Difference between revisions of "Sigma"
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==Accounts of the history of the group== | ==Accounts of the history of the group== | ||
− | ; by Ileana Pintilie, | + | ; by Ileana Pintilie, [http://www.e-cart.ro/ec-6/ileana/uk/g/ileana_uk.html "Spira mirabilis"], ''e-cart'', 2005 |
A defining characteristic of the Sigma group was the declared program of work, based on the principle of team and interdisciplinary work (mathematics, cybernetics, bionics, but also plastic structures). The first creation period of Sigma group (1970-1974) is characterised by projects made in common, visible also in the system of participation in exhibitions. One example of such a project was "The Informational Tower", conceived in 1970, mixing architecture and sculpture, exhibited information within a show of light and sound. But not only the public projects, as the geometric structure realized in 1971 for the hallway of the Students' House in Timisoara or the project of fountain which brought them an U.A.P. prize, have marked the important moments of the group's development; a new vision upon their subsequent evolution was to be marked by the action and the environment called "bloating structures" and realized at the Bastion Gallery in Timisoara, for the UNESCO Plastic Arts' Week. In the Bastion Gallery the rooms have been organized with bloating structures in the form of transparent tubes, onto which, during the opening, a dia and film projection took place. Thus, the spatial environment took the form of a happening with public assistance. In the same year, Bertalan, Flondor and Tulcan were invited to participate in the exhibition "Art and Energy" in Bucharest, where they created spatial installations which were separate but at the same time within a unitary ensemble that carried the unmistakable mark of the group. The last big common action of the group before they separated was "Multi-vision" (presented at the exhibition "Study 1", Timisoara, 1978), a spatial environment formed by a tri-dimensional structure made of coloured semi-transparent nets, spatially arranged in the form of a tetrahedron, onto which there was a projection of black and white and colour film for two cameras. | A defining characteristic of the Sigma group was the declared program of work, based on the principle of team and interdisciplinary work (mathematics, cybernetics, bionics, but also plastic structures). The first creation period of Sigma group (1970-1974) is characterised by projects made in common, visible also in the system of participation in exhibitions. One example of such a project was "The Informational Tower", conceived in 1970, mixing architecture and sculpture, exhibited information within a show of light and sound. But not only the public projects, as the geometric structure realized in 1971 for the hallway of the Students' House in Timisoara or the project of fountain which brought them an U.A.P. prize, have marked the important moments of the group's development; a new vision upon their subsequent evolution was to be marked by the action and the environment called "bloating structures" and realized at the Bastion Gallery in Timisoara, for the UNESCO Plastic Arts' Week. In the Bastion Gallery the rooms have been organized with bloating structures in the form of transparent tubes, onto which, during the opening, a dia and film projection took place. Thus, the spatial environment took the form of a happening with public assistance. In the same year, Bertalan, Flondor and Tulcan were invited to participate in the exhibition "Art and Energy" in Bucharest, where they created spatial installations which were separate but at the same time within a unitary ensemble that carried the unmistakable mark of the group. The last big common action of the group before they separated was "Multi-vision" (presented at the exhibition "Study 1", Timisoara, 1978), a spatial environment formed by a tri-dimensional structure made of coloured semi-transparent nets, spatially arranged in the form of a tetrahedron, onto which there was a projection of black and white and colour film for two cameras. | ||
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By the early seventies, the most representative movements of making "art by numbers" in Romania were the "sigma" group in Timisoara and [[Kinema Ikon]]. Sigma was intimately connected to a neo-constructivist (Bauhaus-like) practice both in creation and teaching, while the second was a rather structuralist-borne implant in experimental film-making. Although "sigma" was very well-known and held in high esteem (even by the political establishment of the time), whereas Kinema Ikon was barely known at all, pursuing its research in a rather silent if not hidden manner, both groups shared, in the words of one of the "sigma" manifestoes, "the reconsideration of the environment as an object of artistic research" and they aimed, manifestly, at the development of an "intelligence able to adapt them to a future culture" inescapably marked by "the development of an algorithmic culture". Structures, frames, schemes, recurrent invariants, technical manipulation, calculation, repetition and scientific-like insight were the main marks of their aesthetic outlook. "Organizational" and meliorist, positivist and centripetal, highly "humanistic" in a contemporary sense, such artistic endeavors are nonetheless stamped by that profoundly Utopian drive of the historical avant-garde. Their unexpressed goal was to regain a certain, "alternative transcendence" for our times, one that was believed to be controllable, science-based, computational, and eventually thoroughly intelligible. | By the early seventies, the most representative movements of making "art by numbers" in Romania were the "sigma" group in Timisoara and [[Kinema Ikon]]. Sigma was intimately connected to a neo-constructivist (Bauhaus-like) practice both in creation and teaching, while the second was a rather structuralist-borne implant in experimental film-making. Although "sigma" was very well-known and held in high esteem (even by the political establishment of the time), whereas Kinema Ikon was barely known at all, pursuing its research in a rather silent if not hidden manner, both groups shared, in the words of one of the "sigma" manifestoes, "the reconsideration of the environment as an object of artistic research" and they aimed, manifestly, at the development of an "intelligence able to adapt them to a future culture" inescapably marked by "the development of an algorithmic culture". Structures, frames, schemes, recurrent invariants, technical manipulation, calculation, repetition and scientific-like insight were the main marks of their aesthetic outlook. "Organizational" and meliorist, positivist and centripetal, highly "humanistic" in a contemporary sense, such artistic endeavors are nonetheless stamped by that profoundly Utopian drive of the historical avant-garde. Their unexpressed goal was to regain a certain, "alternative transcendence" for our times, one that was believed to be controllable, science-based, computational, and eventually thoroughly intelligible. | ||
− | ; by Constantin Flondor | + | ; by Constantin Flondor [http://www.constantin-flondor.com/index.php?p=lucrari&sub_id=28&lang=ro] [http://www.constantin-flondor.com/index.php?p=lucrari&sub_id=29&lang=ro] {{ro}} |
Bertalan: „ ... ne-am plimbat atunci toată noaptea. Fiind sosit atunci cu trenul, te-am luat de acasă de pe Sălăjan, seara la zece, şi-am mers vorbind prin parc, prin cimitir şi pe străzi. Am fost ca doi nebuni zburând în văzduh, plini de proiecte şi idei. Gândurile noastre din acea noapte au marcat anii ce au urmat”. | Bertalan: „ ... ne-am plimbat atunci toată noaptea. Fiind sosit atunci cu trenul, te-am luat de acasă de pe Sălăjan, seara la zece, şi-am mers vorbind prin parc, prin cimitir şi pe străzi. Am fost ca doi nebuni zburând în văzduh, plini de proiecte şi idei. Gândurile noastre din acea noapte au marcat anii ce au urmat”. | ||
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==Literature== | ==Literature== | ||
− | * | + | * Alexandra Titu, [[Media:Titu Alexandra 1997 Experimentalism in Romanian Art after 1960.pdf|"Experimentalismul în arta românească după 1960"]], in ''Experiment în arta românească după 1960 / Experiment in Romanian Art since 1960'', ed. Madga Cârneci, Bucharest: Soros Center for Contemporary Art, 1997, pp 11-29. {{ro}} |
− | + | ** [[Media:Titu Alexandra 1997 Experimentalism in Romanian Art after 1960.pdf|"Experimentalism in Romanian Art after 1960"]], trans. David Hill, in ''Experiment în arta românească după 1960 / Experiment in Romanian Art since 1960'', ed. Madga Cârneci, Bucharest: Soros Center for Contemporary Art, 1997, pp 10-28, [http://www.c3.hu/ican.artnet.org/ican/textc074.html?id_text=24 HTML]. {{en}} | |
− | * Erwin Kessler, [ | + | * Erwin Kessler, [[Media:Kessler Erwin 2000 Making Art by Numbers.pdf|"Making Art by Numbers"]], ''Plural'' 1, 2000. {{ro}} |
− | * Pintilie I., ''Actionism in Romania during the communist era'', Cluj-Napoca: Idea Design&Print, 2002. | + | * Pintilie I., ''Actionism in Romania during the communist era'', Cluj-Napoca: Idea Design&Print, 2002. {{en}} |
− | * '' | + | * ''Flondor, de la "111" + "Sigma" la "Prolog"'' [Flondor, from 111 and Sigma to Prolog], ed. Georg Lecca, Cluj: Idea Design & Print, 2005, 197 pp. Catalogue. [https://www.scribd.com/doc/228596520/ Excerpt]. {{ro}}/{{en}} |
+ | * Ileana Pintilie, [https://e-cart.ro/ec-6/ileana/ro/g/ileana_ro.html "Spira mirabilis. Imnul revenirii ciclice a unei cresteri interioare"], ''e-cart'' 6, Aug 2005. {{ro}} | ||
+ | ** [http://www.e-cart.ro/ec-6/ileana/uk/g/ileana_uk.html "Spira mirabilis. The hymn of an inner growth's cyclical return"], ''e-cart'' 6, Aug 2005. {{en}} | ||
* Arina Susara, [http://www.viata-medicala.ro/*articleID_5140-dArt.html "Începuturile acţionismului în arta românească"], April 2012. {{ro}} | * Arina Susara, [http://www.viata-medicala.ro/*articleID_5140-dArt.html "Începuturile acţionismului în arta românească"], April 2012. {{ro}} | ||
− | * Alina Șerban, [https://monoskop.org/images/a/a3/Third_Text_32_4_Actually_Existing_Artworlds_of_Socialism_2018.pdf#page=117 "Sigma Group: Negotiating New Spaces for Art"], ''Third Text'' 153: "Actually Existing Artworlds of Socialism", Jul 2018, pp 485-499. {{en}} | + | * Alina Șerban, [https://monoskop.org/images/a/a3/Third_Text_32_4_Actually_Existing_Artworlds_of_Socialism_2018.pdf#page=117 "Sigma Group: Negotiating New Spaces for Art"], trans. Alistair Ian Blyth, ''Third Text'' 153: "Actually Existing Artworlds of Socialism", Jul 2018, pp 485-499. [https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2018.1510618] {{en}} |
+ | * Andreea Palade-Flondor, [https://institutulprezentului.ro/2020/02/28/sigma-utopii-ale-spatiului-relatia-cu-arhitectura/ "Sigma — Utopii ale spaţiului. Relaţia cu arhitectura"], ''Institutul Prezentului'', Feb 2020. {{ro}} | ||
+ | ** [https://institutulprezentului.ro/en/2020/02/28/sigma-space-utopias-the-relationship-with-architecture/ "Sigma—Space Utopias. The Relationship with Architecture"], Feb 2020. {{en}} | ||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
+ | * [[Romania#Romania#Geometric_abstraction.2C_Neo-constructivism.2C_Op_art.2C_Kinetic_art]] | ||
* [[Romania#Experimental film, avant-garde film]] | * [[Romania#Experimental film, avant-garde film]] | ||
==Links== | ==Links== | ||
− | * [http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupul_Sigma | + | * [http://web.archive.org/web/20160326234159fw_/http://www.sigmaexperiment.com/ Sigma: Cartography of Learning 1969–1983], exhibition, Timișoara, 2015. [https://artencounters.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/e-catalog-AE-2015.pdf#page=52 Text]. [https://www.modernism.ro/2015/10/18/sigma-cartografia-invatarii-1969-1983-in-cadrul-art-encounters-timisoara/ Photos]. |
+ | * [http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupul_Sigma Wikipedia-RO] | ||
[[Category:Experimental film]] | [[Category:Experimental film]] |
Revision as of 16:16, 27 February 2022
The Sigma Group was an experimental group active in Timişoara between 1969-1980 and consisting of Ştefan Bertalan, Lucian Codreanu (matematician, from 1970), Constantin Flondor, Ioan Gaita, Elisei Rusu (shortly), Doru Tulcan (1969-1978). Its programme was both artistic and pedagogic; its members were teachers at the Fine Arts Academy in Timisoara. The group put emphasis on teamwork and interdisciplinarity (integrate mathematics, cybernetics, bionics, psychology, and architecture in the arts), used variety of media (paper, cardboard, wood, aluminum, glass, stiplex, synthetic materials, photography, film), and was influenced by Bauhaus, constructivism and new trends in art and architecture.
The name 'Sigma' appeared only after Codreanu's accession in 1970, but the group had formed already in 1969.
Dismantling of the group took place slowly, over several years and has never been declared formally. The last event all members took part was in 1976 on the banks of the Timis River. Multivision of Flondor and Tulcan in 1978 in the gym of School of Fine Arts Timişoara was the last public demonstration of Sigma; all group members attended. In 1978 the group entered a period of crisis after Bertalan was moved to the Institute of Architecture. Afterwards, the group splits.
Accounts of the history of the group
- by Ileana Pintilie, "Spira mirabilis", e-cart, 2005
A defining characteristic of the Sigma group was the declared program of work, based on the principle of team and interdisciplinary work (mathematics, cybernetics, bionics, but also plastic structures). The first creation period of Sigma group (1970-1974) is characterised by projects made in common, visible also in the system of participation in exhibitions. One example of such a project was "The Informational Tower", conceived in 1970, mixing architecture and sculpture, exhibited information within a show of light and sound. But not only the public projects, as the geometric structure realized in 1971 for the hallway of the Students' House in Timisoara or the project of fountain which brought them an U.A.P. prize, have marked the important moments of the group's development; a new vision upon their subsequent evolution was to be marked by the action and the environment called "bloating structures" and realized at the Bastion Gallery in Timisoara, for the UNESCO Plastic Arts' Week. In the Bastion Gallery the rooms have been organized with bloating structures in the form of transparent tubes, onto which, during the opening, a dia and film projection took place. Thus, the spatial environment took the form of a happening with public assistance. In the same year, Bertalan, Flondor and Tulcan were invited to participate in the exhibition "Art and Energy" in Bucharest, where they created spatial installations which were separate but at the same time within a unitary ensemble that carried the unmistakable mark of the group. The last big common action of the group before they separated was "Multi-vision" (presented at the exhibition "Study 1", Timisoara, 1978), a spatial environment formed by a tri-dimensional structure made of coloured semi-transparent nets, spatially arranged in the form of a tetrahedron, onto which there was a projection of black and white and colour film for two cameras.
- by Erwin Kessler, "Making Art by Numbers", Plural 1, 2000
By the early seventies, the most representative movements of making "art by numbers" in Romania were the "sigma" group in Timisoara and Kinema Ikon. Sigma was intimately connected to a neo-constructivist (Bauhaus-like) practice both in creation and teaching, while the second was a rather structuralist-borne implant in experimental film-making. Although "sigma" was very well-known and held in high esteem (even by the political establishment of the time), whereas Kinema Ikon was barely known at all, pursuing its research in a rather silent if not hidden manner, both groups shared, in the words of one of the "sigma" manifestoes, "the reconsideration of the environment as an object of artistic research" and they aimed, manifestly, at the development of an "intelligence able to adapt them to a future culture" inescapably marked by "the development of an algorithmic culture". Structures, frames, schemes, recurrent invariants, technical manipulation, calculation, repetition and scientific-like insight were the main marks of their aesthetic outlook. "Organizational" and meliorist, positivist and centripetal, highly "humanistic" in a contemporary sense, such artistic endeavors are nonetheless stamped by that profoundly Utopian drive of the historical avant-garde. Their unexpressed goal was to regain a certain, "alternative transcendence" for our times, one that was believed to be controllable, science-based, computational, and eventually thoroughly intelligible.
Bertalan: „ ... ne-am plimbat atunci toată noaptea. Fiind sosit atunci cu trenul, te-am luat de acasă de pe Sălăjan, seara la zece, şi-am mers vorbind prin parc, prin cimitir şi pe străzi. Am fost ca doi nebuni zburând în văzduh, plini de proiecte şi idei. Gândurile noastre din acea noapte au marcat anii ce au urmat”. Curând voi observa că ceva, un clic, se petrecuse cu noi: nevoia de a lucra împreună. De a ne topi individualităţile într-o sumă. Am început împreună lucrul. Cu un element, alb de carton, propus de Berci- un cerc secţionat pe una din raze şi pliat pe alta- începuserăm să căutăm un superelement, o cărămidă care să ne poarte în vederea configurării unui corp spaţial-complex. O simplă şi teribilă piramidă se intrevedea, deoarece, pornind de la o bază patrată, articulând complex superelementul, după aşezarea primului nivel, apărea, funcţional pentru continuarea nivelelor următoare, o reducere în trepte. Albă, pură, - cu o mulţime de sferturi şi treisferturi de cerc, îmbinate şi crescute spaţial, - barocă şi rectangulară, cu plinuri şi goluri repetitive şi imprevizibile, piramida, de tip zigurat, se isca fragilă. Am reuşit să construim doar primele două nivele, când ne-a prins predarea lucrărilor pentru salonul judeţean din toamna acelui an. A fost prima prezenţă a unei lucrări în echipă, şi momentul transformării grupării "111" în grupul "SIGMA 1".
Grupul "Sigma 1".
1969-1980
Membrii grupului: Ştefan Bertalan, Lucian Codreanu (matematician), Constantin Flondor, Ioan Gaita, Elisei Rusu, Doru Tulcan.
Programul şi principiile grupului :
- munca în echipă
- principii de ordonare; studiul drumurilor ce duc la forma
- cunoaşterea şi integrarea unor discipline de graniţă: psihologia,cibernetica, bionica, matematica, arhitectură
- natura şi mediul - locuri de cercetare şi manifestare
- includerea unui program pedagogic (în cadrul Liceului de Artă din Timişoara)
- investirea formelor cu componenta de util
- diversificarea mijloacelor ş materialelori de configurare ( hârtia, cartonul, lemnul , aluminiul, sticla, stiplexul, firele sintetice)
- utilizarea fotografiei şi filmului
Anii 70, prin cercetări autonome şi în cadrul grupului "Sigma 1", îmi aduc pregnant componente ale mediului şi a determinărilor în spaţiul tridimensional.
Unele întrebări mă leagă de geometrie şi de matematică. Sunt reguli şi organizări, ce mă pot apropia de armonia sub care e constituită lumea.
Filmez în 1972, alături de elevii mei, membrane de săpun, admirăm frumuseţea lor şi modul lor tainic şi legic de a compacta, câte două...câte trei...câte patru. Drumul mă duce spre cunoaşterea poliedrelor şi a modului lor de compactare. De ce universul conţine cinci şi numai cinci poliedre regulate: tetraedrul, cubul, octaedrul, dodecaedrul şi icosaedrul...? Ce ne spune această armonie?
Prin apropierea de universul poliedrelor, având la îndemână câteva bare triunghiulare (sau pentagonale), mă ataşez de întrebarea: care este numărul de bare necesar pentru a aşeza aceste bare într-o situaţie unic-determinată de o articulaţie fixă? După cum în experienţa cu membranele de săpun încercam să parcurg un traseu de la fenomenologic la legitate, aici, încercam invers, să-mi stabilesc un punct de plecare - prin nodul de articulare, de unde să obţin posibilităţile ulterioare de creştere a sistemului (1972-1974). După mai bine de un an de cercetare plastică simţeam nevoia unei colaborări directe cu matematica, pentru a-mi verifica şi certifica intuiţiile. Lucian Codreanu (matematicianul din grupul "Sigma 1") nu putea acoperi domeniul ce mă înteresa şi atunci am avut şansa de a o întâlni pe d-na profesor dr. Maria Neumann.
„Concluziile plastice” le prezint la Salonul Anual din Timişoara, 1972-73, cât şi la expoziţiile grupului Sigma: festivalul Cibinium-Sibiu (1973) şi expoziţia Artă şi Energie, Galeria Nouă-Bucureşti, comisar dl. Dan Hăulică (1974).D-na Maria Neumann face o comunicare în Analele Universităţii din Timişoara (1979 )iar în 1983, în urma unor corespondenţe cu matematicieni din alte ţări, află că a fost menţionată la Darmstadt de J.Hoschek (vezi anexa) . Este pentru mine probabil perioada cu cel mai pronunţat demers raţional-abstract. Voi păstra legătura pe această cercetare cu d-na prof. Neumann, până dincolo de 1983. O structură sferică determinată de unghiurile spaţiale ale unuia din sistemele mele de îmbinare a prismelor triunghiulare (Artă şi Energie) va suporta în timp diverse utilizări, devenind în final pe balconul blocului meu (1985-2002) locul util pentru un cuib de vrăbii. Iar acum, un obiect pentru expoziţia gândită de Karla Sachse, „Transportable 2003 - crossing - knotting”, Berlin).
Exhibitions
- 1969-1974, Saloane de Artă, Timişoara.
- 1970, Grupul Sigma la Salonul judeţean, Galeria Helios Timisoara,
- 1973, Festivalul de artă Cibinium, Galeriile Sirius Sibiu,
- 1974, "Artă şi Energie", Galeria Nouă Bucureşti, curator: Dan Hăulică
- 1974, Săptămâna artelor plastice UNESCO, Sala Bastion Timişoara,
- 1975, "Arta şi oraşul" [Art and the city], Galeria Nouă Bucureşti [The New Gallery Bucharest], organizers: Anca Arghir and Mihai Drişcu,
- 1978, "Studiul I", Galeriile Bastion + Liceul de Artă Timişoara coordonatori: Paul Gherasim, Ion Grigorescu, Coriolan Babeţi, proiecţii film+instalaţie (Multivision I, II)
- 1991, "Creaţie şi sincronism european. Mişcare artistică timişoreană a anilor 60 - 70" [Creation and European synchronism. Artistic movement from Timisoara in the years 60 - 70], Muzeul Banatului Timişoara şi Galeria 3/4 T.N. Bucureşti [The Banat Museum Timişoara and the Gallery 3/4 T.N. Bucharest], curator Ileana Pintilie.
Literature
- Alexandra Titu, "Experimentalismul în arta românească după 1960", in Experiment în arta românească după 1960 / Experiment in Romanian Art since 1960, ed. Madga Cârneci, Bucharest: Soros Center for Contemporary Art, 1997, pp 11-29. (Romanian)
- "Experimentalism in Romanian Art after 1960", trans. David Hill, in Experiment în arta românească după 1960 / Experiment in Romanian Art since 1960, ed. Madga Cârneci, Bucharest: Soros Center for Contemporary Art, 1997, pp 10-28, HTML. (English)
- Erwin Kessler, "Making Art by Numbers", Plural 1, 2000. (Romanian)
- Pintilie I., Actionism in Romania during the communist era, Cluj-Napoca: Idea Design&Print, 2002. (English)
- Flondor, de la "111" + "Sigma" la "Prolog" [Flondor, from 111 and Sigma to Prolog], ed. Georg Lecca, Cluj: Idea Design & Print, 2005, 197 pp. Catalogue. Excerpt. (Romanian)/(English)
- Ileana Pintilie, "Spira mirabilis. Imnul revenirii ciclice a unei cresteri interioare", e-cart 6, Aug 2005. (Romanian)
- "Spira mirabilis. The hymn of an inner growth's cyclical return", e-cart 6, Aug 2005. (English)
- Arina Susara, "Începuturile acţionismului în arta românească", April 2012. (Romanian)
- Alina Șerban, "Sigma Group: Negotiating New Spaces for Art", trans. Alistair Ian Blyth, Third Text 153: "Actually Existing Artworlds of Socialism", Jul 2018, pp 485-499. [3] (English)
- Andreea Palade-Flondor, "Sigma — Utopii ale spaţiului. Relaţia cu arhitectura", Institutul Prezentului, Feb 2020. (Romanian)
- "Sigma—Space Utopias. The Relationship with Architecture", Feb 2020. (English)
See also
- Romania#Romania#Geometric_abstraction.2C_Neo-constructivism.2C_Op_art.2C_Kinetic_art
- Romania#Experimental film, avant-garde film
Links
- Sigma: Cartography of Learning 1969–1983, exhibition, Timișoara, 2015. Text. Photos.
- Wikipedia-RO