Mariana Sain-Morar
"In
the battle against the lie Art has always been victorious"
(Alexander Solzhenitsyn)
The role of art in
a totalitarian country, as Romania was in my youth, is different than
it is in the free world. Under a totalitarian regime the art is either forced to surpass its
esthetical function, to engage in the fight against the Lie, exposing it,
or to be a simple tool used by those regimes to distort the
reality. In those circumstances
the truth could not be openly spoken, therefore it took unusual forms, which
were hard to grasp at first glance.
The majority of
my work done in Romania does not easily reveal itself to the hurried viewer. These paintings
have hidden connotations, although always a message based on general human
values, which could not be freely expressed in a totalitarian regime. Scenes of
everyday life acquire expressionist and dramatic nuances, the
chromatic palette usually being based on deep, grave tones, seldom touched by
light tones, used not to solve the mystery but to accentuate it. Still there is
hope; there is the power to trust in a better and just world.
The artist is a pilgrim on the road toward the divine. He is on a dynamic
waiting pathway and each piece comes as a step forward in understanding reality
and communicating it to the world. The steps are not symmetrical. They might
have different forms and heights, the artist trying to avoid walking
monotonously and repeating himself. In this process of becoming, the artist
perhaps should follow Gabriel Marcel’s words: "For the Subject to speak, one
must allow Him to converse".
I want my art to be a witness and a challenge for the viewer who wants to
know and understand a different culture, a dark, sad period in the history of a
nation; a period that should not be repeated anywhere, ever.