A past project: the first Marcel Chirnoaga retrospective

Right in the middle of the capital, on Biserica Amzei Street at No 9, Marcel Chirnoaga has set his workshop. The entrance is hidden by mountains of garbage that the people who should pick it up failed to do so for weeks.

Marcel Chirnoaga is not the owner of this court. He hurts to see the misery and considers that this problem is at least as important as his “projects.” The workshop is where he lives, the space he creates. On August 17, the artist will be 70. He is a “Leo,” generous, strong and tenacious. He knows how to fight imposture and evil. However, 42 years ago, when he was opening his first display and he was only 28, he had no idea that an artist’s life can be “so sublime and so ugly at the same time.” He understood that over the years. The retrospective display at Dalles will be a journey between the many Scylle and Charibde that marked his existence and also an attempt to construct a portrait, spanning the years, epochs and trends that he survived.

The display will gather approximately 150 of his works – drawings from the artistic times he crossed and, in his opinion, it will be “at least as big as master Ciubotaru’s, the one who is on display these days.” At 70, Marcel Chirnoaga wishes to make a confession to all with the help of his display. For the first time, he will present to the younger generations a few of his works, less known to the public, dating from his “realist-socialist” period, a period that many regard with non-dissimulated despise. “I am not ashamed with the drawings I made during those times. They belong to me and I want people to understand that.” There will also be a few of his other works, around 30 of them, made in the last period. They will be exposed for the first time. Those familiar with the creations of Marcel Chirnoaga will find out that the artist remained the same refined character, playful, a storyteller, always torn between the purity of the artistic gesture and the dream macabre. “I have not changed and I have no wish to do so. I continue my way without changing. I have the same ideas and I let go of the same kind of emotions.” Marcel Chirnoaga wants to display several of his sculptures also at Dalles, in September but hasn’t decided the number or the periods. He is not afraid, as many others, of the retrospective displays. He does not perceive them as a “swan’s song.” This autumn’s event is just the beginning. He made over 3,000 pieces and he is only displaying 150. It will be, however, the most representative and complete display he has ever put together. It will be like the pinnacle of his career until now. For the future – who knows?