Organizers:
Mayoralty of Cucuteni
"AXart" Iasi Foundation

In search for new ideas and projects to keep alive the milenary historical centre Cucuteni and to bring more visitors here, we wanted to hold a sculpture camp in The valley of the Three Wells. After 18 years the dream came true with the help of the artists members of The Axart foundation and its president, Mr Sabin Drinceanu.

Thus, the creations of the artists participating at the first edition of the Cucuteni sculpture camp have transformed the geographical space of the village, bringing a breath of youth to the neolithic settlement wich is a birth place for the Romanian nation.
Our wish is to continue what we consider to be just a beginning, to strengthen the relationships and we also want to enrich the cultural patrimony with new contemporary works of art.

Mihai Tun – primarul comunei Cucuteni

Through the three editions of the Symposium Art and the Sacred and the first Sculpture camp held in Cucuteni, the AXart Foundation achieves a greater number of its aims, beeing also an alternative in the Romanian world of art.
The interest shown in this third edition of the symposium called The art and the Sacred made us sure that, over the years, this action acquired a national quality.

Great personalities collaborated: Ilie Boca, Geta Bratescu, Mihai Chiuaru, Constantin Flondor, Suzana Fantanaru, Marin Gherasim, Vasile Gorduz, Ion Grigorescu, Dan Palade, Silvia Radu, Liviu Suhar, Marilene Preda Sanc, and many important institutions of the Romanian and international cutural life-UAPR, The German cultural centre from Iasi, UAP Moldavia, The Creation Centre Wolfsburgh, The mayoralty of Cucuteni, St Nicholas Curch ( Copou). The Axart Foundation helps and promotes the cultural projects of these young artists: Zamfira Barzu, Gabriela Drinceanu, Alexandru Gavrilas, Ionela Mihuleac, Draga Irina Popa, Damian Ioan Popa, Sorin Purcaru, Gavril Siriteanu, Bogdan Vladuta.

The syposium The Art and the Sacred has become a stable and valuable event in the Romanian cultural life and The Axaart Foundations succeded in its role as a promoter of the Romanian art.

Sabin Drinceanu – president of the Axart Iasi Foundation.
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The terraces with neolithic sites explored by many archaeological teams, the Thracian toomb turned into a museum, the church from the times of Moldavia under Stephen the Great ruling, all these give substance to the history of a place privilaged with anthropology density and coherence, with exquisite museums and vitality of the present.. Such a vitality doesn’t mean abandoning the tradition or blending on the map of an urban and industrial life, but the ability to absorb and fit in the form of modern civilisation having a rural and agricultural background. Taking these into consideration, the cultural events have the most refined ways of integrating forms of contemporary culture.
Choosing the wood as the material for the camp of sculpture, a material that is specific to modern and postmodern Romanian art, shows our wish tot link the historical thread of cultural behaviour, which is a creator of symbolic reference points, with the desire to place this gesture in its actual context of style and cultural strategies. Under the lead of an already legendary mayor Mihai Tun, Cucuteni village, which is a place so aware of its identity free of any geograpical or cultural complex, has hosted and wishes to continue hosting many other events such as archaeological symposiums (as the one held in 1984), experimental anthropoly and archaeological camps (the most recent was in 2002), and even a permanent site for archaic like works created with prehistoric tools and methods, simultaneously with the restoring of the church and enlarging the collection of outdoor sculptures.
The ten sculptors coming from Baia Mare, Bistrita; Bucuresti, Chisinău and Iasi have aimed to integrate in the local context two planes, one corresponding to the dominant forms, volumes and rhythms of the hills around and the other to the referential opening for the sacred spirit of the region.

Thus, their monumental works of art, freed of any practical functions, funeral and even an imediate and precise sacred utility, enclosed in the exclusive expresion of modern aesthetics, these works bear the rich significance of the memorial approach and give life to the villagers’ attitude towards their important legacy.

The spring and its many symbols ( Alexandru Gavrilas) and the chalice, as symbolistic too (Marcel Stanciu), the time in its solar dimension, the unearthy as a way of escaping the material condition ( Relu Marastean ), the gate as a ritual mark of passing (Costache Siriteanu), the tower and the spiral in a vision of a more complex myth (Sorin Purcaru), the antropomorphic module (Viaceslav Zaitev), the vegetal fruit as a flower ( Ionela Mihuleac ), these are the biblical motifs largely and powerfully connected with the tradition of the place where the sculptures will exist and interact.

A number of students at the Photo section-University of Cluj, Violeta Radu, Bianca Simionescu and Hassan Samaki have watched closely the steps involved in creating the sculptures and made a visual report, nuance and sometimes poetic, about the process of creation, about the artists, the group and the place.

Alexandra Titu

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