Please, Master!: Anonymous

Mobius, in partnership with ACCEPT and OC Art Project, presents "Please, Master!" curated by Vera Albertino, an exhibition of ANONYMOUS artists, hosted during February 13th - March 13th, in a temporary space.

"Please, Master!" showcases a selection of photographic works exploring the experiences of innocent adoration, celebrating a vision of same-sex tenderness. Adherence to taboo is at best a mental habit and, in the worst case scenario, a socially-imposed restriction without moral justification. Taboos are not worth obeying in some cases their violation may be a duty. „Homo sum, nihil humani a me alienum puto" (Terentius). Taboo is, in this case, trivial or harmful or harmfully trivial. Morality has nothing to do with dogma. All dogmas are different, while morality is the same for all people who use reason. If we call them taboos, they are attacked in the name of public reason and education, as well as for compassion and moral revulsion. What society

strives to understand in its inflexibility and complexity, art targets. The works are graphic but not obscene, they are dangerous because they juxtapose the homoerotic

intimacy with a set of principles laid down by a religious and political authority. It rapturously celebrates a vision of same-sex tenderness, an innocent adoration we are

only supposed to whisper about. The images evoke colors and organic forms, the muscular bodies merge into the surrounding shapes, blurring the boundary

between two disparate perceptions. Some of its most integral features have their roots in traditional forms. Nudity is a matter of conventional art, the primal example of social rigors. Social constructs differentiate between nude and naked, between the model that illustrates, according to each historical period: the god, the middle-age sinner, the renaissance man, pushed to the extreme during the sixteenth and early seventeenth

centuries, when artists start driving the masculine body away from the naturalistic, balanced physics to the man of the masses. Here is one and the same body at

the same time, the most common and harmless, and yet the most dangerous and unimaginable. That artist is no longer interested in the ideals and traditions of

the past, but confronts the viewer with all the sexuality, discomfort and anxiety that the unclothed body may express, perhaps eliminating the distinction between

the naked and the nude. One of the greatest inspirations behind the works is

the need for catharsis, the unavoidable urge to release strong emotions in a way that helps you understand them. The images can work on multiple levels: religious and secular, sexual and devotional, simple enough to be understood, dramatic enough to be

remembered and emotionally charged so that viewers could have a deeper sense of the message conveyed. The image that disrupts the harmonious composition of

the exhibition is the representation of government and religious authority displaying their dominance on top of a gold calf. The composition is loaded but symmetrical,

it has an artificial nature through the frame that fixes the characters at the center of the composition and the invocation of the organic elements from nature but

which at a closer look prove artificial. Presenting the sky in the background as well as the two tondo (round) portraits of Virgin Mary and Christ, representative the Byzantine art, refer to divine authority. That authority originates through a direct line from the divinity to the rulers of the earthly order, an idea present in history

since the 2nd century AD. The gold calf, makes reference to Exodus 32:1-6. While Moses was up on the mountain receiving God's laws, the people were getting anxious down on the plain. Moses spent forty days up on the mountain with God, and by the end of that time, the people were beginning to think Moses had died or left them. The people urged Aaron, their temporary leader, to make a God for them to follow.

Aaron took their gold earrings, which they had brought from Egypt, and melted them down to make a golden idol. The idol he crafted for them was a calf, but Aaron

maintained the name of the Lord in connection with it. The presence of the golden calf draws attention to the contemporary political and religious practice of creating false Gods or false interpretation of the sacred writings for exigencies of the political. Do not let this intense chromatic composition frighten you. This statement is just as valid as any other. (Vera Albertino, curator)

The event is part of Luna Istoriei LGBT, initiated by ACCEPT.

The opening reception is scheduled on Tuesday, February 13th, starting at 7 p.m.

Strada Sfinții Apostoli, #44, 3rd floor, Bucharest.