Exhibitions

The Word`s Shadow Exhibition and The Betrothal of Gifts I first met Georges Banu in the “words’ shadow”, in a theatre - Theatre de la Ville, in Paris, where Lucian Pintilie was rehearsing in the 80’s. Our friendship was sealed spiritually, in time, by the means of a symbolical gift, offered intuitively, then – a drawing of mine representing an injured Jesus, which Georges spontaneously adopted. Much later, in his writings, I read his statement about the meaning and the sense of offering a gift, with which I agree: “true gifts reflect knowledge about the other, how aware we are of their desires and expectations.” This exhibition and event is simultaneously meant as a gift in memory of Georges Banu, for everything that he has generously offered us along the way, and a gift that I am presenting likewise to all actors, theatre-makers, artists and lovers of the Arts. The “words’ shadow” is, in fact, the trace that words leave upon reality – “the ultimate reality that remains after the theatrical act” (“About oblivion”). The shadow of the words being the ulterior projection in our memory, as well as in the visible space that contains us – the visual outcome, the material projection of our spoken words. In the monumental hall of the Rotonda and the introductory space of the foyer, part of the National Theater, I intend to reproduce a sensitive space, to create an “installation” of Georges Banu’s living creative experience, pertaining to the visual themes that he developed  and referred to, throughout his writings, based on a very subjective and affective approach, rather than a chronological one. Georges Banu said that he found himself mirrored “in the heteroclite image of Arcimboldo’s portraits”. Thus, I am proposing, beyond deconstruction, to recompose a portrait based in his own subjectivity, taking its inception from the themes that were highlighted by Georges Banu: “The Curtain” (or the fissure of the world) as a metaphor. “In painting, as in theatre, the curtain breaks the unity. It reveals as much as it hides from one’s eye…it separates the actor from the spectator, hides the secret, while nourishing the expectation of an ever possible revelation”; “The Door”(as intimate geography), revealing the exterior as well as our interiority, its symbolic valences; “Nocturnes”, the notion of darkness and “black” in painting and theatre, the relation about shade and its projection in time, the return to light; “ The human being seen from behind”, the loneliness of man or his hidden eye, the dialectics between the expression of the back and the face, semantic ambivalences; “Wounded objects”- time’s passage upon things, the charge on their emotional value, our dialogue with the objects. I’m inviting actors from the National Theatre, critics and theatre professionals  from here or afar, who came to know Georges Banu, to intervene by spoken word and interaction with the space that has been thus created, revisiting fragments from the roles that they have already interpreted -- possibly plays and roles for which Banu had a predilection -- or pieces of his texts, encouraging every actor or participant to choose what is more representative for himself and what better defines his message. Miruna Budisteanu

Exhibition with the works of painter Lucian Liciu (1968 - 2022)* A new exhibition opens in the exhibition space of the Media Foyer within NTB, starting from March 7, 2023. This time it is a posthumous retrospective dedicated to a talented painter from Olt, Lucian Liciu, who died at the age of 54, in full creative force. This is how Dr. Marius Tiță, the art critic who has assumed the task of curating this exhibition, which will be opened on Tuesday, March 7, 2023, at 6 pm, in the Media Foyer of the NTB ( the wing facing the Grand Hotel), evokes the artist: "In March 2022, it was with infinite sadness that I learned that the painter Lucian Liciu, a talented artist and a man of rare generosity, had passed from this world. It is hard to accept that we are left only with the image of him on the poster of the exhibition that was on display at that time, a poster that shows the artist smiling a little sorrowfully, as if saying goodbye. In fact, the painter Lucian Liciu left us a particularly strong and sensitive work, his beautiful family, the painter Nicoleta Gribincea Liciu and his three children who take their artistic career seriously, and many, many, in fact only beautiful memories. (…) Lucian Liciu's plastic work brings to attention great problems and subjects of society, especially in recent years, strange and troubled. In a direct, fluent and emotional way, the artist brings us all into the scene, through everything that happens in his art. The exhibition does not promise a theme, a theme addressed in painting, but it is, one year after the brush and the palette of colors remained still in front of the easel, a tribute to the painter Lucian Liciu, by presenting, on picture rails, his creation. Displaying his art and understanding it fully, along with the emotions and feelings it generates, is the simplest and brightest way to remember the artist. It is, in fact, the essence of 'Truth. Testimony. Confession", a painting by Lucian Liciu, which the National Theatre of Bucharest is organizing this March.  *L.L. was born in 1968 in Slatina, he attended the Faculty of Decorative Art and Design, Monumental Art section of UNA Bucharest in the class of Professor Marilena Preda Sânc and the University of Art "Luceafărul" where he had as teachers Vasile Chinschi and Ion Sălișteanu. Numerous participations in group exhibitions and solo exhibitions at home and abroad. He has been a member of the Union of Fine Artists of Romania, UAP Bucharest Branch and a member of Visarta since 2014. He was married to the painter Nicoleta Gribincea. "Lucian Liciu searches, experiments and takes risks. These would be the key words of all his creation. For the above reason, his works, or series of works, are heterogeneous, what unites them being more the spirit than the style or the manner" (comment from 2018 by art historian and critic Mihai Plămădeală, on the occasion of the exhibition " Once upon a time in Romania and shall be again" at the Centre of Visual Arts in Bucharest). "L.L. has left an atypical, nonconformist, edgy and harsh creation, from which a unique and unmistakable black humour resonates". Cătălin Podoleanu, painter   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu 

In the Rotonda exhibition space of the Small Hall of TNB you can see until January 15, 2023 the exhibition entitled Period patterns, the basis of the theatre costume, by the students of the Scenography Department of UNATC Bucharest coordinated by Prof. Dr. Ștefan Caragiu and Prof. Univ. Dr. Liliana Cenean. On display there are 20 spectacular theatre costumes, made of various sumptuous materials, a true demonstration of creativity and talent of young future scenographers. The exhibition can be visited daily from 2 pm to 6.30 pm, except on Mondays and public holidays.   Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu