Roxana Scripcaru
Head of the Romanian Postmodern & Contemporary Art Evaluation Office
59. The Dream Generator: Probing Existence and Dream Mapping
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59. The Dream Generator: Probing Existence and Dream Mapping
1986, Galați
Not sold
Selling price
EUR 1.206
tuș pe hârtie, 30 x 40 cm, signed lower right, in pencil, "Hortensia Mi Kafchin"
The series of works titled "Dream Generator" is an eloquent exemplification of the working methodology developed by Hortensia Mi Kafchin, in which the creative process is articulated through the "flow" technique— a continuous, intuitive, and uninterrupted flow of imagination. Designed under the deux faces scheme (in two parts or on both sides), these ink drawings function as a visual mapping of the subconscious, where the boundaries between objective reality, memory, and inner journey are subject to constant dissolution and reconfiguration. Contrasting directly to the rigidity and conventions typical of many traditional art schools—predominantly focused on mimetic representation, study from nature or a formal analysis of the outer world— Hortensia Mi Kafchin's practice is grounded in exploring her own existence. For Kafchin, the inner world constitutes the primary field of phenomenological research, where imagination is not simply a decorative or illustrative function, but the main instrument of knowledge, through which biography, identity, and transformation states are processed and transposed into a personal iconography heavily charged with ideatic symbolism.
Far from being simple preparatory sketches, the drawings in this series constitute acts of pure visual thinking, capturing the dynamics of the creative process at the very moment of its genesis. The upper sketch, conceived as the conceptual nucleus for the painting "Death under the table" (2012), explores a profound structural duality: the left half, with its strict geometrical lines, reminiscent of a technical plan or the linear frame of a table, evokes order and reason, while the right half is dominated by the dense and fluid eruption of ink, creating organic, ambiguous shapes saturated with darkness. This tension captures the crucial moment when an idea from the internal world obtains form, oscillating between the generation of form and its dissolution under the pressure of matter, suggesting a state of transition between life, structure, and "formal" death. Complementarily, the lower sketch is structured as a constellation of symbols scattered over the paper's surface—cosmic and planetary elements, fragmented cubic shapes, fluid force lines, and an anthropomorphic figure suspended on an unstable terrestrial mass. In Kafchin's paradigm, reality is not an exterior fact, but an ideatic construction generated from within, and the “journey” becomes a traversing of one’s own existence, a continuous navigation amid fragments of thought, memories, and affective states.
Geo-politically and culturally speaking, Hortensia Mi Kafchin holds a unique and essential position in Romanian and Eastern European contemporary art. Sprung from the post-communist context of Eastern Europe, her practice radically reconfigures the region's artistic narratives, transcending purely historical or direct socio-political approaches in favor of a universal, hybrid, and speculative visual language. Through her growing presence in major international art centers and top-tier museums, Kafchin repositions Romanian art on the global map, demonstrating that radical subjectivity, existential probing, and a technologic/dreamy imaginary can act as a powerful vehicle for redefining the East-European cultural identity beyond borders and geographical stereotypes. Refusing external filters and representational models, Hortensia Mi Kafchin dissects and reorders her own existential universe, transforming subjectivity into a visual language of rare conceptual density, in which each drawing becomes a diagram of the functioning of the mind and creative imagination.
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Roxana Scripcaru
Head of the Romanian Postmodern & Contemporary Art Evaluation Office
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