Mircea Cantor: The Need for Uncertainty
13 September – 9 November 2008
Arnolfini, 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA
Tel. 0117 917 2300 / 01; www.arnolfini.org.uk
Gallery opening hours: 10.00-18.00, Tuesday to Sunday
Mircea Cantor’s installations address the notions of displacement and co-existent worlds. Beyond the suspenseful and highly contrived encounter, Cantor discreetly evokes the uneasy confrontation of ideology, people and culture. Cantor will present a new installation at Arnolfini comprising a number of sculptural components elaborating on the theme of uncertainty.
Following his exhibition at Modern Art Oxford earlier this year, this exhibition will be a second stage project with significant new components, including a large-scale wooden gate traditionally seen in Romania, coated in gold leaf. The gate has been imposed with a DNA-strand motif symbolising life, yet paradoxically, certainty and control. An image of a carved wooden form wrapped around the trunk of a tree in a Transylvanian forest, and a flying carpet woven with motifs of angels and aeroplanes will be some of the elements used by Cantor to reflect on worlds within worlds, and on freedom and its limitations.
Mircea Cantor lives and works in Paris and Cluj, Romania.
Exhibition Free Tour!
A free tour of the exhibition, led by Suzanne Cotter, Acting Director and Senior Curator at Modern Art Oxford, will take place at 17.30 on Friday 12 September, followed by the exhibition preview. Booking recommended.
A fully illustrated catalogue featuring views of Cantor’s new work and an essay by Suzanne Cotter, Senior Curator at Modern Art Oxford, accompanies the exhibition. This show will also be presented at Camden Arts Centre, London, 13 February to 12 April 2009, and was presented at Modern Art Oxford from 2 April to 1 June 2008.
A collaboration between Arnolfini, Camden Arts Centre, and Modern Art Oxford.
Supported by The Ratiu Foundation / The Romanian Cultural Centre in London