Group Exibit at Timisoara

by Ileana Pintilie / IN-FORMAT Group Exhibition  "Substrates"/ Tent Art Gallery, Timişoara, 2001

"Determined to confront the debut's difficulties together, the In-format Group was founded through the association of a couple of graduates of the Arts Faculty from Timisoara (Florin Avram, Liliana Mercioiu, Viorica Stănculescu, Valentina Ştefănescu), whose purpose was among others to animate the local artistic movement, to zest the quasi-inert atmosphere of the city. This group which included two painters and three decorative artists studies the issues of plastic arts language, seeking for common elements in diversity.

Carrying further the research related to painting begun a few years ago, Liliana Mercioiu proceeds by defining the term elipsă (ellipse), written on a canvas. This definition in which it is selected only the figurative meaning of the word is given in order to make reference to the listener's / viewer's memory who has to imagine what is not said or what it cannot be seen, and what is not reflected as a direct result of the term.

Surrounding the canvas, placed directly on the floor, approximately 80 rectangular wooden boxes containing inside-written verbs are being ellipse-shaped. These words-verbs, randomly chosen, are referring to the ones close nearby unifying facts that require the viewer's memory in order to "supplement what it is not said" (or is not revealed), within a semantic reference trial.

Less conceptual, taken away by the pure plastic poetry of architecture, the underground images assembly gathers a number of photographs of a couple of underground windows. This collection of facts gathers the images of all-shape windows both from downtown and uptown, each one of them being usually deserted, latched or dusted suggesting a personalized state.

Generalized trivial condition indicates a deficiency at a social level, a projection of much more severe vices. The action undertaken by Liliana Mercioiu is oriented toward new meanings and sensibilities by starting to assimilate and overpass the traditional plastic arts representation in favor of a conceptualized one [...]"