Curatorial Questionnaire – Ada Galeș: “Sometimes I feel like I go to museums like people go to church”
Ada Galeș, actress at National Theater “I.L. Caragiale” in Bucharest who is part of the cast of the movie “The New Year that Never Was”, recently awarded with ten Gopo trophies, spoke for the curatorial about the artists and paintings she likes, about what our arts are lacking: “a vision that means something”.
She was born on March 9, 1991, in Brasov, and graduated from the University of Theater and Cinema Arts in 2014.
She also stars in ”La mulți ani” (2013), ”Fright Night 2: New Blood” (2013), ”Love Bus: Cinci povești de dragoste din București” (2014), ”Cuscrii” (2014), ”In Blue” (2017), ”Un om la locul lui” (2018), ”Scara” (2021), ”Odată pentru totdeauna” (2022), ”Dragoste pe muchie de cuțit” (2023).
The term “fine art” makes you think of…
Ada Galeș: Straight to Paris, in a perfectly lit white room at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, in front of a work by Tom Wesselmann.
”Pop Forever” exhibition was, for me, a reminder that art can be both serious and slightly frivolous at the same time, and that’s what makes it profound. I enjoyed it immensely, probably because I like lucid humor, confetti with a dose of cynicism, and colors that say something without raising their voices.
Pop art, in this sense, is an aesthetic that I feel we haven’t explored enough, it’s a territory that I feel we haven’t bitten enough from yet and that I think we could really use nowadays.
Which artists impress you the most?
Ada Galeș: Among the artists who impress me are, recurrently, Wesselmann, Claire Selly, Warhol, Basquiat, Richard Prince, Chagall, Leonor Fini, Rothko, Cy Twombly, Magritte, Dali, Brâncuși, Brauner. It’s this morning’s list. It’s a motley list, but one thing binds them together: the fact that in their work you can sense the guts – whether in color, theme, or the absence of visual comfort. I don’t like things that are too comfortable. I like it when the painting or object becomes an extension of an obsession or an opinion.
Do you have a favorite work? Which one is it?
Ada Galeș: I couldn’t say. I have periods. I had a period where I just wanted to see Rothko. Another when I’d go into the Louvre just to bathe my eyes in the green fruit of a Renaissance still life. I have surrealist periods or completely abstract. But I know for sure that, whatever the era or current, I look for works that want to explain both the world and myself.
Which exhibition did you visit most recently and where?
Ada Galeș: The most recent exhibition I enjoyed was in London – “Dada Khanyisa” at Sadie Coles HQ. A clear and full exhibition without ostentation. The kind of art that asks you a question and then disappears, leaving you alone with it. I thought it was also superbly realized and decoratively pleasing, in a way where the message goes discussed by a neck wearing pearls.
Do you have a favorite museum in Romania?
Ada Galeș: Here, I often return to MNAC and MARe. I go where I know I can sit and watch in peace. If I catch a moment when MNAR is empty, I go and sit there. Sometimes I feel like I go to museums like people go to church.
Is it important for a person to own works of art? When and which work did you most recently acquire or receive?
Ada Galeș: I think we should have art at home. It’s a much healthier investment. I have works made by my mother, by myself, I have a painting on wood by Marian Zidaru, but also a watercolor by Diana Cojocaru who I adore not only for her jewelry but also for the fantastic paintings she does.
What is Romanian art lacking?
Ada Galeș: The courage to assert an artistic creed. A vision that means something. Not just personal success, but a real need to produce a rupture, a context, a debate. It seems to me that our arts – whether visual, theatrical or literary – suffer from a form of emotional isolation. There is a lack of feeling that we are part of a wave, a generation that has an opinion – good, bad, temporary, but articulate – about the world. And this is serious. Because in the absence of a collective context, art becomes a selfie. A beautiful but solitary one.
Photos courtesy of actress Ada Galeș
