THE MATTRESS MEMORIAL

Ironically entitled The Mattress Memorial, Mircea Modreanu's exhibition contains a mixture of unpublished personal memories, to which are added fragments imprinted in the collective memory - materialized ad hoc in a series of works on concrete, of various sizes. The commentary proposed by Modreanu approaches, beyond the subjective experience, the issue of pollution from two perspectives. On the one hand, he points to the physical pollution generated by the over-consumption of plastics used in the manufacture of colas, mattresses, wings, wings, clothes, ducklings, and countless other inflatable bodies (useful for relaxation and entertainment, but harmful to humans and the environment). On the other hand, it draws attention to the visual pollution: the seaside landscape is transformed into a ridiculous parade of garish elements, both chromatically and formally. To the question - "Why concrete?" - the artist answers relaxed: "Because it's a material that resists; (smiling) I intended that the inflatable mattress, the symbol of the seaside, should endure in space as a public monument, giving it a commemorative touch." About the naive drawings that decorate each hard plaque - they are recurrent in Mircea's practice. They are transpositions of his interest in memory and childhood, in a kind of artifacts that seem to be discovered on the beach, accompanied by children's laughter and the sound of waves. The figures are hand-made by the children themselves, adjusted in size for each work, then harmonized in soft colors. The exhibition sends us back in time, inviting the viewer to reconnect with the magical world where the inner child can once again enjoy the innocence of seaside moments, scribbling in the sand, searching for happiness in the spindle-shaped shells that whisper the secrets of life.