Poject Ten ENG

PROJECT TEN

PrefaceWe are a group of ten Romanian artists, graduates of National Uni-versity of Arts Bucharest, at the beginning of our career. Over a pe-riod of one year we have done this project, entitled "TEN" and it is dedicated to the commemoration of ten years after the tragedyof 11 September 2001.

The project components:

TEN is a triple action project that includes three components.

The component elements of the assembly that together makes the whole are:

1. The memories - Under the High Patronage of the Min-istry of Foreign Affairs, will be held between July 18 to July 29, 2011 at the CatacombaUNA Gallery in Bucharest - a painting exhibition and a film projection representing images from the tragedy of 9/11/2001.

2. We care too - painting exhibition held between August 30 to September 3, 2011 at the Caelum Gallery in New York

3. Homage - commemorative exhibition - painting exhibition which will take place on September 11, 2011 - at European Art Gallery in Bucharest.

These three major components must be seen in interplay, in unity, and only together as a whole make up the being of TEN

We believe that this project would help promote our country's image in the U.S., would show the world how we see, here in Europe, what happens there, far across the ocean. And it shows that

WE CARE TOO !

Our gesture is meant to be a only a tear in an ocean of tears.

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IntroductionMr. Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor of New York and President of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, said in an inter-view: "We hope you will join us and help build the Memorial"

Mr. Joe Daniels, Director of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum of the World Trade Center calls : "Please join us in this historic Endeavor. "

Ms. Alice Greenwald, director of the Museum of World Trade Cen-ter, said in an interview: "We ask people everywhere to help us tell this story."

WE CARE TOO !

Beauty and ugliness are concepts that imply each other. The various manifestations of ugly over the centuries are yet richer and more unpredictable. If we go into a journey of thousands of years, we find an extremely large iconographic vein and unexpected.

We will encounter, one by one, spiritually ugliness in a succession of: mean, scary, foolish, criminal, horrible, despicable, horrible, wicked, monstrous, horrified, terrible, revolting, vile, ...

The appeal to the ugly is a means to denounce this evil. Contempo-rary art practice and make it worth the ugly, thus artists are want-ing to denounce the atrocities of the times in which we live.

Ugliness to which we refer, which we are presenting in this project, it sought its documents through visual representations of events per-ceived as ugly.

In a single day in the U.S. nearly 3,000 people died. Earth turned into hell, and flames reached up to heaven. In just minutes, the Twin Towers in New York turned into tons of irons and debris collapsed, leaving smoke, flames, fear, death and the smell of burnt flesh.Hu-man flesh.

We will remember them forever.

WE CARE TOO!

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Chapter IThe theme and title :

The theme which express the general idea is: REAL LIFE – atrocities

of the present.

Project Title - TEN (10)

Chapter IIThe subject :Homage - ten years from the tragedy that shook the world

This year, 2011, is the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that struck the United States. In 2001, World Trade Center towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington were hit by planes piloted by Muslim extremists.

The massacre started at 8.46 local time (15.46 GMT). A plane en-tered the north tower of World Trade Center complex. Only a quarter of an hour later a second aircraft hits the other tower strong. Car-nage shook the whole world, especially since the fall of the towers was broadcasted live on television. Three days after the tragedy, the Romanians have found that beyond the cracked windows and bro-ken walls, four compatriots were killed.

Four romanians were caught in the hell of the skyscrapers

Alexandru and Corina Stan had gone to the States to fulfill the American dream. They had no way of knowing that even hopes have sometimes death. Their wishes were shattered however in the 103 floor of the North Tower. Newlyweds, the two romanians won the green card lottery and emigrated to the USA, employing as IT ex-perts to an American company. Tuesday, September 11th, 8.46 AM caught them within minutes after they arrived at work. Enough for life to close its doors suddenly forever.

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Eugen Gabriel Lazăr was also an informatician and he worked in the same building with the two other romanians. The blows that shook the whole world caught him on his office at the 102 floor.

The fourth romanian, Joshua Poptean, was caught in the night-mare of the World Trade Center by accident. He did not worked in the Twin Towers. The destiny described another path for him: con-struction entrepreneur, the man was located at the floor 106, at the restaurant for a business meeting. The last, for the romanian which hoped that he will find happiness in the United States.

There remained only crushed souls, killed memories and crippled families.

The official film of the attacks of 11 September 2001.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists hijacked four airliners. They turned them into weapons and struck with them the American political and economical symbols.

The planes took off from Boston, Newark and Washington.

At 8:30 AM nothing announces the disaster. It was a beautiful day of September.

The first aircraft struck the North Tower at 8:46.

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Just a quarter of an hour later, a second plane struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

At 9:37, the race 77 Washington - Los Angeles, of the American Airlines is also diverted after which the aircraft crashes over the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.

A few minutes later a fourth plane is hijacked: Flight 93, Newark - San Francisco. It had as a target Camp David, but passengers had messed up the plans of terrorists, after they revolted and tried to take con-trol of the aircraft. The aircraft finally crashed in a field inPenn-sylvania.

At 9:59, the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed after burning about an hour. Thousands of employees and firefighters were trapped in the

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rubble. A huge dust cloud covered the-Manhattan, and then col-lapsed the second tower.

Dust, very much dust ....

Horror ... a lot of horror ...

September 11, 2001 was the day that changed the world, the day that killed thousands.

Beyond all of this there are a few photos, all snapshots of Septem-ber 11, describing simple, the tragedy and drama of the people who died and who survived the terrorist attacks, images that say more than the tens of thousands of articles, analysis, more than all the

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past decade fight against terrorism, more than all wars and all politi-cal statements together. They talk about the drama of 11 Septem-ber 2001.

Before the second tower fall, the first ten floors were destroyed by a violent fire. Any intervention was useless.

Shocked, scared, with no chance, aware that they will die in the next few minutes, dozens of people have tried, with the despair of the one that has nothing to lose, to save themselves by jumping out the window.

They were at of the first tower strucked floor 70-80. A man in free fall reached the ground in less than 30 seconds.

It is September 2011, people take their children to school, then they turn to their affairs. It is the natural course of things for people everywhere.

In 2001, the same thing did the millions of Americans. Some have not came back home!

WE CARE TOO!

Stop and think for a few moments to the the attacks that bereaved the whole world on 11 September 2001. Then watch your child, or your parents, brothers, sisters, and think of the hundreds of Ameri-can children who have lost their parents to the World Trade Center, to the bereaved families.

September 11 can become a life lesson.

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There remained untold stories of life: the last phone calls, the last emails, the last moments of life of some people who died with the "guilt" of being there and then.

The horror

"The New York Times" published shortly after the September 11 at-tacks, the messages of the victims.

Steven Jacobson, an engineer, was on the 110 floor of the North Tower , just below the antenna on the roof of the building. When the first plane struck the building, a colleague managed to get in touch with Steven. On the first phone call, Steven said, "I can not leave the office, is terrifying hot up here." There was another call. Steven im-ploring help: "Get me out of here! Send help!" Then the call was in-terrupted...

Garth E. Feeney, director, was during a conference at the 106 floor. 5 minutes after the aircraft impact, she called her mother."Mom, I'm not calling you to chat! I am in the World Trade Cen-terand the building was hit by a plane. ""Tell me you're going to the ground!""No, I am above to the the last floor. We are 70 people in a room. We closed the doors and try to keep away from smoke!"No word in addition ......

Peter Aldeman, salesman, sent emails to his wife: "I panicked. It's too much smoke in the building!" The answer of his wife came back, obsessive, always the same: "Can you get there?". The last news from Peter was heartbreaking, "No, we're trapped here." ...

In the south building, on the 106 floor , was Michael Egan, whophoned to his wife after he managed to evacuate the floor, leading his colleagues to the 78 level. He was sent back to 105. Then he realized that he has no escape. His wife recalls, "He

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said that where he was, people can not breathe. He told me he loves me. Was discontinued and in a second the building collapsed "...

Eric Thorpe spoke to his wife before, and after the second plane struck the Twin Towers. "I did not know in which part of the building was located. I do not know if he dropped the phone and could not find it in the crowd. I do not know if after dialing the number he lost his consciousness. I do not know if he realized that he will not sur-vive or if he just wanted to hear my voice , continuing to say that I love him and ask him to resist. Then the building fell."...

These are just some of the discussions on "The New York Times" that the reporters managed to obtain from the families of the vic-tims from the Twin Towers. The horror of the passenger from the hi-jacked planes, which knew that there was no hope of rescue can not be described in words. Each of the nearly 3,000 people had his own story. What end of story ...

What must have felt the people who had thrown them selfs into the void, for instance, from the 106 floor?

The last survivor

William Rodriguez was hired as a janitor at the WTC, in the northTower, when the tragedy struck. He was the person who had the keys to the escape lad-der on which the firemen climbed in fighting the flames.

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Thanks to him, hundreds of people have survived being evacuated from the building. Moreover, he helped the firefighters by returning three times into the tower after the plane impact. It is considered to be the last person who managed to leave the World Trade Center before the collapse of the building.

Takr, a german shepherd saved the people from under the rub-ble. Now it is no longer living. At the request of his master it was cloned.

The Fire Department of the New York has released thou-sands of documents on the the attacks of 11 September 2001, following a complex legal battle triggered by The New York Times and the relatives of the victims of the attacks. The ap-proximately 12,000 pages of published documents include transcripts of testimonies of

503 firefighters, doctors and rescue team members, the list of the calls to emergency services and the transcription of the orders given by the agents that managed the operation of rescue. Many testi-monies expressed panic, despair and communication difficulties.

Firefighter Kirk Long reports on the evacuation of the North Tower floors, then the very strong noise wich he heard when the South Tower collapsed.

A colleague of his says that he was able to use the mobile phone but not the radio station provided. "I managed to get in touch with oth-ers, but it was very difficult", Howard Hahn says.

Following the collapse of both towers of the World Trade Center, 2749 people died, including 343 firefighters.

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The traces of the disaster

The memories

In the place where formerly the Twin Towers were as-cended, now only memories remain.

Seven years after the attacks, two survivors of the tragedy had agreed to talk exclusively to the Q Magazine readers about what meant "nine eleven" for those who were right in the core of the events.

Maxime Laboy, one of those who survived the attacks of 11 Septem-ber 2001, recalled the horror wich she lived then.

QMagazine: Maxime, you're one of the survivors from WTC. Where you were, exactly, on the day of the attacks?

Maxime: I was working for the same company I work for today. The headquarters then was in the Tower 2 of WTC. I just entered the of-fice and I was preparing for another day at work. When the first plane struck the Tower 1, I was in my office from the other tower, on the 17 floor and when the second plane strucked Tower 2, I barely managed to get out on the street in front of the WTC.

Q: How has felt the moment of the impact? Have you realized that it is a terrorist act?

M: At the first impact, no way! I thought perhaps my colleagues up-stairs had dropped some heavy equipment. I heard two bangs, one after the other, and the building had moved slightly. At the second plane, I was sure that is the hand of terrorists. Moreover, I saw the plane heading for the WTC. The explosion was so strong that I hit the ground and I lost my hearing for several moments. While fire-balls were flying above me, I knew this: to run to save mylife!

Q: How does your colleagues perceived what happened?

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M: No one thought in the first phase, to a terrorist act. In the worst case, we thought it was a bomb. Until I left the building, I did not know that a plane caused the explosion.

Q: What was the first thought that went through your mind?

M: When the first plane struck the other tower I thought, simple -"What these guys up move ?". At the second impact I could scream "Save me from here." I had no cell phone, I could not contact any-one. And even if I had, I doubt I could get out of the shock and to callsome-one. I just felt a terrible fear!

Chapter III Expression techniques of of the plastic message

The artists aim a personal interpretation of the tragedy, using wit-ness images, filtered through their own artistic instinct.The theme of "realism" in painting is complex and present, in the context of contemporary artistic pluralism.

The Realism - is an artistic trend that began in the first half of the nineteenth century in France, theorized by Gustave Courbet in the "Manifesto of Realism" and was manifested in three directions simul-taneously:

- the technique used to the accomplishment of the works - an understanding of realism as a representation of the immediate reality (following this directives have been developed trends like -hyperrealism, classical realism ...)

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- Lifelike theme.

- The third direction is that of the trends that relate to reality but not to representation as such, but rather to create new dimen-sions - other realities. Reality becomes just the corresponding source. (eg.: new realism, surrealism ..)

In the twentieth century trends come and go overnight. The Realism becomes a comparison term in the creation and representation of new realities.

The term contemporary art concerns, especially the art today.

After the Second World War, social and economic issues and not only, enter into the art world, diverting the current path of art and-making it even a genuine propaganda.

We assist to the fall of the communist bloc and to economic and cul-tural globalization. In this context the representation of reality comes back to the attention of artists.

We assist to the integration in art of the immediate thematic uni-verse, contemporary and present - in a word, the reality.

In the west is born the hyperrealism and photorealism. It uses the photo as a starting point in creating paintings, as reference for a work of art. Some details are omitted or abstracted and the concen-tration is on the final big picture.

The artistic post modernism, correlated with the socio-political pat-terns, push the current art in the "Political Correctness" site, the area where the artistic environment is characterized by a reaction to the immediate reality.

Realism is a quality of art to capture what is contemporary and im-mediate to the society, to the individual and to the human percep-tion.

The current artistic opinion-polls highlights the massive accession of the public to easily decipherable kind of painting, to the figurative painting.

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Realism is not limited to a single pictorial technique, it gives to the artists the freedom to be close to what is human : life.

"It's hard to imagine an artistic composition devoid of special ef-fects, which have the primarily purpose to draw attention to that work"(Techniques of expression - theoretical course for master - Prof.uni-v.dr. Mihail Mănescu)

The paintings will be held as chronological scenes, so the viewer un-derstands the message of the authors.

The compositional unity of the project is marked by the logical,propositional link, between individual elements, by the rela-tionship between content and form.

The variety of colors - the works will be executed using a wide color palette, but also with the severe black and white couple.

"White acts on our soul as an extensive silence ... ""Black is extinction, .. stillness, corpse, something that leaves every-thing to slide over it. It is the silence of a body after death, the end of a life "(The spiritual in art, Wassily Kandinski, Ed.Meridiane, 1994,pag.80, 81)

Form - easy to decipher, (being figurative painting) realized by using proper quantities of value that stand between light and shadow.

"The screen is simply a realistic window glass, very thin, very clear and has the claim to be so perfectly transparent, that the images are crossing it and then they are reproduced in their entire reality."("See?" Victor Ieronim Stoichiţă, Ed. Humanitas, 2007, pag.51)

Operations of rhetorical nature:

"The artist must have something to say ..."

"The viewer of today ... is searching into the art-work ... moods dis-guised into natural forms ... ... All these forms fulfill their purpose-and become spiritual food ... "

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(The spiritual in art, Wassily Kandinski, Ed.Meridiane, 1994,pag.112, p. 17)

Chapter IVMaterials

The support - The works will be executed on linen, treated, average grain, stretched on wooden chassis.

All works will have a black edge of the chassis.

Technique: oil on canvas, mixed, acrylic on canvas.

Materials used - oil paints, acrylic, tempera, different brushes, painting knives , drawing paper for sketches.

Accessories: pallets, godets;

Auxiliary materials: solvents, oils and mediums for painting, thin-ners,varnishes etc.

Dimensions - works have the different heights and widths, but most have the height of 1 m.

The unitary weight of the works is between 1.8 kg to 4.5 kg.

Total weight of of the works - is about 110 kg.

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Final NoteProject "TEN" is sustained by a total of ten artists from Bucharest (Ioan Teodor Arghir, Mihai Alexandru Avasilinei, Jana Biciuşcã, Veron-ica Alina Petre, Cezar Popa, Ovidiu Popa, Mihail Samir Vancica, Mar-ius Pitru, Ileana Oprescu and Casandra Vasile) reunited into a study group, called CORVUS, which aims to promote normality, freedom of expression, integration into art of the immediate thematic uni-verse, contemporary and present, in a word - REALITY.

Eight members of the group Corvus participated in the project "20"(TWENTY): a tribute to the heroes of the Romanian revolution.

“National Art University Students pay tribute to heroes of the Revo-lution of December 1989, staging a happening art project called "20".

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Street art lovers are invited on December 22, 2009, in the Univer-sity Square to witness a unique moment.A group of students of the Bucharest National University of Fine Arts will present Project "20", a tribute to the heroes of the revolution ...

Within this project, the young artists will recreate in front of the passers a three-dimensional copy of the famous painting "Last Sup-per" by Leonardo da Vinci, using effects and symbols that will re-member the sacrifice of the heroes of the Revolution from Decem-ber 1989. The work will be placed in the street and it will be pursued the effect that it will have on viewers and the passers.

To bring the passers further into the atmosphere of 20 years ago, the work will be surrounded with sand bags bound together with barbed wire, fencing that will represent the barricades, as a sym-bolic boundary between the attacker and the attacked. An important aspect of the project is also the filming.

Young artists will catch the public's reaction on camera, be it emo-tion or ignorance of it, and will be the documentary material for the next step of the project that will be presented at the Gallery "Caminul Artei".

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The artists intend, through this event, to gather, in a moment of sober reflection, the 20 years since the Revolution of 1989. The commemoration of 20 years of bitter and tense situation from those events is intended to cause the viewer to not ignore the importance of the sacrifice of those who gave their lives for the rebirth of our so-ciety.”

The newspaper "Cotidianul" 18 December 2009

TEN different contemporary artists,TEN mentality,TEN different talents,TEN different styles.A common subject :TEN years from the tragedy that shook the worldA common project :TEN.

WE CARE TOO!The list of participants:Casandra Vasile- master student - Albertina Academy of Fine Arts- Turin - Italy- BA in painting - National University of Arts BucharestCezar Popa - BA in painting - National University of Arts BucharestIleana Oprescu - BA - University of Architecture and Urbanism "IonMincu" BucharestJana Biciusca - BA - Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest -Chartered Accountant- BA in painting - National University of Arts Bucharest- master student - National University of Arts BucharestMarius Pitru- BA in painting - National University of Arts BucharestMihai Alexandru Avasilinei - master student - Academy of Fine Arts - Venice - Italy- BA in painting - National University of ArtsBucharestMihail Samir Văncică- master student - National University of ArtsBucharest- BA in painting - National University of ArtsBucharestOvidiu Popa

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- student - National University of Arts BucharestTeodor Ioan Arghir - BA in painting - National University of ArtsBucharest- BA - University of Architecture andUrbanism "Ion Mincu" BucharestVeronica Alina Petre - master student - Academy of Fine Arts - Venice - Italy- BA in painting - National University of Arts Bucharest

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