Exhibitions
Cristian Badilita Exhibition – The Sign of Jonah
Intrarea liberă / Free entrance
On Wednesday, 17th October 2018, 6.00 p.m., the Media foyer of the ”I.L. Caragiale” National Theatre (Intercontinental wing) shall host the varnishing of the painting exhibition The Sign of Jonah signed by Cristian Badilita*.
The event shall be prefaced by the poet Ana Blandiana.
Known as a writer, essayist, poet, historian of early Christianism, translator – among others – of the New Testament, Cristian Badilita shall be present on the rails of the National Theatre in a new posture, the one of visual artist. The 40 manually manufactured paper plates which shall be exhibited, propose a troubling visual comment, in a symbolic register, of episodes and parables from the Gospel after Matthew.
This is how the author himself defines this unusual endeavour:
„The Sign of Jonahis a symbolic meditation on the Gospel after Matthew (the symbol being a wider term, more generous, less devotional than the icon). The symbol transcends the author, not depending strictly upon its „crafty” performances. If I were asked to draw a real fish, this would be impossible to me, because I am simply not gifted for drawing. But maybe precisely because I cannot draw a real fish, I can „imagine” a fish-symbol, a „trans-real fish”. This is the way I ask the exhibition symbols to be seen, read, perceived and interpreted. As you know, the term „symbol” originates from the Greek verb syn-ballein, „to put together”, „to reunite”. „The symbol” was a piece of ceramic broken in two on the occasion of a conclusion of a contract. Each of the „contracting parties” received a half. The two halves were „put together” at the ratification or breach of the contract.
The present exhibition illustrates, also at another level, the original significance of the „symbol”. It „puts together” the image with the evangelic text, in an own version, very faithful to the Greek original. Thus, in the beginning was the reader of the Gospel. Its translator from old Greek into the Romanian of the 21st century followed, considering the most trustworthy editions. They were joined by the poet-theologist, who, this time, invents visual metaphors, not semantical-auditory ones. So much about the author and the specificity of works! They would have continued waiting, quietly, in their hiding place, if bishop Virgil Bercea had not replied, with his usual promptness, to the proposal of organising an exhibition in the memory of the seven Greek and Catholic bishops arrested seventy years ago, when modern Romania’s founding Church was made illegal by Communist non-law.
The present exhibition is dedicated to the seven bishops - martyrs and, through them, to the true Church of Jesus Christ, a dignified, brave one, not subjected to the times and compromises of a century or an instant.
The National Theatre represents a third stop of this exceptional exhibition, after the Ilfoveanu Foundation of Pitesti and the Muzeikon from Alba Iulia.
The exhibition The Sign of Jonah shall be open to the audience until 18th November 2018.
Entrance is free, daily from 11.00-18.00, except for Mondays.
*Cristian Badilita (b. 1968). Writer, historian of early Christianism. PhD of the Paris IV University – Sorbonne with the thesis Métamorphoses de l’Antichrist chez les Pères de l’Eglise (Solomon Reinach Award of the Hellenistic Association of France). Fellow at the Madrid Conciliar Seminary (1991-1992); Normal School of Pisa (1999-2000); Institute of Religious Sciences of Trento (2002-2005) etc. He coordinated the commented translation of the Septuagint within the framework of New Europe College (8 volumes; Polirom, 2002-2011). Courses on the Orthodox tradition at the Dan Bernardino Institute of Venice. He elaborates a commented translation of the New Testament (6 published volumes; Vremea Publishing, Bucharest).
Recent publications: The Angel on the Highway (Vremea, 2016); Gospel of Luke (Vremea, 2016); The Deeds of the Apostles (Vremea, 2017); Orthodoxy versus orthodoxy (Tracus Arte, 2016); Unlearnings (Tracus Arte, 2016); The Poet and the Prosecution. Baudelaire’s Trial and the 13 Indicted Poems (Tracus Arte, 2017) etc. He exhibited „Poems for Birds and Aliens” in several museums and libraries throughout Romania, including the National Library of Romania, Bucharest; the Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu; Pogor House, Iaşi; the „Dinicu Golescu” County Library, Piteşti.
Additional information on the website www.cristianbadilita.ro and the blog http://adamantius1968.simplesite.com dedicated to fine arts works.
Translated by Simona Nichiteanu
