por Héctor Martínez Sanz

The Project “Homo Urbanus Europeanus” (HUE) is the fruit of 3 years of work and has already been exhibited in 31 European capitals. His author, the photographic artist Jean Marc Caracci, has covered the urban places of the European man in the same way that an archeologist searches for, digs up and tries to reconstruct the primitive spaces of the first humanoids. Nevertheless, neither vessels, spear heads nor rupestrian paintings are brought to light – maybe some graffiti and street painting – but spaces which are still present in front of the lens and of the human eye. This regards the “homo sapiens” who lives in geometrical spaces formed by rectilinear lines, parallels and angles which transform themselves into lights and shadows that may afterwards recreate them. This regards us, the Europeans.

“There is music in the air, it surrounds us, the world builds itself upon it, every one of us can get what one wants from it.” Edward Elgar

When we look at Baruch Elron’s paintings it feels like getting on a journey. A time travel to distant shores, and even, maybe, a journey toward the depths of the human soul.The present exhibition concentrates on two important subjects in Elron’s works: time and music. Two themes of rather important symbolic value in surrealist art, which most of Elron’s creations belong to. Why then does Elron belong to surrealism? In principle, because he paints, with refined realism and impressive craftsmanship, characters, objects and nature scenes which seem perfectly real, instead the connections and relationships he is setting create a new world, a fantastic, enigmatic one, a world that raises questions about our being here and now.

Baruch Elron existed so that he could live close to us. Life helped him to realize that the natural order of the things represents a challenge with a view to discovering the opposites, giving birth to the concept called „the natural disorder of the things”. According to Baruch Elron the color could be „read” as if it stood for a declaration of the onlookers’ rights.

It entitles him to promulgate the barbarous associations of the bright, raw, violent colors smoothed only by the movement of the lines towards the voluptuousness of the shapes and the combination of the real with the fantastic. Flying hands, bottles with breasts, pears with bikini, bullet-shaped egg etc.

Baruch Elron’s world is not ours. Actually, it gathers all the possible worlds into a single one, especially the impossible ones. Imagination that upholds this adventure of shape and color is in fact the breath that keeps us alive.

Excerpt from THE STORY OF YUSUF

Translated by Alistair Ian Blyth

Niram Art Publishing House together with Niram Art Magazine announce the finalization of the Literary Contest (Novel) entitled “Eminescu – as seen by the Spanish” and the Ceremony of the Niram Art Awards 2010.

From all the works about the great poet Mihai Eminescu that were submitted to the contest, the jury selected, in a second phase, 10 novels. Out of these, the winning novel will receive the Niram Art Novel Award of the amount of 6000 Euros, as well as the Niram Art Trofy – sculpture by the artist Bogdan Ater and the publishing of the literary work.

The Jury consisted of: Horia Barna (dir. ICR Madrid and Editor of Niram Art Publishing House), Fabianni Belemuski (Director of Niram Art Magazine), Eva Defeses (journalist, Defeses Fine Arts PR Agency), Thomas Abraham (Niram Art Publishing House) and artist Ruben Dario (owner of Niram Art Magazine).

Marcella Madeira is a Brazilian artist born in Rio de Janeiro in 1981. She works and lives in Amsterdam since 2007. She graduated in Social Communication in 2004 and from 2003 to 2005 she studied painting in the School of Visual Arts Parque Lage, in the Rio de Janeiro.

While she reveals a bold mixture of influences, her canvases have an unquestionable Brazilian flavour, the vibrant use of colours with the organic shapes create works that are as much playful and free as they are geometric and rhythmic.

In earlier works, her paintings showed a result of her exploration of the various possibilities of line as the essential element of a painting. By accentuating fine paint over canvas, skin over skin, dermis over dermis, she has created her own work method without brushes and using physical movements to distribute paint across the canvas. The juxtaposed geometrical lines on my canvas are irregular, undefined and sometimes intricate. The stripes strive for a magical moment where they assume their own significance, clashing with one another, crossing barriers and escaping the limits of perception.

4-21 March:  “Eternal Eve”: International Fine Art Group Exhibition to celebrate the International Women’s Day, Jaffa -Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel with the participation of artists from Israel, USA, Norway, Finland, Germany, Italy, Denmark, France, Canada, Greece, Netherlands, Austria. Curator: Zina Bercovici

Jaffa Museum, Tel Aviv, ‘Eternal Eve’ (March 2010): http://www.oldjaffa.co.il

Do you see fashion as a form of art?

Yes, I do. Dressing is a code of communication and as such it reflects our expression.

Can you describe from an artistic point of view the experience of haut-couture fashion shows? Many designers put together magnificent shows which go far beyond exhibiting nice clothes, light, music and special effects being carefully chosen to create surreal atmosphere that unites several art forms in a unique, breathtaking experience.

Haut-Couture is defined as the artistic side of fashion. It is where the designer is able to perform his real creativity with which he identifies himself. Putting on haut-couture clothes is a unique experience. Everything feels in place!! It has changed my perspective on clothes. It made me feel incredible inside, I’m wearing a statement.

What about Israeli fashion and designers?

Israel hardly has fashion because the climate does not allow it and since there is no demand for it on a daily basis… To say the truth I’m not familiar with young designers here. Personally I love Italian Design; Armani is my favourite because the classic design appeals to me the most.

Tell me 3 characteristics that belong only to photography.

The spontaneity of photography – the possibility to obtain a complete work of art in a split second. It is due to this fact that photography has gained its place among the new artistic trends. Photography clearly has a documentary value which is far more superior to painting. Photography can render an image from reality and this can turn into evidence in a trial for instance, whereas the realism in painting cannot render it with such precision. Photography has become extremely accessible and easily obtained because of the development of the digital technology, but this also makes it more commonplace.

Being only an adventurer at the beginning of my journey into this world of mysteries that is the Hebrew Language, I will not try to give any explicit information on its history, development and grammatical singularities. All this is available in professional terms in many books and freely on the Internet and I would only copy the words of the specialists. I will neither speak about the hidden “information” – numerology and the Kabalah. The Bible’s code – in Hebrew, of course – is another example of the obsession that the study of this language may generate. For this, you can also use Google or the Discovery extensive documentaries on it. I have never been attracted by numbers, only by words and sounds.

We all speak of ART, Literature being one of the known forms of art (I say “Known” because the future may reserve us many discoveries in the artistic field, too), Music another one. Between the Word and the Sound, there stands the Image – the “fine arts” of painting, sculpture, photography and so on. Man has always tried to put his thoughts and feelings in images and sounds since the early days of the cave drawings and rudimentary musical instruments.

But we often forget the primordial form of art, sadly seen today only as a speech mechanism, a tool of communication, something less artistic because of its utility. Isn’t language a form of Art? Today, there are thousands of languages in the world, ancient or more recent, each and one of them beautiful and exciting.

SCULPTURE BY THE SEA BY GREG JOHNS, AUSTRALIA

Photography by George Roca