ROMAN TOLICI

What I like about Tolici is the indifference towards dominant aesthetic doctrines: he

mocks the rancid avant-gardes who were calling the shots not long ago, who were forcing

the artist to destroy any representation, lest he was accused of crime against conservatism. He does not exhume any radical, surrealist, situationist, abstract or conceptual theory to justify his work, as he does not need to apply an ideology or a theory to illustrate his inspiration. Moreover, he breaks away from the posture of academic subversion, so frequent and so well-paid in the West. One of the most striking aspects about the last decades is, indeed, the reconciliation of the bourgeois and the bohemian, almost interchangeable henceforth, all under the aegis of the art market. 

The former longs for the freedom and authenticity of the latter, who flaunts his rebellion against the system, so as to sell his works for a good price. It is not only the wealthy who are fascinated with the artists; it works the opposite way as well: the artist wants the panache of subversion, plus a comfortable income. He wants to win on both levels: the harmless transgression and the proceeds resulting from it (see Jeff Koons, Anish Kapoor and Damian Hirst). So many elements that sometimes make one feel that contemporary art has become a big hoax, in the service of a purely capitalist logic. - Excerpt from the introduction by Pascal Bruckner

Project coordinator: Roxana Gamarț
Author: Codruța Cernea
Introduction by: Pascal Bruckner
Design: Corina Gabriala Duma 
ISBN 978-606-8780-80-1
București / Bucharest 2016