Flaviu Cacoveanu at Parliament

Artist: Flaviu Cacoveanu

Exhibition title: Lazerpresent

Venue: Parliament, Paris, France

Date: January 28 – March 19, 2022

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Parliament, Paris

Parliament is pleased to present the eighth exhibition of its programming, Lazerpresent, by Romanian artist Flaviu Cacoveanu, from January 28 to March 19, 2022.

Flaviu Cacoveanu offers a poetic puzzle for his first solo exhibition in France at the Parliament Gallery. Calling himself a “Con & Temporary” artist, Cacoveanu plays on the English word contemporary. The “con” thus refers to all the terms beginning with this syllable, including, in the first place, conceptual and contextual. “Temporary” refers to the notions of the temporary and the ephemeral that are essential to the development and understanding of his work. In this way, he mixes the seriousness of 1960s conceptual art with the humour of wordplay.

Although the origins of conceptual art can be traced back to Marcel Duchamp’s ready-mades, it was given its due by Harald Szeemann’s famous exhibition “When attitudes become form: live in your head” in 1969. Cacoveanu’s “attitudes” are very similar: the gesture takes precedence over the object or the sculptures live without pedestals. However, the era has fundamentally changed and so has the very idea of “conceptual art”. How can we envision this temporal parallel in the age of digital art? Digital and tangible realities coexist, in a way erasing the possibility of a return of the conceptual. So, how can we reinvest our capacity to think and escape from the constant barrage of information and data? How can we re-enchant the everyday? The works in the gallery bring poetry back to the ordinary through simple gestures or minimal displacements; by shifting reality, they encourage us to reconsider our way of looking. The effervescence of our physical and digital lives no longer leaves any moments of rest or magic. Cacoveanu recreates these moments that we no longer see in our daily lives.

The exhibition is constructed in situ and develops particular links between the works. It exists as an assemblage that reveals a more global purpose that is not initially conscious. Everything is spontaneous and alive. Cacoveanu tries to escape from what might be considered the “mortifying” character of art. For him, there is no question of accumulating, of keeping for eternity: the work has a life and questions the very fact of being an artist. He borrows the title of his exhibition from the title of a song by DJ Ricardo Villalobos, Lazer@Present. Like the musician, he seeks simplicity and pragmatism. The work must be immediate and satisfy essential needs; Cacoveanu’s poetry remains in this interstice: a gracefulness of a suspended moment that nevertheless wakes us up.