Anonymous

 When, in 1997, she first approached the theme of “a face without a face”, Florica Prevenda guessed the impact of the informational revolution on the way we think, act and construct our current identities. The unlimited access to information, communication, snapshots, globalization, the success of social media networks, all linked to contemporary man’s need to represent himself are all themes the artist has presented throughout the years, within a number of series that come together both thematically, as well as formally: Net People (2000-2001), Shadows of the Present (2001-2004), Facebook Obsession (2011-2015), Ephemeral / Condensation (2015-2016).

 The series Anonymous (2017-2018) thus concludes an artistic route which began over 20 years ago. The installation depicts the conceptual portrait of today’s everyday man who, enthralled by the screen of his computer or phone, is dissolved into the informational network, dissipating into systems of signs and codes, often choosing comfort and anonymity. 

The relationship with the self, the other and the world has been irreparably transformed by the numerical interface. In order to reproduce the binary code, the pixilation, the contiguity between the natural body and the virtual body, the artist makes use of formal strategies taken from minimalism and conceptualism – geometry, repetition, seriality. The strong colors, acting as a metaphor for the artificiality of the virtual environment, add a note of Pop Art to the portraits, just like in the Facebook Obsession series. The use of color also produces, by contrast, the sensation of landforms, adding more dimensions to the volumes. The works have a certain materiality, they are provocative not only visually, but also tactilely, and the rhythm of the surfaces, the symmetry, the proportions, the attention to the details give refinement to the construct. Matter and concept are sustained, there being a complicity between creative thinking and the chosen textures.

 (Magda Predescu, curator)