GHEORGHE ILEA

The exhibition focuses on a series of paintings of the thermoelectric power plant (TPP) Zalău made between 2015 and 2019 while the building was being demolished. According to the artist, ‘The project aims to recover the recent industrial heritage by harnessing it in the space of contemporary art. Technology, computer systems, the way and methods of work, materials, innovation and adaptation to political requirements, the workforce, many things leave traces even in what is left of TPP Zalău, because when I painted it, part of it was already gone.

...What I saw inside was a huge, huge amount of work, a type of oversized craft activity. There never has been a fair appreciation or payment of so much human effort gone into these megalomaniac constructions, from all historical periods, actually. Pipes of all kinds, welds also, sheets, glass wool around the pipes, wire mesh to hold the wool, joined galvanized sheets that wrap the pipes, taps, large and small, springs, concrete, reinforcing iron and two more pages of enumerations.

For two decades... And nature, which is slowly but surely reconquering its territory. Poplars growing everywhere, grass, weeds, bushes of thistles and blackberries. In the fall we would bring home blackberries from the TPP. Crows and other birds had a house there. I loved working at TPP, it was quiet. I was painting immersed in and absorbed by the images I chose. Large, rusty tanks, an entire fabric of pipes, solid concrete pillars, pierced ceilings through which the sky can be seen, like open mouths from which a few teeth have been extracted, and the vegetation that appears everywhere. In a large hall, once whitewashed, where there still is a pool with water, I made an exhibition, for myself and the pigeons that lived there. I changed the exhibition two, three times, every three months, and that’s not because of some concept, but it was much more practical to dry my paintings there, instead of bringing them home. There were also the towers, yes, they could be seen from afar. What will become of them, will they be wrecked? Or not?’ (Excerpts from a text by Gheorghe Ilea)

Gheorghe Ilea, born 1958, Bucea, Romania, works and lives in Zalău, Romania. Previous solo exhibitions include: Gheorghe Ilea: Restoration process, 2015–2022; After ‘E__xercise of humility’, Tapestry of Ana Lupaș 1960–1962, Suprainfinit, Bucharest (2021); The Relocation Story, Plan B, Cluj (2014); Tronicart 1300, The National Museum of Contemporary Art / Dalles Gallery, Bucharest (2012); 10 Paintings, Plan B, Berlin (2010); PĂUŞA, Art Museum Cluj (2007); Collage, City Hall Gallery, Lorsch (2004). Previous group exhibitions include: După doisprezece ani. Producția artistică din România în 180 de lucrari. Expoziția Achizițiilor de Opere de Artă, MNAC—National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest (2020); Mircea Cantor, Vânătorul de imagini, Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris (2019); DOUBLE HEADS MATCHES. A selection of contemporary artworks from four Romanian private collections, New Budapest Gallery (2018); KM/H. Utopies automobiles et ferroviaires 1913-2013, Tour 46, Belfort & Musée du Château des ducs de Wurtemberg, Montbéliard (2013); Figurative Painting in Romania 1970–2010, Romanian Cultural Resolution, Spinnerei, Leipzig, DE / Club Electroputere, Craiova (2010); Ad hoc—Romanian Contemporary Art, Ludwig Museum, Budapest (1997).