November 7, 2024 – January 19, 2025
Opening: Thursday, November 7, 19.00
This exhibition is part of a larger initiative that continues the effort of conceptualization and digitization of the Mihai Oroveanu Image Collection. Departing from the subject of modernization and its multiple contradictions, a subject richly represented in the corpus of this photographic collection, Adrian Ganea proposes a meditation on technological progress, starting with the Industrial Revolution. In Unholy Machine, the tumultuous march of scientific and technological advancements during the Industrial Revolution unfolds in distinct phases, revealing a constellation of works that depict the transformative, cryptic, and often absurd nature of machines. The exhibition highlights the radical, disruptive, and frequently monstrous quality of technology, inviting to confront the unsettling implications of progress. Rather than offering a linear narrative of improvement, it underscores the chaotic and often dramatic consequences of the relentless pursuit of innovation.
Considering the historical and cultural tensions that shape our understanding of modernity, the exhibition explores the multifaceted narratives of resistance and misunderstanding that surround our relationship with technology and progress. One of these narratives reflects on the Luddites, often caricatured as primitive anti-technology protesters. Contrary to this simplification, the Luddites were not struggling against the machines themselves, which they operated daily, but rather against a system that commodified labor. Another reference is Bertolt Brecht’s play In the Jungle of Cities, which portrays an inexplicable wrestling match between two men and the downfall of a family that moved from the prairies to the jungle of the big city. Set in Chicago in the 1920s, the play unfolds in one of the largest cities of the time, where an absurd conflict leads to radical alienation. Further complicating the understanding of progress, the exhibition also addresses the tension between the utopian promise of progress and the oppressive politics of the Eastern Bloc. Drawing from the Mihai Oroveanu Image Collection, the works produced especially for this occasion emphasize how art and culture can navigate the contradictions of their time – engaging with the transformative power of technology while resisting the deterministic narratives of senseless development and growth in the name of progress.
Unholy Machine emerges as an inquiry into the proverbial monsters of the Industrial Revolution – a chaotic blend of progress and peril, an ambiguous force that both shapes and shakes our realities. These creations align with the rhythms of our desires, possessing a plurality that transcends simple categorization. They embody the spirit of alchemy, transforming raw materials into wondrous forms while simultaneously invoking the specter of destruction. These automatons serve not merely as tools but as entities that disrupt, produce, and harmonize, reflecting our hopes, fears, and aspirations – echoing through time as both monster and muse.
Adrian Ganea (b. 1989) lives and works in Cluj-Napoca. His artistic practice varies from theater scenography to sculpture and 3D animation, through which he investigates digital culture and how various forms of fiction can materialize using the subjectivity of technologies. His works render liminal spaces, settings, digital worlds and simulations where the boundary between the intangible and the material becomes ambiguous.
This event is organised by the Salonul de proiecte Association as a part of the project Rural/urban: the photographic image and the contradictions of modernization in Romania.
Cultural project co-funded by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund
The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or the manner in which the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.
Partners: Romanian Academy Library, Photo-Video Department / UNArte Bucharest, Ion Dumitriu Foundation, Master of Audiovisual Archives / UNATC Bucharest
Sponsor: Corcova Roy & Dâmboviceanu
