In his new work, the artist Nicolae Comănescu, currently residing at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, presents textile works that are part of a concept called The Great General Scheme of all Things. With this concept, Comănescu had already attracted attention in 2020. At the Invitro Gallery in Cluj (Romania) he showed one of his first major works, created entirely from garments. It was, together with a series of overlapping drawings, which referred to significant movements in post-communist Romania, the gallery’s central piece.

His well-known practice is the accumulation of materials, that he has encountered in various places he has wandered through or lived in. He integrates these materials into his works in a versatile way. Forms can be dust, ash, slag, powder, textiles, etc.
The new arrangement consists of garments that the artist acquired during his stay in Berlin.

In 15 works, exhibited in his residential studio in Berlin, he integrates objects from German culture. These objects, shelves from the famous DIY store Bauhaus, become part of brackets on which the garments are brought together. As soon as they are reused, the shelves lose their original meaning and become carriers of a new cultural exchange between Romania and Germany.
For the Artevezi magazine he explained:

“The Grand General Scheme of all Things is always an overlap of layers of meanings, a hyperinflation of visual information by folding and packing personal histories in what appears at first glance to be a volume of color”.

During the exhibition, the artist will present one of his latest concepts, the site-specific video-installation Looking at the Big Picture from the inside, shows a mis-en-scène of the theme escape from an “institutional” space. The installation is built on a structure which consists of furniture from the artist’s home and items of clothing from people close to him.

Nicolae Comănescu (alias Comă) was born on November 14th, 1968 in Pitești. In 1998, he graduated in painting at the Bucharest University of Arts. He is founder of the Rostopasca group, one of the most rebellious artist groups, which shaped the years of the capitalistic transition in Romania.

Humor, irony, social intelligence, versatility and protestant civic spirit are attributes that made him a survivor of the thrilling city life. Nicolae Comănescu, also known by the nickname “Star of Berceni”, showed great interest in recycling and the accumulation of substance and its reuse in various aspects.