No.5 / June 2019
Mihai Plămădeală, art critic – article published in Observator Cultural magazine, no.423/15.05.2008
Travelers who will wander through Năieni, Buzău County, will surely be surprised to see near the village, a huge Saint George (and the dragon about to be pierced with a spear) of unparalleled size in the country and very possible nowhere else. The hero is made of metal and has a fixing / anchoring system that guarantees its existence for a period of time measurable in centuries. The artwork – the culmination of the one-year work of the artists Andrei Ciubotaru, Jan Eugen and Florin Ciubotaru, was unveiled on the eve of the feast of the homonymous saint. In addition to those mentioned, “guilty” of the materialization of the project are the company ROTEC through the director Mihai Peter, engineers Florin Dinu, Sorin Bogdan, Mr. Octavian Udrişte, Mr. Luscan Emanuel, who provided the metal, Mrs. Sânziana Pop partial sponsor of the work, Pogany Art Gallery by Mrs. Sorina Ionică and the City Hall together with the Local Council of Năieni. The Observator Cultural magazine announced already in March the opening. However, actually seeing the artwork exceeded any expectation.
I should mention that this is not a statue, as the large public might think, but an artistic solution that combines the two-dimensional visual form with the three-dimensional material from which the ensemble is made. The vigor of the artwork lies in the fact that being specially designed for the place where it was located, it substantially highlights the scenery. Saint George from Năieni is a conclusive example of Land Art (intervention in the landscape).
About Magic and Art
In the folk calendar, the night that makes the transition to St. George’s Day (once the beginning of the Pastoral Year) is particularly important for the harvests and cow lactation. Thus, the rituals on the eve of the holiday are intended to protect animals and crops. Tradition says that on this night evil spirits and witches, naked and disheveled, gather in groups of twelve at the borders of the village, where they fight. The winners get the rain, thus a rich year for the village they represent. Instead, there will be drought next year on the other side. This is also the time when, the abundance of the earth and the milk of the cows can be stolen. The witches tie an empty bag or a milk strainer to their leg, which they drag through the holds or cut green wheat and bury enchanted salt balls on the route taken by the cows and utter various spells.
In order to protect themselves from the evil action of witches, people undertake various magical practices. Among other things, at the entrance to the stable, a rake was sometimes placed, with the prongs up, in order to scare the undead. In this night the heavens open, which gives the trees strength to bloom. It is therefore about a dangerous moment in the cycle of the seasons, in which for the smooth running of things a guard and at the same time a fighter is needed. For such a thing no one could be more suitable than Saint George. The people of the village expressly wanted the saint to be their protector. The church, consecrated on the same occasion, also received the patron saint of Saint George.
In an exciting speech, with detachment and humor (corresponding to the times we live in), Mayor Lucel Zecheru invoked the totemic function of the “metal saint” commanded by the community of Năieni. In a sketch by Caragiale, the ambitious mayor of Mizil (the nearest town to Năieni), Leonida Condescu, obtained an important one-minute stop of an international train in his city. The speech at the station announced that this was just the beginning. If the Regency was not moved to Mizil, neither the Metropolitanate, nor the Guard Regiment, nor the international train stopped except in the ranks of Caragiale, Saint George is a palpable achievement, which no one can deny.
It is absolutely remarkable that the local authorities have turned to top artists to materialize their project, which, unfortunately, is a great rarity in our country. Not infrequently, churches or monuments in Romania “fit” in the hands of craftsmen devoid of any horizon or artistic virtue. This time, art triumphed!
I do not know how the witches reacted and will react to the sight of the saint, but an ordinary person cannot ignore such a work. In the few days since the inauguration of the monument, it has become a commonplace for cars passing through the village to slow down or stop at the sight of the imposing warrior.
The Image of the Saint – the Force of the Image
From the interview the artists offered me for the Observator Cultural magazine it resulted that the force of the artwork consists in revelation, not in knowledge. The minimal shape of the artwork cancels the idea of volume, the hero being proposed as a spiritual entity. Florin Ciubotaru told us that “In the mind of the amateur there are many possibilities to represent the theme, but only a few for professionals. This distillation process aims at the vigor of the representation, is sharp and is related to the moral theme of good and evil, which is in a state of permanent contact. Our hero must have the height of his own depth. In action, the zeal but also the calmness of the decision to strike evil is suggested. A well-organized image represents the same thing for all observers, validating communion, tempering the supremacy of subjectivity or an exaggerated relativism”. The only derogation from the saint’s iconographic program is the oversizing of the dragon due to the fact that today evil has increased. And if not evil as such, at least kitsch, whose flames ignited the imagination of many people – public and (alleged) artists. As it results from the kinetics of the artwork, the saint will win even in these conditions.
Jan Eugen turned his thoughts to the next work in which he would be involved as an artist. So far, no one has been chosen from the multitude of possible projects. After a year of work, of fighting with the subject and of mastering it, the fact of looking to the future represents a true artistic signature. Since the Master Manole (a well-known ballad character in Balkans), the creator has been convinced that (he) can do more. Sometimes more can mean even better. The main problem remains artistic grace, which in this situation we joyfully signal.
The last, but not the least among the protagonists, Andrei Ciubotaru, said (following the course of a discussion about folk beliefs) that on the eve of Saint George, people light “live fires” to purify the space of evil forces. That’s when flames come out of the treasures. “He who seeks them must look in running water until he sees a white snake, whose head he must cut off with a silver coin. He will always return to his master, no matter how many times he is spent. ” Assuring us that no snake had suffered during the work, Andrei revealed to us that somewhere, at the base, such money was buried, in order to “pay the place” and persuade him to receive the artistic intervention. The outcome? A new chapter of landscape art in Romania.
