Roxana Scripcaru
Head of the Romanian Postmodern & Contemporary Art Evaluation Office
43. Hydra (Project 1990) [2012]
The photos of the lot are informative and indicative, and cannot provide a highly detailed view of the object from all angles. We recommend a careful physical inspection of the lot before bidding.
43. Hydra (Project 1990) [2012]
1978, București
Estimate:
EUR 5.000 - 10.000
Sold
EUR 10.000
polystyrene, steel, fiberglass, resin, h= 600 cm
Research information
The work is reproduced in the "Dictionary of Sculptors from Romania", XIX-XX centuries, vol. II, lit. H-Z, Romanian Academy Publishing House, Bucharest, 2012, on page 53. The work was part of the exhibition "Project 1990. Art program in the public space 2010 - 2014", Project 12, Bucharest, 2012. The work was part of the exhibition ”Romanian sculpture 25 years after the revolution”, Beelden aan Zee Museum, The Hague, 2015. The work was part of the project Month of Romanian Sculptors, Iasi, 2024. Photo source: https://www.attilakim.com/Transformation-Romanian-Sculpture-25-Years-After-the-Revolution
"Sculptor Costin Ioniță has modeled between the past and the present, between communism and capitalism, creating a work that clears up the confusions and naiveties related to these two sections of Romania's recent history. Two ideological funds that we would normally believe separate are illustrated as being in a reciprocal generation process. Costin Ioniță lucidly creates a still lively body of communism, which supports seven rose heads, seemingly cut off, but well connected, of a Hydra - a mythological creature, symbolic reference to the current political present. The individualization of the seven floral heads in the relaxed body shows the regeneration capacity of a system, an observation carefully and explicitly transposed by artist Costin Ioniță in his ambitious work. The Hydra should constitute a traveling opera - brought to the front of party headquarters, public institutions with power and administration duties. The reason why the seven blooming heads should be carried on the solid body, sculpted by Costin Ioniță, is simple: this work would be an ethical memento, useful to the Romanian political space. Without having a moralizing character, the sculpture essentially captures the reality hidden to many and reveals on a large scale the moral and human path of our politics.
The Hydra has a narrative structure that denotes the power desire of each head rooted in a body caught in action, to pinpoint the present and the actuality of the delivered message. The modern and imposing monument shows, beyond the freedom of expression, a great capacity for social introspection of the sculptor Costin Ioniță. This work manages to illustrate the distance between the powerless and those who generate and blossom power with new and new heads. Costin Ioniță's achievement exceeds the boundaries of art and could be a reading key to the study related to the history of the last decades in Romania." (Claudia Zidaru, "Hydra - Costin Ioniță. Project 12: Dates 02.07.2012- 05.11.212", in Project 1990. Public Art Program 2010-2014, by Ioana Ciocan, Ed. Vellant, Bucharest, 2014, pp. 70- 74)
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Roxana Scripcaru
Head of the Romanian Postmodern & Contemporary Art Evaluation Office
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