What is remarkable in the NOIMA group is their relationship with time. Perfectly contemporary, inserted in the present without hesitation, the young artists revisit the monuments of tradition reverentially and perseveringly. The confidence of their realization that they belong to our times does not tarnish the grace with which they go beyond the trend, the standard, the dictatorship of the latest cry. They understood, as it were, that – above all – tradition is a past that refuses to pass away.
(the exhibition text by Mr. Gabriel Lazurca – Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Romania to Hungary)
NOIMA... What is this group and what keeps its members together? As its very name suggests (“meaning”), I think their main aim is that of finding the meaning of painting and their own role, as painters, in this world and in this age. If noimă (“meaning”) is a common word, mostly used pejoratively, this group conveys a new dimension to it: the avid search for the way, for the encounter, essential when trying to validate and promote life for the sake of painting and other beautiful things. A serious search, which is, also, self-confident. NOIMA (founded in 2003) stemmed from fertile soil, as Timişoara has a quite old and rich tradition of groups of “visual artists” (who used to be called, in Romanian, plastic artists). There were two outstanding such groups in the late 1960s, years of openness and effervescence: „111” (1966) and „Sigma”(1969), which grew into legends. A decade later, in harder political circumstances, two exhibitions are worth mentioning: „Study I” (1978) and „Study II” (1981), which were, in act, groups themselves (at least in terms of their view on the act of painting). All these events were the result of an avid search for meaning, a search which could be more successful if performed by like-minded people, who then gave precious, reliable evidence (to other artists and the public) about the experience of the Art of living. All these events were remarkably attended by a man who made a real difference - Constantin Flondor. This is all the more important to mention, since NOIMA is made up of Constantin Flondor’s most hardworking and endowed apprentices. They are Andrei Rosetti (Deva, b. 1974), Ciprian Bodea (Timişoara, b. 1979), Dan Gherman (Lipova, b. 1980), Sorin Neamţu (Arad, b. 1977), Sorin Scurtulescu (Timişoara, b. 1979). 5 men from 4 towns. Some of them were workshop mates at the university, some had previously graduated from other universities (especially the polytechnic school: Andrei Rosetti, Sorin Neamţu). But this group seems to be closer to another one, “Prolog”, based in Bucharest, but whose founding member was the same wonderful man, Constantin Flondor.
[…]
The NOIMA members make up a spiritual family and a guild (craft is more important for them than any ideology). Together, they are stronger, so they can stick to genuine painting more successfully. At the same time, however, each member goes on his own way, his world being the reflection of the Creator’s same world. Each member is searching for his own place. The search is the genuine artist’s natural state, as he hates to follow prescriptions. But their ways meet, due to their seriousness, aspirations, human qualities. Each of them oscillates between the “warehouse” of his personal painting and the space of exhibiting in the middle of his community. Meeting them and watching them together are such beautiful, encouraging and optimistic experiences!
(Excerpt from Costion Nicolescu’s 2007 review of the NOIMA exhibition
at the German Cultural Centre in Timişoara - THE MEANINGS OF MEANING: NOIMA)
Curators: Costion Nicolescu, Cristian Robert Velescu
Ciprian Bodea, Dan Gherman, Sorin Neamţu, Andrei Rosetti, Sorin Scurtulescu
Together with: Bogdan Vlăduță, Simion Arhiri
