WORK

The exhibition Of self, crosses, and more is the first installment of the series micro-histories, micro-memories at MNȚRplusC. The author of the exhibition, Mircea Modreanu, a visual artist with interests in both topographical and anthropomorphic volumetry, presents an affectively resolved proposal of his personal journey (micro-histories). He recomposes a soft-memory in a simulacrum of hard memory (sculptural objects in the installation) in the artist-run space located in the basement of the Peasant Museum. The exhibition includes 1:1 scale reproductions of crosses that the artist examined over several years of research, utilizing the frottage technique and displayed in plexiglass frames. These works are rooted in the heart of the Momârlani community of Petroșani. The treatment of rural symbolism in Modreanu's work can also be found in the works of artists such as Mihai Olos, Napoleon Tiron, Maxim Dumitraș, and many others. By focusing on a very old cultural and ethnic community (the Momârlani consider themselves heirs of the Dacians), the artist questions the semantic rehabilitation of the term "Momârlan." He interprets the funerary symbolism (the cross) belonging to the Momârlan communities in the Jiu Valley. Outside of the research environment, not much is known about this community, as it is rarely represented in cultural regeneration projects. In dictionaries, the term "Momârlan" carries negative connotations, an error identified by the ethnologist Dumitru Gălățan Jieț, who proposed a more accurate definition to the Romanian Academy, reflecting the community in which he lives. In 2016, representatives of the Iorgu Iordan-Alexandru Rosetti Institute of Linguistics agreed to rectify this error, attributing a negative connotation to the oldest recognized community in the Jiu Valley. The exhibition is also an effort to culturally rehabilitate the local identity of an endangered community, coming from within itself through the artist Modreanu, who grew up in Petroșani.