin expressed that: “I had the idea to invent this concept after a serious study of the most representatives Romanian artists of the 20th century, from Brancusi to Maitec and Tuculescu, but also inspired by the works of some Modern masters like Klee and Mondrian as well as by the work of Carl Gustav Jung, who launched worldwide the concept ‘archetype.'” His art is currently promoted by Lavacow international auction house in Bucharest, Romania.
Severin’s solo exhibition “Hierarchy of Light” hosted by Elite Art Gallery, Bucharest, in October 2013 – you can watch a video clip here.
ARTDEX is a place for art collectors, artists, art dealers and curators to manage collections online and connect with one another.
Many thanks to the whole team of ARTDEX, especially to the founder Jenny Park Adam, who sent me a moving message:
”Dear Constantin, hope you’re well and staying safe! On behalf of our entire team, we’d like to thank you for being a great member of our growing community at ARTDEX! We’d love to highlight and feature your profile and your fabulous artworks in our upcoming newsletter. Please let us know if you have any news or anything else for us to highlight and share with our community and fans. You can send us an email to staff@artdex.com or reply back to this message. We look forward to celebrating your brilliant art with the world! Kind regards, Jenny”‘
My solo show „Hierarchy of Light”, is the first and untill now the only monochrome solo show of painting in the history of the Romanian art and it was hosted by Elite Art Gallery, Bucharest in October 2013. The curator of the exhibition was a well-known art critic and writer, Corneliu Ostahie, who noticed that I have chosen the most difficult way of making monochrome painting, but in the same time the most provokative and successful in the long term. The exhibition was also presented by Prof. Dr. Maria Ana Tupan, from the University of Bucharest and the National University of Arts Bucharest, who pointed out the importance of the cultural archetypes in my art and the new and fresh vision and concept, the archetypal expressionism, I brought on the national and international art scene.
I used two fundamental colours for the Expressionist painters, yellow and red. It was a successful exhibition, two of the most beautiful paintings, „Text and Time 91” and „Text and Time 95” have been acquired by one of the founders of the biggest auction house in Romania, ARTMARK.
„Text and Time 91”, oil on canvas, 50×90 cm, 2012„Text and Time 95”, oil on canvas, 70×90 cm, 2013.
SENSO TV made a short movie of this event, a turning point in my career as a visual artist:
My art is represented and promoted by Singulart, Paris
Motto: „Persistence is the key to our dreams”( Samy Kabbara, art collector)
I”m thrilled to announce that SINGULART Paris, probably the most successful and prestigious online art gallery with a great selection of artists , decided to represent and promote my art worldwide:
” For us, every new artist represents a new journey to embark on, and we figure the best place to start is with an introduction to our team. Web and business developers, press agents, writers and advisers… Singulart is a team of 30 people with 10 different nationalities, all working everyday to promote your work around the world.”
I’m very impressed by the fact that the curatorial team selects artists for major international art fairs from New York, London or Hong Kong.
Special thanks to the founders Véra Kempf, Brice Lecompte and Denis Fayolle and to the whole team from Singulart, especially to my Artist Liaison, Matilda Curson, who discovered my art on net and helped me with good advices to build my profile on Singulart:
„Launched in 2017, Singulart has not only established itself as one of the most promising and dedicated original art galleries, but also continues to grow at an impressive rate, thanks to its dedicated team working to support artists and collectors alike.” (Artplusmarketing)
„In 2017, the Hiscox Online Art Trade Report predicted a bright future for the way we experience and buy art, as it will likely happen online more and more.
Indeed, the digital space offers more possibility, equity and transparency for the art market, and is expected to provide a safe place for artists to sell their work, as in the “real world” they are very much struggling to do so.
In such a space, however, it is still challenging to find the right partner, but through their unique approach to the artwork makers and collectors alike, Singulart is without a doubt one of them. Their idea lies in providing a platform, as well as tools, for artists to independently manage the sale of their works to a wide range of buyers.
Starting as a young French start-up, Singulart quickly became a reliable platform, raising 1.1 million euros through external funding and placing the emphasis on three important factors: an international standing, the individual selection of each artist, and leading experience in web marketing. This way, their mission to “empower artists” is successfully being achieved, as a team of experts readily works to further communicate the art of artists who are already quite established in their native countries.
Through careful curatorial practice and selection, Singulart has now turned into a space filled with new cultures and creativity, ready to be explored and shared with buyers worldwide.”(Angie Kordic, Widewalls)
The mystery of redemption is quickened whenever an outside spark animates a vessel an artist is composing – i.e. constructing in temporal rhythm – the vessel is sealed and the work exists in the artistic equivalent of living. We are fallible, except where fallibility is eclipsed by texture or flux. Bodies are spiritual content in painted insignia. As Sun Bear tells us, in 1989 alone, 130 Peruvian politicians were killed. Thus are conceptual frameworks double-edged, and sometimes ill-advised. Even so, linear progress is underrated, as the present exhibit attests.
Andrew SINGER
At SeaFishBrancusi in IsfahanFunction Follows FormFather and BirdMother as MushroomFigure on an EscalatorFigures Walking UnicyclesReading in Bed
Bio:
Andrew Singer is a poet and artist, residing in Manhattan. He directs Trafika Europe (https://trafikaeurope.org), showcasing new literature in English translation from the 47 countries of Council of Europe. He has mentored with Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott for an MA in Writing Poetry, and has taught university Creative Writing, Literary Translation, and seminars in European and Anglo-American poetry and fiction most recently at Penn State University, and across Europe. His poetry and critical essays appear in such publications as World Literature Today, Fulcrum, Levure littéraire, Emanations, Pilvax, StAnza, and Open Letters Monthly. He believes all things begin and end in wonder.
Since the beginning of the XXth century the history of art did’nt register major ideas/paradigms or disputes. As we know, almost all the art historians and critics asserted that there are only two major paradigms: the figurative and the abstract. When I launched in 2000-2001, my new ideas about the archetypal art&archetypal expressionism, in the local media from Bucovina, Romania, I received no feedback from the art community.
I had the idea to invent this concept, after a serious study of the most representatives Romanian artists of the 20th century, from Brancusi to Maitec and Tuculescu, but also inspired by the works of some Modern masters like Klee and Mondrian and sure by the work of Carl Gustav Jung, who launched worldwide the concept „archetype”. In 2015, after I have read „The Red Book”by C. G. Jung, I had the surprise to discover that the paintings made by him over 100 years ago are very close to my vision about the archetypal expressionism: he used old archetypes, a palette of Expressionistic colours and pure colours one near the other, not mixed. In 2000, when I launched this art concept/movement I was a known writer, journalist and art critic. The lack of interest regarding my new vision made me think to a challenging decision: to become the first artist to follow programmatically my own concept… Before becoming a writer, I was a gifted painter as a child and teenager, that’s why I returned with a great pleasure and hope to my first spiritual love. In 2002 I painted my first canvas in oil, in the studio of the French artist Maria Santarelli, in Saint Laurent du Pont, Isère, France, during an art workshop organized by me and my French partners.
In the first artwork dedicated to the Archetypal Expressionism series, ‘’Text and Time 1’’(collection of the Art Museum Drobeta Turnu Severin, Romania) I included fragments from my first published articles on the archetypal expressionism, in 2000 and 2001. My first solo show, ‘’Text and Time’’(Bucovina Museum, Suceava, September 2004) was very successful, because it was promoted by the art experts from the global television, EuroNews, probably being impressed by this new concept launched on the contemporary art scene. Another two of my solo shows of painting, from Stuttgart, Germany in 2004 and from Piatra Neamt, Romania, in 2009, have been highlighted by EuroNews and I was invited with solo shows by the largest and the oldest museum of contemporary art in Romania, The Museum of Visual Arts, Galati, in 2009, next year by the Art Museum from Drobeta Turnu Severin ( the city of my childhood) in 2010 and in 2016 by the prestigious Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, the oldest art museum in South-Eastern Europe. Many cultural journalists and art critics in my country began to write since 2004 about the new art concept, the archetypal expressionism, and later a lot of art specialists and visual artist from the global art community also became interested about it. I created the first Archetypal Expressionism Group in October 2007, on ARTMESH. In February 2008, this group had 32 members, from 19 countries: Canada (Alberto Cerritos, Bianca Guna, James K-M), Denmark (Lars Heiberg, Mik Peter Rasmussen), Egypt (Khaled Siraq), France (Maria de Morais, Delphine Portier), Hungary (Beata Rostas), India (Manvendra Begerhotta), Ireland (Susanne Iles), Italy (Giulio Baistrocchi), Mexico (Paola Gonzalez), Netherlands (Maikel van Stralen), Norway (Elly Prestegaard), Poland (Lola Fischer), Portugal (Alberto D’Assumpcao), Romania (Simona Gocan, Constantin Severin), Russian Federation (Alex Schukin), Spain (Aitor Arakistain, David Heras Verde), Switzerland (Pia Baechler-Lehmann), UK (Bruce Rimell, Shaida Parveen), USA (Cile Bailey, Daniel Chavez, Matt Lewis, Cruz Montoya, Harry Spitz, Jamie Winter). You may read below the messages, wrote in 2008, by some important international artists, who joined this group founded on ARTMESH:
„I’ve got several responses to this thread and the group, so, amusingly, I thought I’d classify them…
The Practical Response: There are millions of artists out there, all swimming around like fish in a pond, all trying to get recognised. To align oneself with a paradigm can be a useful way of making a name. Admittedly it’s not really what I do, but if someone wants to make a movement out of a paradigm, more power to them.
The Annoyed Artist’s Response: For far too long, artists have been pushed into following paradigms that have largely been formulated by critics and commentators. As someone who teaches in an Art College I see this every day. Graduates struggle to break out of these paradigms after leaving, especially since many gallery owners actively encourage the continuation of this paradigmatism (good word, hey?). Here, at last, we seem to have a new or potentially new paradigm created by an artist, not a critic. Thus it has potential for genuine insight beyond the intellectual (which is all most critics can offer). I think this is a good thing.
The Thoughtful Artist’s Response: I will join this debate, I migth even align myself a bit with Archeptyal Expressionism for a while if I sense it is going somewhere and raising up some interesting questions for art in general and my work in particular. But I can never call myself an archetypal expressionist fully. I have never found a paradigm that fully fits my work and am very happy with that fact. I’m closer to visionary art really… no wait, more like petroglyphic art…um, no hang on, Keith Haring’s a big influence, so (cut!)
The Psychologist’s Response: Archetype in the original literature in which it was coined is a very specific set of experiences and phenomena, and thus indeed not everything an artist might produce would be, in my opinion, archetypal. Jung was very specific on what was archetype and what was more specific or personal. Which leads me to…
The Social Commentator’s Response (Exasperated): …if all artists ever produce are archetypes then this clicks into that John Forbes Nash slash John Buchanan model of humans as rational self-serving automatons, post-modernly devouring the past and repackaging it for the future. I don’t buy it, never did. If everything is archetype, then no new insights are available. This is not my experience as an artist or a human being.
New insights and experiences can become archetypes (Guernica…) but they must make the transition from the novel. If all artists produce nothing but archetype, then novelty is not possible, and thus we’re stuck in some fundamentalist postmodern paradigm. Humans don’t tend to act as models predict they do…
The Round-Up Response: …all of which goes to say that Archetypal expressionism can be a valid concept/movement/whatever since archetype is produced by only *some* artists, not all.
There is a stream running through art debates that seems a bit faux-transcendental to me “Well, in a way, all art is visionary… all art is archetypal, all art is (insert adjective X here)…” For me, I don’t buy that – archetypal work is not universally present in all art. Would you call what Tracey Emin does archetypal? I wouldn’t. It’s very personal, extremely particular…
Certain art is archetypal, and certain observers in a given state of mind might make art archetypal, but here, I think, we are speaking of archetypal as found in the artist’s expressive intentions…
For me, the responses I’ve had from Constantin regarding this paradigm have been quite personal, and quite referent to my work as an artist. This impresses me. Many people try to classify my work without really looking at it. I don’t get that impression with Constantin – I think he’s seen something in my work which chimes strongly, and that’s why I’m excited about this idea of his.
Peace and love!”
Bruce RIMMEL, UK
” constantin, first thanks for contacting me in the first place, second i am very sorry you did not get my first message let me try to reitterate,:
Your idea about archytpal expressionism intrigues me and makes a whole lot of sense to me … I am at the same time excited and intrigued. It may be the terminology I have been looking for, or wanting to use in regards to my work. I wrote in the group that i thought maybe i would add abstract to it in the sense, that i pull these archytypes (a word i have in much of my writing and have been using since reading jung and exploring language theory such as levi-strauss) out of abstraction, I am interested in how paint or marks can suggest or trigger visual memory, and therefore, can be used in communication. How recall and use this information is part of what we call language, but give little credit to. My ideas for my ‘found head series”(for lack of better words), came out of the ideas of da vinci, max ernst, francis bacon, all my favorites, and it is as you say something primal that goes back to the beginnings of pictural representation.
I have never really thought of directly reusing archetypes of cultures from the past as you have, that is an interesting concept -maybe i do a little in the sense of making a image which recalls a likeness like einstein at the chalkboard … but I am more interested in general archytype, how the mind grasps concepts and images, how we are able to read abstraction as order. how we percieve … and then of course the elusive definition of beauty and how that is captured, formed and perpetuated by art. It has been somewhat a struggle to me to write down my thoughts and theories about this … but I am encouraged by your idea and think you have helped my break through something conceptually.
I had the thought and it is still early in our “friendship” having just met you to ask, but I would be interested in having you write something about my work for my website, maybe we could work out a trade for an artwork?
it just seems you are very clear on your ideas and saw something in my art.
I would love to read more of your theory and writing or to hear it directly from you and have a conversation. my wife has yahoo messenger- but as i understand it you can only tye as we would here, Skype is a free download (google it) and enables you with a simple microphone to make phone calls computer to computer (free) and computer to phone (small charges) around the world to other skype users. If you ever get it i would love to talk to you in person as i think our conversation might be lengthly and i dont think I could afford that to romania( but i could check the rates) until then chatting here will have to do.
hope to hear from you soon,
sincerely,”
Rodney ARTILES, USA
„Dear Constantin
I can’t tell you how important and embarassing was your message!!! For the first time in my life someone told me what my art is!!! I’m fighting everyday to go ahead, believing in my own proposal of beauty and harmony, as I believe art it is!!! And your words gave me that necessary courage to believe!!! I’ll take you as one of my best friends and support.-
When I saw your artworks, I identified the same necessity to go to the bottom of our soul to bring that little treasure of harmony and happiness to create! You don’t imagine how you have helped me!!!
With all my heart!”
Alberto D’ASSUMPCAO, Portugal
”Dear Constantin,
As you can see, I’m busy for teaching and several design projects (including VR & multimedia design), and this is my last semester to finish and present my thesis. But I’m always thinking of our collaboration, which will be very significant to me. It would be a new media project combining digital language and painting components. Ideally, I hope to converge digital animation, sound, interaction, or even live presentation, together to create an immersive experience in both real gallery & virtual space. “ARCHETYPAL EXPRESSIONISM” is a wonderful concept we may work with. Maybe using VR to interpret some of your poems as well?
VR projects usually cost a lot for the devices and software, we’d better have a detailed proposal for funding first. Your info for residency sounds very helpful too. Let’s plan it carefully. Thanks for your patience!
All my best,”
LilyYANG, USA
Digital Media, Visual Design Department College of Visual & Performing Arts University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
”It looks like our move is going smoothly. I should be up and running and ready to contribute more to your group in the next two weeks. I’m also in the process of scouting out gallery space here in Ireland.I would love to open a gallery where artist’s could show Archetypal artwork … it is an experience I think the general public and the world needs. Hopefully I will be able to do it this year.
I have a question for you … I found your blog online and would love to subscribe to it. Do you have a subscription button on your site? I tried to use the link at the very bottom of the page but it didn’t seem to be working.
Best to you … I look forward to speaking with you soon and contributing to the group.
Sincerely,”
Susanne ILES,Ireland
In February 2015, I launched an art site with the best worldwide representatives of Archetypal Expressionism, in my opinion: http://archetypalexpressionism.com/
For many years I thought that my focus on the archetypal art, which in the twentieth century was represented by such major visual artists like Constantin Brancusi, Paul Klee or Ion Tuculescu, could be considered a marginal experience. But at the end of 2014, I was very surprised to find out about the new project from MoMA, New York City, FOREVER NOW, curated by Laura Hoptman:
Her project statement about the works of the 17 invited artists comes very close to my archetypal expressionism manifesto/statement, written almost 15 years before this exhibition and featured across numerous media outlets: “…whose work is atemporal, in a similar way: it is based on archetypal, symbolic forms that are by definition undatable, existing outside any specific time period .“This is indeed the essence of my art concept, too, written in different words. A huge impact of the archetypal expressionism concept was noticed among many visual artists belonging to the native nations from America, Australia or New Zealand., like Maori artist Tepora Watene, who wrote: ‘’ When I created the collection of art for my Solo Exhibition titled ‘Forsaken’ I had not heard of Constantin Severin’s terminology; ‘archetypal expressionism’. At the time, my mission was to create art-works to portray an ancient people; their history, ‘sacred legend carriers’ and ‘sacred symbols/hieroglyphs’. More importantly it was a deep internal spiritual journey to discover my origins and ultimately my mission as an artist. When first reading Constantin Severin’s definition of ‘archetypal expressionism’ I felt as though he was describing the process I used to create my ‘Forsaken Collection’. I was and still am elated, because finally I am connected to another person, furthermore another artist, who not only truly understands my art-form but can articulate it into words. Here in New Zealand, a lot of Maori Culture & Art is based upon that which has become known from last 200 or so years. It is wonderful to see contemporary indigenous/Maori art evolve from the carvings and weaving of the 1800’s and early 1900’s . However, in saying this, my quest is to connect with my ancient, historic origins; to do this I have spent 100’s of hours researching and seeking inner spiritual contact with my Tupuna (Ancestors). Additionally I’ve spent 100’s of hours playing with shapes, symbols, paint, mixed media and various supports. I’ve only scratched the surface; there is a multitude of images within me waiting to be rendered, manifested into the physical realm. It is a juggle prioritising time between producing them or art for commissions, exhibitions and awards. The constant internal struggle to earn a living versus living my art; my ultimate goal is to earn a living from living my art, ‘archetypal expressionism’. Kia ora Constantin, Arohanui tane.’’
Now you may read some of the texts written in the past by international art experts about my art, from which I quote more extensive passages below:
“Elements of expressionism and classical realism combine in the works of Constantin Severin. His rich-colored geometric compositions are combined with perfectly recognizable genre scenes that quote masters of realistic painting – Jan Vermeer, Diego Velazquez and others. On the one hand, the artist sets the idea of artistic evolution in his works. On the other hand, he demonstrates that Realism is just one of the many ways to accept and display the world.” (Olga BORTE, art critic and journalist, Moscow)
“We are proud to have included in the Lavacow Christmas Auction a work by Constantin Severin, whom we appreciate for the delicate mixture between different artistic styles, creating a harmonious all that succeeds to communicate, through a single artwork, the essence of the history of art.”(Cristina OLTEANU, CEO at LAVACOW Auction House, Bucharest)
“Symbols, lines, surfaces, spaces. All the humanity is made of mysterious symbols. And Constantin Severin uses them to write a new language of art. A language made of concepts, feelings, colours and emotions. Constantin travels in the past, in the ancient times and dimensions, to return in our present and tell about the possible futures. About the next lines of expression, to describe the present, drawing the future with past symbols. His own symbols.”(Luca CURCI, visual artist and architect, founder of “It’s Liquid” art magazine, Bari)
“We are looking forward to having Constantin Severin (the founder and promoter of the archetypal expressionism) and his group exhibiting at the Rotterdam International Art Fair. The works of Constantin is of a very interesting concept for our show. We are always looking for fresh new concepts and like to introduce these to our audience. We think that the archetypal expressionism – which lies between the two major paradigms of contemporary art, the figurative and the abstract – will do very well at the Art Fair, and we are looking forward to seeing the works in real-life.” (Joelle DINNAGE, Director at Global Art Agency Ltd)
“In literary and visual expression, but perhaps most notably in his clear-sighted theory of our present condition, Constantin Severin is breaking new ground. The concept of “Post-Literature” (which he has articulated in an article accessible at http://www.inst.at/trans/14Nr/severin14.htm) reveals him as one of the most original of contemporary thinkers concerning the nature of creative activity and the self-transformation that it is currently undergoing. One would be missing something important not to know of what Severin (situated of all places in Suceava, Romania) is up to. Take a look at the article, then search the web for his reductively symbolic paintings, which are on the verge of forging a new post-modern vocabulary from modernist precedent and nativist tradition. As western Europe declines, esthetically, morally, politically, something apparently is happening in Eastern Europe, and Severin is a part of it.” (Madison MORRISON, American writer)
The archetypal art, if it will be accepted by the global art community, could become an aesthetic bridge between Western and Oriental worlds, based on our common ancient roots and values.
Azi, luni 18 noiembrie 2019, a ieșit de sub tipar cel de-al doilea roman al meu, „Bibliotecarul Infernului”, publicat de editura Cartea Românească Educațional. Editorul cărții este prof. univ. Vasile Burlui iar redactor de carte scriitorul Paul Gorban. Coperta este semnată de graficianul Ionuț Broștianu.
Cartea va fi lansată la târgul de carte Gaudeamus din București în ziua de sâmbătă 23 noiembrie 2019, ora 14, la standul nr. 26 al editurii Cartea Românească Educațional, în prezența autorului și a invitaților săi.
Invitați: scriitorul Daniel Corbu; doamna Olimpia Coroamă, președintele Asociației Memorie și Speranță și redactor șef al revistei trilingve 3R (română, italiană, franceză) dedicată memoriei faimoasei dinastii culturale Cazaban.
Sinopsis
„Bibliotecarul Infernului” este confesiunea
personajului principal,
Giovanni Esposito (născut la Napoli, în anul 1685), făcută prietenului său din
România, Constantin Ionescu, scriitor și pictor. Pe ambii îi leagă o atracție
neobișnuită și iubirea pentru insula Ada Kaleh, micul Levant al României,care a
avut un sfârșit tragic în anii ’70 ai secolului trecut, fiind scufundată în urma
construirii hidrocentralei Porțile de Fier.
Giovanni Esposito, ajuns bibliotecar în
Napoli, vecin și prieten din copilărie cu compozitorul Domenico Scarlatti, este
fascinat din adolescență de micuța insulă de pe Dunăre. În urma unui dialog cu
Prințul Eugen de Savoia despre pictorul Caravaggio, acesta este impresionat de
erudiția sa și îl invită să lucreze la Biblioteca Imperială din Viena. După
numai un an petrecut în capitala imperiului austro-ungar, Împăratul Carol al
VI-lea și Prințul Eugen de Savoia îi încredințează lui Giovanni misiunea
secretă de a avea grijă de o bibliotecă subterană construită sub insula Ada
Kaleh, în care au fost expediate cărți blestemate, incunabule și manuscrise medievale
interzise de Inchiziție, dar și unele având paginile otrăvite, o adevărată Bibliotecă a Diavolului. În
tezaurul subteran de scrieri medievale, bibliotecarul Giovanni Espositodescoperă și studiază, la vârsta de 45 de
ani, tăblițele de smarald ale atlantului Thoth, pe care reușește să le traducă
și să se impregneze de învățăturile sacre, care-l fac nemuritor.
În roman sunt descrise numeroase personaje istorice pe care Giovanni Esposito le-a cunoscut în cei 250 de ani în care a trăit în Biblioteca Infernului până la scufundarea insulei, o inflorescență de întâmplări, dialoguri, lecturi, trăiri spirituale și povești de dragoste petrecute în special în locurile peregrinărilor sale, Napoli, Viena, Ada Kaleh, Belgrad, Orșova și Tekija.
Romanul
e impresionant. Suprapus în diferite straturi, borgesian. Și tonul e
acaparator. (Nichita Danilov)
Scriitorul Paul Gorban despre romanul “Bibliotecarul Infernului”, dedicat insulei Ada Kaleh (text de prezentare pe coperta a IV-a):
Prozator profund, cu o imagistică bogată, cu o tehnică proaspătă care stârnește interesul lecturii, Constantin Severin aduce în fața lectorilor săi o poveste captivantă, în care ne putem regăsi fiecare. Obsesiile culturale, cele carnale, cele sociale, precum și cele mentale ale personajului principal ne fac să trăim cu intensitate fiecare pagină a acestei cărți, cu atât mai mult cu cât ai mereu senzația că din cititor poți deveni treptat un personaj al romanului. Bibliotecarul Infernului este una dintre cele mai tulburătoare cărți scrisă în ultimii ani în România, iar asta nu face decât să recunoaștem vocația autentică a lui Constantin Severin, prozator, poet și artist vizual pe care istoria literară nu îl mai poate ignora.
Interview
with the writer Dubravka Ugresic, winner of the Neustadt Prize (2016)
RD&CS:-What
is a woman beyond her social definition?
DU:
A beast?! Ha-ha…
RD&CS:
– The word “woman.” What weight, what dimensions (length, breadth)
does it have, psychologically, historically, socially, aesthetically, phenomenologically
and hermeneutically, in your life? Take from that string of adverbs whatever
ones suit you best.
DU:
-I wasn’t aware of differences, or better to say I was, but on Me Tarzan, you Jane-level. As a girl, or
teenage girl, I was sort of a “blind”. When one is young – and I was young in BG (before Google) time -things are
pretty “misty”. Only later I was able to recognize that „my culture”, “my education”,
“my mind” is male, generally and statistically, because 99% of my cultural
background has been produced by men: books, visual art, music, films,
architecture, taste, sense of beauty, philosophy, politics, and soon and so
forth. I noticed that the only territory where the women were dominant has been
children literature, although my favorite children books were written by men:
Louis Carrol’s Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland,L. Frank Baum’s The
Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh.
Children writer Ivana
Brlić-Mažuranić has written the best pieces of literature one can find in Croatian
literature. I know that now, but I was not sure about it before. It took me a
long time to realize that. I had other idols among my male fellow writers. As
you know in every cultural milieu – call it state, country, national literature,
regional literature, or just a cultural circle – there are struggles and
battles, there are canonizations and re-canonizations, there are people in
charge for “entry visas”, “cultural officers” who would give you the visa to
enter a literary canon or stop you for this or that reason. Sometimes such
struggles are visible, but mostly they stay invisible, even to those who are
interested in cultural matters. However, some “senses and sensibilities” often enter
into your mind and mindset from the back door. For instance, I got it from my
“mother’s library”. My mother was a passionate reader. What she liked the most
were books about women’s destinies, and especially those with women’s names in
their titles, such as Madame Bovary, Camille, Clarissa, Ana Karenina, Armance, Lucy Crown, Tess of d’Urbervilles,
and so on.
My mother was a passionate
movie goer too and she would always take me with her, especially when I was a
little girl. Later I would go by myself and watch the movies I would like to
watch. My mother knew the lives and destinies of famous movie stars by heart.
She used to tell me about their lives as she would retold me a fairy tale, or the
content of the novel she read. She would always express her empathy. It was a call
for me to sympathize with women’s lives, that they were, in my mother’s
opinion, incomparably harder than men’s. The rest of “knowledge” came later,
from other sources, from books, from life experience, with ageing, and so on
and so forth.
RD&CS:
– When you were a girl, what famous woman did you want to become and why?
DU:
– When you are a little girl you have your little girl’s idols. Btw. “creative industries”understood
that simple fact better than anybody else.When I was ten years old my idol was Minou
Drouet. Today probably nobody knows who Minou Drouet was, but when I was a
child she was the most famous girl in the world. She wrote books, she sang, she
played guitar and piano. Every country wanted to have their own Minou Drouet. I
remember the Yugoslav example, Sanja Zemljar. She also soon disappeared from
the public focus, and was the same age
as Minou Drouet. The last child global star was Zlata Filipović, a girl from
Sarajevo, who wrote “Zlata’s Diary”. She was a product of the book industry which
wanted to have a global bestseller in Ana Frank’s style. I met Zlata Filipović in
Dublin a couple of years ago: she is an intelligent and talented young woman, a
documentary film maker. She obviously tries to stay away from the world’s fame
she shortly experienced as a child.
When I am confronted
with my sweet niece’s (my brother’s
daughter) idols, “youtubers”, “influencers”, who are 15-een and are already the
authors of the books with the titles “How I became famous”, or “My life so far”
-I remember my fascination with Minou Drouet. I am trying not to be harsh with
my niece and to escape being “educational”. I also try to remind myself that she
lives her teenage years in a totally different time, where she is exposed to seductive
products of “culture” designed for “kids”. She lives in the paradise of plenty,
I lived my childhood in the absence of shiny cultural products. I consumed what
was available: mostly the books and movies for adults. I was ten years old when
I read Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”, simply because the local untrained librarian, a
volunteer, thought that the story about the guy who becomes a bugmust could be a
thrill for a girl of my age. Paradoxically, we get some knowledges because of an
absence of knowledge. Sometimes the overproduction of knowledge leads to
illiteracy. I think that today we are witnessing this strange process, the
paradox of illiteracy.
RD&CS:
– In the entire history of humanity, from ancient times to the present day,
what injustice against women have you found the most disturbing?
DU:
The most disturbing, in my opinion, is the European witch-hunt or witch-purge. How
many women were executed nobody really knows. Popular sources like Wikipedia
bring the number of approximately 40.000 – 100.000 executed “witches”. The
number of brutally tortured women nobody knows. This colossal mass murder is
nevertheless the most unexplored territory of European history. As far as I
know, Catholic church never apologised for this crime. No organization, forum,
a group of citizens ever tried to bring Vatican to trial for the brutal purge of
women, for public murders and public torture.
Another most disturbing
injustice done to women is a global network of prostitution, sex-slavery and
sex-trafficking which has a long history and was never broken. Every year one million
women all over the world are recruited to prostitution, they say. For instance,
every year some 12.000 women from Nepal “migrate” to India to work in
prostitution industry, but the case which really made me sick is the report
about little girls. Little girls, age 5 to 10, from Nepalese villages are sold
by their parents to “dealers” for silly prices. The girls are then resold to
Indian brothels as “healers”, because there is a belief among Indian men that
the intercourse with a virgin may heal AIDS or syphillis. After their first
sexual encounter, such girls are thrown away from brothels and nobody cares
about them.
These days, in
Trabazon, Turkey, there is the biggest market for female flesh, particularly
East European one. Women from Russia, Moldavia, Ukraine are sold on Trabazon
market like cattle, they say. Btw. in Russian slang telka (heifer) is a discriminatory
word for a young woman.
RD&CS:
– Do you experience your writings and your creations in complete freedom?
DU:
Yes and no, it depends from which side you look at the “artistic freedom”. I
write freely, I write whatever I think it is worth to write about. My body and
my age sabotages me, meaning that I would never be able to write about my
experience of life in Sahara, for instance, although I would like to. A view
might get a bit distorted when you start crossing the borders, when you really
do not belong, neither you want to, to any national literature; when you truly
believe that the writers should be the citizens of the Republic of Letters;
when you believe that translators, publishers, critics, librarians, agents,
editors, readers, your fellow writers are your “natural”allies. Writer’s life
is full of unexpected events, paradoxes, misunderstandings, surprises, disappointments,
discoveries, failures, like any other’s life. Is anybody’s life completely
free?
RD&CS:
– How are you seen by the general heterogeneous public? As an artist like any other, or a
woman artist? As a breach in the world of masculine art? Or something else?
DU:
This is the most interesting part of a writer’s public life. How I am seen
tells much more about the people who read me than it does about me, myself. In
Croatia, for instance, I am still excluded from school curriculum. Believe it
or not, there are quite a lot of illiterate and also literate people who would protest
against writers, theatre directors, film directors, artists because the image
of contemporary Croatia represented in their works does not match the opinions
of hyper-patriotic protesters. However, I can’t complain because everywhere
else I am seen as a writer. The best readers and great funs rarely show their
face. Sometimes you bump on them when you travel, and these are the most
rewarding moments of my “professional” life. In last couple of years I had a
great privilege to visit United States several times. Last Autumn I visited
several places in US, because two of my books appeared in US, a new novel
“Fox”, and a reissue of the old book of essays “American Fictionary”. Meeting some
of my American readers was one of the best experiences of my writer’s life.
I have a deep respect for my
readers, wherever they might be. First of all, I have a name which is difficult
to pronounce and memorise, consequently only the readers who really like my
writing will know me. They would not mistake me for a woman-writer from
Croatia, Romania, Russia, Poland or Slovakia, as many false fans would do. I
deeply respect my true reader, and this is not self-flattering promo, but the
way I understand literary communication. Italo Calvino, in one of his essays,
said that literature is not a school, in other words that literature must rely
on readership that is more educated and sophisticated than the writer her/himself.
He also said that it doesn’t really matter whether such reader exists. What
matters is that an author writes for a reader who knows more than an author her/himself.
I am trying to follow Calvino’s attitude. It’s a call to raise the literary standards.
That is what makes us writers.
RD&CS:
– How is an “ambitious, talented, strong-willed, courageous” woman
currently presented in Croatia?
DU:
Still as a witch! Or a bitch!
RD&CS:
– Over the last two centuries, from one ethnic group to another, according to
you, has the male perspective always remained the same?
DU:
No. It changed and it is changing constantly, mostly in favor of women’s writting.
Not everywhere, of course.
RD&CS:
– Often, when women complain about the lack of recognition, rights, prospects,
importance and visibility that contemporary society accords them, whether in
the area of family, politics, economics, science or art, voices of “more
or less emancipated” men or women, reply loud and clear: There is no difference (more or less)
between men and women, and there never has been. What is your own
experience, your truth? And that of people close to you (friends, family,
etc.).
DU:
If we rely on theory of cultural memes, then women inherited a long and
humiliating history of exclusion (from education, from literacy, from power, from
art, from politics, and so forth). I met many men (and women too!) who do not read
women-writers. Seeing a text written by a woman writer, many men get sudden
attack of dyslexia. They are simply not able to read it. Solidarity among
women-writers can change such constellations a lot. I find American readers the
most gender-emancipated, for instance. The contemporary reception and
acceptance of women writers has been established by many factors: by American
academia, by Women studies, Gender studies, by organizations which “control” the
gender equality in representation of books written by women authors in US media
(VIDA, for instance), by new publishers, editors, critics, literary historians
who are open to follow the principles of equality, by PEN activities, etc. True,
things are not perfect, but people try to make them better.
Women should
admit that they are not always the best allies in that battle. Women who carry
the memes of harsh historical exclusion sometimes behave like people suffering
from PTS. One can find a lack of solidarity among women writers, critics and
academics. Women sometimes tend to sabotage themselves and each other. Before
accusing men-writers for indifference toward their female colleagues, for the
lack of respect and visibility, for discriminatory policy of some publishers
and editors, women must open an honest talk about themselves, I guess.
Before accusing men-writers for indifference toward their female
colleagues, for
the lack of respect and visibility, for discriminatory policy of some
publisher and
editors, women must open an honest talk about themselves, I guess
Before accusing men-writers for indifference toward their female
colleagues, for
the lack of respect and visibility, for discriminatory policy of some
publisher and
editors, women must open an honest talk about themselves, I guess
RD&CS:
– To what extent is the difference between the sexes perceptible in your
cultural journey? And what have you experienced as influences from
pre-established cultural roles (in the course of your education, your evolution
and your personal affirmation)?
DU:
I was born in a society where sex equality was an important part of its
ideological package. Women in Yugoslavia were active participants of partisan resistance
movement during the WW2. After the war they were invited to build new socialist
society (which meant also the new relationship between the sexes). They were enabled
to emancipate themselves, to study, to “urbanise” themselves, to get out from
the slavery (Kitchen, Kids and Church). Things were not perfect in reality, but
men and women got re-educated. Ideological emancipatory machine was extremely
important for women and it brought a new and powerful working class: educated
women. I studied comparative literature because I wanted to, I did everything I
wanted to, my parents supported me. I was still a student, 21 years old, when I
published my first book, and the apparently book got a major prize for children
books in Croatia. It was a tremendous push to my self-esteem. As I said, things
in reality were not perfect, but official ideology gave women the wings. The
real trouble came with the fall of Yugoslavia, with nationalism and with greedy
and unstoppable church, in other words with the “democratization” of new little
states that hatched from former Yugoslavia.
RD&CS:
– In the ontological status of the work of art or scientific discovery and of
their reception by the receiving public, are there signs specific to female
art, or in the science proposed by women, if we really accept the existence of
a female art or scientific work that is eminently female? So many theories for and against, close to or notwithstanding
circulate in the world. What would be your opinion on this delicate or absurd
subject?!
DU:
I can’t talk about the sphere I don’t know much. I don’t have any references,
figures and real knowledge. I know about the language researches, e.g. are
there any differences of using the language between men and women. Apparently
there are, though it seems they are minor. Besides they probably changed in the
meantime.
RD&CS:
– Have you felt throughout the course of your life, from one movement/place to
another, a lack of appreciation of the woman and of the female of the Being in
search of personality?
DU:
Societies, men, women, personal experiences are all different. Experiences of
men and women of different classes and races are all different. We should not
generalise: not all the Croats are the same, not all Croatian women are the
same, not all the Muslims are the same, neither all Muslim women are the same. We
got a toy to play (not my favourite, I must admit) and that is The Holly
Identity. And we will play with it until we get bored.
RD&CS:
– Why are people still ashamed/afraid/frosty when it comes time to talking
frankly about the role of women in the lives of men?
DU:
That important issue is more and more present in contemporary film, art, literature,
in academic researches, in literary genres, such as memoirs, biographies and
novels.
RD&CS:
– Please name 10 exceptional examples of women who have obliged humanity to
talk at length about them! From the margins in the international scene, women
authors, artists, politicians, scholars, musicians, photographers,
revolutionaries, provocatrices, women who have left a real mark on their time,
and on ours, with a wave of a magic wand of destiny.
DU:
I won’t, because mentioning one automatically means leaving out the other. One
can find an attempt to repair “historical damage”on the book market, for
instance the books for teenage girls with biographies of the most famous and
inspiring 100 women in the world. It’s useful as the self-esteem booster, but it
might do more damage than good: apparently these most famous and inspiring 100
women share the territory of US and UK. There are hardly any inspiring women coming
from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, South America…
RD&CS:
– What would you like to un-do about you and for you as the Woman that you are?
DU:
I would probably like to have long, silky hair. And lot of it! Ha-ha!
RD&CS:
– Can we accept that starting at a certain age one no longer wants to be
considered a woman but rather the gift/power of a mysterious being (the
Heideggerian being perhaps?!)?
DU:
I bought a broom long time ago when I realized which “mysterious being” is usually
associated with the woman of a certain age.
RD&CS:-
And we try for more. Do you have moments when you feel more a man than a woman?
DU:
I think that we have to be able to shift the gender mentally, for a while, for
educational purposes. However, there are many different women and many
different men. Maybe we should do more gender experiments, to be able to
collect more reliable results. Biologist might tell us something about it, I
guess. For now, I can move into a mentality of a man who has more or less the
same education, who shares the same cultural references, who is more or less my
age, and who has similar life experience. My options of trying to feel like a man,
but most of the women too, are heavily reduced. I certainly can’t know how to
feel like a male member of some tribe living in Amazon jungle. Or a female
member.
RD&CS:
– Louis Aragon wrote: Woman is the future
of man. Is it just to make something beautiful in poetry and in song? And
vice versa?
DU:
We can play with it endlessly…
RD&CS:
– Isn’t a woman a man like any other!
say the biologists, geneticists, clinicians, and even grammarians. There’s no
doubt in their minds… And to calm the turbulence, we should all watch the film:
Man is a Woman, a French film
directed by Jean-Jacques Zilbermann, in 1998, in Paris.
Let’s
keep open-minded and positive, since it’s better to believe that the old fogeys
who wanted to preserve their rules, traditions and prerogatives are very much
from the time of caning and mourning, and we don’t owe them anything! Since
they have died out we are no longer the same! At least, here, in our space of
life. Farther and even farther, and more complicated or always the same. A
question or a pacifist/warrior/constructive thought to move across time and
barbaric convulsions?
DU: Yes, in “our space” things are better. In some
other spaces things are unthinkable worse. Recently a 19-year old girl, a
student from Bangladesh, has been burned because she reported she’d been
sexually harassed by the teacher or dean of the university. And she died,
because she “lied”. All in all, I really
do not know how to answer your question except that all the options are open.
The climate catastrophe is the worst among the options that are in front of us,
though it might have one positive side effect, and that is that all gender
issues we talked about will be irrelevant. But before that happen misogyny
(misandry too, if we can find it) should be defined and widely popularized as a
serious behavioural disorder. People should be taught how to recognize the
symptoms, how to ask for a help, and how to stop it or/and how to control it. Act
of misogyny should be treated by the law as any other act of intolerance: as racism,
as sexual harassment, as violence, as sadism… Here is an interesting
comparison. In most of the European countries the act of desecration of a national
flag is treated by law almost the same as a rape. In Croatia one can gets the
same three years of prison for burning the national flag and for raping the
woman. Desecration of a flag is treated as much more serious criminal act than
rape. Women are raped every day, flags
are rarely burned. How do I know? Because all the media in the world will
immediately report about the case of desecration of a flag. Raped woman is not
the news.
Interview by Rodica Draghincescu and
Constantin Severin, April 2019
Over the past three decades, Dubravka Ugresic has established herself as one of Europe’s most distinctive novelists and essayists. From her early postmodernist excursions, to her elegiac reckonings in fiction and the essay with the disintegration of her Yugoslav homeland and the fall of the Berlin Wall, through to her more recent writings on popular and literary culture, Ugresic’s work is marked by a rare combination of irony, polemic, and compassion.
Following degrees in Comparative and Russian Literature, Ugresic worked for many years at the University of Zagreb’s Institute for Theory of Literature, successfully pursuing parallel careers as both a writer and as a scholar. In 1991, when war broke out in the former Yugoslavia, Ugresic took a firm anti-war stance, critically dissecting retrograde Croatian and Serbian nationalism, the stupidity and criminality of war, and in the process became a target for nationalist journalists, politicians and fellow writers. Subjected to prolonged public ostracism and persistent media harassment, she left Croatia in 1993.
In an exile that has in time become emigration, her books have been translated into over twenty languages. She has taught at a number of American and European universities, including Harvard, UCLA, Columbia and the Free University of Berlin. She is the winner of several major literary prizes (Austrian State Prize for European Literature 1998; finalist of Man Booker International Prize 2009; Jean Améry Essay Prize, awarded for her essayistic work as a whole, 2012; Vilenica Prize 2016; while Karaoke Culture was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism 2011. She is the winner of the 2016 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.
Mult mai cunoscut în străinătate decât în
România, Liviu Dănceanu (n. 19 iulie 1954, Roman; d.26 octombrie 2017,
București) a fost singurul mare compozitor român pe care am avut șansa de a-l
cunoaște și chiar de a colabora, invitându-l să publice la ”Monitorul de
Suceava” și la revista „Noul Continent” a Universității „Ștefan cel Mare” din
Suceava. A fost un absolvent de excepție al secției de compoziție a
Conservatorului din București, clasa maestrului Ștefan Niculescu (1980), un
bărbat frumos și carismatic, un luptător erudit pe scena culturii, cu o viziune
enciclopedică asupra fenomenului muzical. A urmat studii postuniversitare în
cadrul aceleiași instituții și cursuri de perfecționare la Kazimiersz-Dolni,
Londra, Paris, Tallin, Praga, Varșovia.
A fost fondatorul și conducătorul
Atelierului de muzică contemporană „Archaeus”, cu care a participat la
importante reuniuni muzicale internaționale în Torino, Huddersfield, Valencia,
Alicante, Alcoi, Milano, Bergamo, Ormea, Triora, Cagliari, Roma, Paris, Lyon,
Bourges, Dijon, Wuppertal, Munchen, Bonn, Koln, Trieste, New York, Washington,
Carbondale, Cleveland, Urbana, Milwakee, Sofia, Belgrad, Salzburg, Viena,
Tirana, Viitassari, Budapesta, Padova, Chișinău ș.a. Director artistic al
festivalurilor”Săptămâna muzicii noi”, București (1992-1996) și „Zilele Muzicii
Contemporane”, Bacău, președinte al SIMC-Secțiunea națională română
(1991-1994), Liviu Dănceanu a fost un ferment pentru mișcarea muzicală
românească și a susținut conferințe despre muzica românească și despre propria
creație la Torino, Munchen, Imperia, Carbondale, Moscova, Lyon ș.a. Din 1990 a
fost profesor de compoziție și istoria muzicii universale la Conservatorul din
București și a fost laureat al mai multor premii de compoziție: „Studium de
Toulouse”(1986), Premiul Academiei (1989), Premiul Uniunii Compozitorilor
(1988, 1990, 1994), Premiul ACIN-pentru muzică de film (1988), ”Antidogma
Musica”(Torino, 1994), precum și câștigător al unor premii de interpretare
muzicală: ATM (1987), Premiul Criticii Muzicale (1996), Premiul UCMR (1990),
Premiul Actualității Muzicale (1996), Premiul
Soros (1997).
Până în anul acestui interviu, 1999, Liviu
Dănceanu compusese peste 70 de opusuri, o parte dintre ele fiind comenzi ale
unor soliști, orchestre și festivaluri importante din Europa și America:
”Antidogma Musica”, „ENSEMS”, ”Musica Nova”, Radio France, Ministerul Culturii
din Franța, New York University, De Paul University-Chicago, Filarmonica din
Cleveland, ”Trieste Prima”, Filarmonica ”Mihail Jora”, Bacău ș.a. A publicat
studii, eseuri, recenzii, articole în numeroase reviste din țară și din
străinătate. Alături de scrierile lui C. G. Jung și de lucrările lui Brâncuși,
Klee și Țuculescu, interviul de mai jos a fost unul dintre fermenții care m-au
condus la căutarea surselor profunde în artă, a arhetipurilor culturale și la
conceperea și lansarea noului curent/concept din arta contemporană,
expresionismul arhetipal, în anii 2000-2001.
Ce note specifice are muzica românească actuală?
Poate că în niciun alt teritoriu național convertirea compozitorului la piruete ori
detente teoretice nu este mai prezumtivă și previzibilă ca la noi. Verbul teoretizării și substantivul operei se conjugă astfel cât se poate de firesc. O demonstrează din plin muzicienii români care, nu de puține ori, pășesc pe teritoriul compoziției după ce în prealabil l-au supravegheat și l-au ameliorat din perspectivă muzicologică. Ștefan Niculescu, Aurel Stroe, Anatol Vieru, Wilhelm Berger, Octavian Nemescu, Nicolae Brânduș, Adrian Iorgulescu sunt semnatarii unor opusuri ce sechestrează în ele însele un consistent și de multe ori inedit demers teoretic, infirmând-fie și la modul indirect-credința lui Spengler conform căreia implantarea în teoretic duce în mod inevitabil la decadență, la abstractizarea speculativă a valorilor și, implicit, la de-concretizarea lor. În muzica românească această survolare a praxisului componistic de la altitudinea exercițiilor teoretizante poate fi cotată ca o trăsătură dominantă a ultimelor patru decenii.
„Ponderea aisbergului muzicii
românești în oceanul muzicii actuale este una fără precedent”
Care este locul muzicii contemporane românești în
concertul valorilor universale?
Muzica
românească contemporană este deopotrivă emersă și submersă, având-prin
urmare-un nivel la vedere și altul ascuns ori mai degrabă abscons, căci unele
sunt unitățile de măsură cu care compatrioții noștri „ne răsfață” și cu totul
altele criteriile prin care străinătatea ne evaluează. E ca în aserțiunea cu
aisbergul: partea mai mică, mai neînsemnată e văzută din interior, iar partea
mai mare, incomparabil mai substanțială este doar la îndemâna celor din
exterior. Aisbergul rămâne totuși aisberg, indiferent din ce unghi îl privești,
iar ponderea aisbergului muzicii românești în oceanul muzicii actuale este una
fără precedent, componistica noastră cunoscând astăzi o incandescență
emergentă, un desant ce poate fi fecund pentru cultura română în ansamblul ei.
Care este condiția compozitorului român de astăzi?
Compozitorul
român de astăzi este în cele mai frecvente cazuri un solitar (excepție făcând,
evident, autorii de muzică de divertisment). El are nostalgia reîntregirii
familiei public-compozitor, ori visează la câte vreun Mecena care să-i țină loc
de umbrelă sau să-i actualizeze energiile virtuale. Pesemne însă că muzica a
absentat de la Adunarea generală a artelor, când sub generoasa asistență a lui
Octavian Augustus s-a plănuit practica mecenatului. Și chiar dacă în istoria
muzicii au existat totuși câțiva Mecena (Papa Marcellus, ducele de Gonzaga ori
contele Esterhazy), la noi ei au fost mai curând filantropi (în cel mai fericit
caz), au devenit mizantropi, pentru ca astăzi să capete deprinderile unor
gangsteri autentici, numiți după împrejurări impresari sau agenți, făcând din
condiția compozitorului una vecină cu iobăgia. Aceasta în cazul în care
compozitorul nu preferă haiducia și implicit solitudinea.
”Această muzică va marca într-un fel
o reîntoarcere la cântecul pur”
Ce tendințe noi pot fi surprinse în muzica
actuală?
Mai întâi că
muzica nouă este răs-strănepoata muzicii culte ivite cam cu un mileniu în urmă
pe cărările bătrânei noastre Europa. Muzica contemporană a fost, pe rând,
nepoată, fiică și va fi fiind probabil mamă, bunică, ș.a. Prin urmare, ea este
con-sangvină cu oricare altă muzică așa-zis cultă, fiind părtașă la jocul de
construcție al muzicii în general. Muzica nouă mărturisește indubitabil
prezentul, iar trăirea în prezent, aflarea și recuperarea valorilor acestuia
constituie testimoniul funciar al tinereții noastre. Prezentul însă e bântuit
de pulverizarea limbajelor artistice și nu numai. Așa se face că și în muzică
totul a devenit posibil, atât în ceea ce privește organizările spațiale, extramuzicale
(vocabularul, adică), cât și în domeniul sintaxei ori al alcătuirilor formale.
Aceasta este noutatea față de epocile anterioare: tot mai anevoie se
consolidează tendințe, tehnici de compoziție sau mai știu eu ce comuniuni, fie
ele chiar și numai de interese. Ca „sound” însă, categoric, în muzica nouă,
legea este făcută din ce în ce mai autoritar de către sursa electronică, sursă
ce în viitor își va dezvolta, aidoma oricărei alte surse sonore, principii de
construcție imanente.
Este adevărat că rolul melodiei s-a diminuat în
ultimele decenii?
Propensiunea
pentru melodie nu s-a atrofiat, ci, mai curând, s-a diluat prin risipirea
conceptului de monodie la nivelul tuturor parametrilor sonori. Au apărut astfel
melodiile de timbre (Klangfarbenmelodie),
melodiile de durate, de moduri de atac, de intensități, etc. Va sosi însă
ceasul răzbaterii eclatante și definitive (pentru viitoarele câteva decenii) a
unei muzici care nu va mai ține prea mult socoteală de originile sale
matematice. Muzica va redeveni treptat simțire, artă a exprimării ori vehicul
întru redempție și va fi mai puțin o ipostază sonoră a legilor universului, cu
toată spectaculozitatea și perfecțiunea lor. Această muzică va marca într-un
fel o reîntoarcere la cântecul pur, în termeni sintactici: la melodie, a cărei
simplitate și strălucire va triumfa chiar și atunci când moștenirea tehnologică
a ultimei jumătăți de veac va asedia, firesc, ineluctabil, actul componistic.
Ce combinații de instrumente preferați pentru
orchestrarea pieselor?
Consider că
resursele tehnice și coloristice ale instrumentelor consacrate nu au fost
nicidecum epuizate, așa cum sunt convins că încă nu s-au inventat multe din
instrumentele pe care practica muzicală le așteaptă. De aceea sunt sedus
deopotrivă de combinațiile instrumentale tradiționale, cât și de cele insolite
ori de cele pe care le visez pentru a le înfăptui ori le înfăptuiesc pentru a
visa.
Ce impact are biografia compozitorului asupra
operei sale?
Biografia
compozitorului contează în economia propriei opere în măsura în care această
biografie poate fi povestită sonor. Or, cum muzica nu poate fi tradusă nici
măcar parțial în cuvinte, impactul dintre o anume biografie și operă în cazul
compozitoruluieste neglijabil și în
niciun caz demonstrabil. Sigur că anumite protuberanțe biografice pot fi
deconspirate în componistică sub aspectul etosului unui opus sau altul, dar
ceea ce rămâne, dincolo de dezvăluirea unor trăiri-să le spunem analoge-este
preponderent coincidență ori speculație.
”Nu creațiile folclorice sau
etnografice pot reînnoi și îmbogăți arta contemporană, ci descoperirea surselor
lor”
Ce alte domenii ale culturii pot constitui un
catalizator pentru creația unui compozitor?
Catalizatorul-cum
îl numiți dvs.-se traduce în muzică prin natura surselor, care este de două
categorii: propriu-zis muzicală și extramuzicală. Dacă sursele propriu-zis
muzicale sunt pentru orice compozitor fatale, implacabile, cele extra-muzicale pot
fi supuse elecției-o întreprindere de mare responsabilitate, întrucât
aceste din urmă surse se identifică în
totalitatea lor cu întreg domeniul realului, al irealului și imaginarului.
Personal, îmi place să adulmec, să-mi asum și să consum astfel de surse pe care
le consider niște prăzi disponibile. La acest nivel, libertatea mea tinde către
absolut. Mi-ar mai plăcea să pot avea acces la surse profunde, cum ar fi
bunăoară arhetipurile culturale, despre care Eliade spunea că le-ar fi aflat și
Brâncuși, pentru că nu creațiile folclorice sau etnografice pot reînnoi și
îmbogăți arta contemporană, ci descoperirea surselor lor.
De ce este atât de puțin cunoscută muzica
simfonică românească, mai ales în țară?
Compozitorii
români sunt vrând-nevrând pensionarii unei rezervații de muzică contemporană.
Cum de s-a ajuns aici? Cred că este mâna destinului, a cărui lucrare se traduce
prin traiectul irefutabil și ireversibil al fenomenului muzical, ajuns, se
pare, în ultima fază a evoluției sale, faza atomizării. Și mai cred că este și
mâna „necuratului”, care prin emisarii săi, fie ei gutenbergi, marconi sau
teleaști au aruncat muzica contemporană românească la periferia informației și a
evenimentului, instituind o stare de asediu a tăcerii, un embargou capabil să
anihileze orice tentativă de evadare a noii muzici din enclava în care este
sortită să locuiască de oarece vreme. Și cum o mână spală pe alta, vom rămâne
probabil cu singurătatea noastră, nimic mai periculos, numai și pentru faptul
că-așa cum remarca Paul Valéry -„singurătatea
e întotdeauna cea mai proastă companie”.
Ce semnificație are Bucovina pentru dvs.?
M-am născut
în vecinătatea Bucovinei, la Roman. Am hoinărit de nenumărate ori pe cărările
ei miraculoase, astfel încât mintea-mi se află într-o perfectă împăcare cu
spiritul Bucovinei, în timp ce inima-mi se identifică suveran cu sufletul ei.
Și m-am întrebat adesea: din Buco-vina cui este ea încă neîntregită? Cu
siguranță, și din vina noastră.
(”Monitorul de Suceava”, Anul V, Nr. 105, vineri 7 mai 1999)
