From the shimmering surface of a sea that "knows all shades of gray" to the graphic shadows of beech trees in the mist or snow, Loredana Nemes transfigures a legendary land with breathtaking precision. Between nostalgia and dreamlike imagery, we happily immerse ourselves in this black and white enchantment.

Crowned by a forest of centuries-old beech trees, chalk cliffs rise from the sea. We are in Sassnitz on the island of Rügen , the largest in the Baltic Sea, near Jasmund National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). It is here that, following in the footsteps of Caspar David Friedrich and so many other Romantic painters who came here in search of inspiration, Loredana Nemes leads us. Here, for this expatriate who left her native Romania with her parents at the age of 14 to settle in Germany, " there is no need to flee ."

Where this uprooted woman can take root again: " Then my roots extend far, like those of beech trees, to the Carpathians. They wind through the stratified mountains to return to the trunk of my parents ," writes the photographer who is also a poet.

It was only in 2019 that the artist, born in 1972, visited the island of Rügen. Captivated by this elevated landscape, where she discovered, dazzled, the Jasmund Park forest, reminiscent of the Transylvanian forests of her childhood, she decided to dedicate herself to its " ash-colored trees that know me, for I come from the Carpathians, from a neglected land of beech trees ." She thus abandoned portraiture and genre scenes, to which she had devoted herself for twenty years . ¹ "Grey Trees and Celestial Sea" is the title of the photographic series she began then and continues to this day.

SHIMMERING AND GRAPHIC EFFECTS

Born from a genuine fascination for this " sea at the edge of the forest [which] reflects the light and knows all the greys ", the cycle (presented simultaneously in Milan and Chaumont-sur-Loire) skillfully unfolds, season after season, the intertwining of the two motifs: the trees and the horizon, abstracting from the cliffs whose jagged silhouettes we know through the famous painting by Caspar David Friedrich (The Chalk Cliffs on the Island of Rügen) of 1818.

Leaving aside the picturesque to focus on the interplay of light and shadow, Loredana Nemes demonstrates here a certain inclination towards abstraction, already evident in her Beyond series taken through opaque windows, or the totally blurred series with vivid colors, inspired by the terrorist attacks perpetrated with trucks in Nice, Berlin and Stockholm.

« GREY IS MY FAVORITE COLOUR. REDUCING THE WORLD TO MANY GREYS IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS ABSTRACTION, A DETACHMENT FROM REALITY ON THE PATH TO THE IMAGE. »

A veritable abstract painting reduced to two horizontal bands, encompassing all the shades of black and gray, one of his Celestial Seas (no. 28) admirably conveys the limpidity of the air and the depth of the sea. One also understands the serenity the artist must have felt in this silent place. Sometimes invisible, playing hide-and-seek with the branches of the trees, the sea always makes its presence felt, letting its scent of eternity linger, while imperturbably the snow-covered or budding trees mark the passage of time.

With meticulous attention to detail, the photographer captures the shimmering of the sea and the foliage, employing a palette of greys of fascinating richness and precision, managing to translate the colour of the leaves throughout the seasons, while on the vast expanses of water, the light piercing through the clouds seems almost palpable…

Beyond the " pictorial " motif, the sea here serves as a "reflector of sunlight," while the shadows and reflections of the tree trunks create a captivating " graphic effect 2. "

1 Behind the Curtain, 2003; Romanian Faces, 2003-2004; Under Ground, 2005-2008; Beyond, 2010; The Presentation, 2014.
2 Anne Kotzan, Schwarzweiss magazin, November 2022.

“GRAUBAUM UND HIMMELMEER” [GRAY TREES AND HEAVENLY SEA]
PODBIELSKI CONTEMPORARY VIA VINCENZO MONTI, 12, MILAN (ITALY)
UNTIL FEBRUARY 10, 2024
PODBIELSKICONTEMPORARY.COM

CHAUMONT-PHOTO-SUR-LOIRE – CHAUMONT-SUR-LOIRE ESTATE
UNTIL FEBRUARY 25, 2024
DOMAINE-CHAUMONT.FR