There is only one (curatorial) rule: to present the main directions of a visual labor – let us avoid for the time being the word “art.” To do this by not hiding that no role (artist, art, curator, public, etc.) is the same as in previous historical periods or eras. To call art that which brings us together on the occasion of an exhibition is a ritualistic gesture, which by itself covers and, as such, entraps in oblivion the everyday strive that produces the “results” we are staring at – most often with a complete blindness towards what happens when we enjoy “artworks.” It is not only about presenting a labor at the level of its own laboratory – in this way, this obscene gaze or desire, which wants to be closer to the “artistic” source, can only mask its own impossibility. What shall we pay attention to? What generates “artistic” effects – as a language or parlor game that is worthy of our respect? It is easy to say: this is no (longer) art. It is hard to guess and even harder to think what we see. What happens to us when we look searchingly, when we glide from image to image, from a visual detail to another, from visible to visible? What must and can be shown of this permanent digestion?

There is a man – let us call him an “artist,” while we already think about what else we should call him –, for whom, in whose life drawing arrived somehow to a central position. But not as they usually do this, that is, by following some traditionally predefined themes (still life, nude, portrait, landscape, tree, etc.). The content is not given, it must be invented all the time, and it is invented all the time. A mass of cross-references, stories (anecdotes, characters, situations), pictures, which many times exceed what can be drawn. This is how objects, installations and videos appear. This, of course, is a little simplifying, because it cannot clearly indicate the attention that sets to work the visual shell to be found in the surrounding world. We try to show this attention, while not forgetting that this is interesting only when or because it is part of a thinking. After all, this is the ultimate goal: to think with what we see. If the recyclable plastic bottle of “art” is recycled here, it is only happening for not loosing this.

Dan Beudean (b. 1980) is from Cluj. He exhibits quite often, in various collective projects, in bigger or smaller art galleries or unconventional places (homes, abandoned buildings). He is always in motion. He worries, he thinks.