Present is a Foreign Country
Duo show with Alex Bodea
Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest, Romania
2025
Curated by Daria Corlatan
This exhibition fosters a dialogue between these two artists, whose distinct artistic journeys intersect through shared themes. Drawing inspiration from the concept of anachronism, the exhibition explores how art transcends historical boundaries. Through fragmented narratives and symbolic imagery, Bădiță and Bodea navigate personal and collective histories, conveying the idea of the journey.
Traditionally, anachronism refers to something out of its proper time, but Georges Didi-Huberman extends this idea, suggesting that images themselves are inherently anachronistic. They transcend their original contexts and speak across time, resisting the borders of fixed historical moments. Aby Warburg’s concept of the “cultural symbols” further reinforces this idea, suggesting that art connects past and present, disrupting historical narratives. The artworks become more than mere representations of their time, they are installations of gestures recontextualized across history.
Taking this as a starting point, the exhibition explores the work of two contemporary artists who have persistently engaged with time and history, both universal and personal. Through the use of historical techniques, spatial dislocation, and re-enactment, these artists construct fractured temporalities within their work, offering visions of displacement and divergent paths of search.
Alex Bodea’s paintings explore themes like migration and gender, drawing on her experiences as a nomadic Eastern European woman. Her work transforms visual observations into dynamic stories, often with a theatrical quality that evokes a sense of wanderlust and restlessness.
Dragoș Bădiță’s figurative paintings, influenced by Flemish and Danish painterly traditions, bring forth a haunting contrast with the fantastical landscapes and surreal framing choices that characterize his vision. His works carry a harsh tension, a sense of something hidden beneath the surface, just out of reach, perpetuating a constant feeling of spiritual and emotional unease.
Bădiță’s use of space and motif mirrors a quest for understanding, but one that constantly defies resolution, as his figures and landscapes seem to exist both outside of time and within its endless cycle of seeking.
This exhibition presents time as a paradox, where past and future slip away leaving us suspended in a moment that is eternally in flux. As we move through the works, we navigate a space between what has been and what may never be. This tension attracts us into a journey where the search is the only constant, and the destination remains forever elusive.
