Photographer Mădălin Mărienuț, Lecturer Univ. Dr. at the Faculty of Arts and Design of the Western University of Timișoara, exhibits the photography project Wounded Light at the ICR Vienna Gallery. The exhibition includes a series of photographs that present the current image of the industrial area in Valea Jiului, the approach being a result of photographic documentation from the period 2020 - 2021. The opening on January 20 at 19 p.m. was attended by the artist photographer Mădălin Mărienuț who presented his the project in English together with Camil Mihăescu, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Design at the Western University of Timișoara and the documentary photographer Ciprian Hord. In this context, the homonymous bilingual album was released, the foreword being signed by Florin Oprescu, Dr. Lecturer at the Institute of Romance Studies of the University of Vienna, translated into English by Luca Mixich. The project is organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute in Vienna in partnership with the Embassy of Romania in the Republic of Austria and the West University of Timișoara and marks the Day of National Culture.
"The project started from the proposal of Lecturer Dr. Florin Oprescu to take a series of photos as part of a series of events related to the 30th anniversary of Mineriada from June 13-15, 1990, but due to the pandemic the launch was postponed .
Using the means of plastic expression, the photography exhibition Wounded Light aims to convey more than information on the existing situation in Valea Jiului, namely an invitation issued to the viewer to better understand the reality in the area. If the human eye has the ability to immediately adapt to rapid changes in light conditions, the camera does not have this possibility without the intervention of the photographer. Through the technique used, this series of photographs (concreted also in an album with the same title) aims to create a connection between the underground world, animated by the few miners who still work in mining, and the surface world, with which they come into contact after leaving from the shot.
The series describes the geographical area that includes the former mines, most of them closed, the almost 220 m high chimney in Lupeni, the statues of the 2 Stahanovist miners in Uricani, kilometers of abandoned concrete but also locations that once abounded with spectators such as the Jiul football stadium Petroșani." (Mădălin Mărienuț)
exhibition Wounded Light will be open to the public from January 20 to February 25, 2022, from Monday to Friday, between 10.00:16.00 a.m. and 20:30 p.m. The entry is free. In the first stage, the photographic project was exhibited at the Institute of Romance Studies of the University of Vienna between October XNUMX and December XNUMX.
Mădălin MARIENUț is a photographer and Univ. Lecturer. Dr. at the Faculty of Arts and Design of the West University of Timișoara where he teaches photography courses. In the period 2013-2016, he attended doctoral studies at the Faculty of Arts and Design of the Western University of Timișoara, obtaining the title of Doctor of Visual Arts in 2017 with the work "Intimacy as a performance in the visual arts".
Since 2007, he has exhibited works in more than 20 national (Arad, Oradea, Timisoara, Craiova, Bucharest) and international (Serbia, Ukraine, Hungary, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Turkey) collective exhibitions. In 2012, the first TAG ME personal exhibition takes place in Arad, followed by INDIgenous in 2013 in Timișoara (Calpe Gallery) and Bucharest (Museum of the Romanian Country). In 2015, he presented the "Nostalgic Document Photo" exhibition in the Teba - CityZenit Arad exhibition space, and in 2017 in Athens, at the Void gallery, the "Surveillance Society" exhibition, followed in 2018 by the "Athens" exhibition at the same gallery. In 2019, the personal exhibition takes place at ICR Vienna as part of the book launch event "Morfologies of power" by Florin Oprescu.
Part of the project Wounded Light was exhibited for the first time in October-November 2020 in Athens, as part of the collective exhibition "Balkans Today. The present of a wounded landscape" curator Penelope Thomadi.
The photos from the event were taken by Iulian Moise.
University lecturer Dr. Mădălin Mărienuț
