Imaginary botany at French Alliance

“Imaginary Botany” is the title of the first personal exhibition of the Romanian painter Alexandru Constantin Mica, which is hosted by the French Alliance in Moldova between December 13, 2007 and January 30, 2008. At the launch of the exhibit, Adrian Cibotaru, deputy director of the French Alliance, said that the exhibition is the last cultural event of this year and represents the last sweet cherry on the anniversary cake of the Alliance, which marked 15 years of activity in 2007. The exhibition includes 23 pictures painted in traditional manner, in watercolours. They represent imaginary plants like Newton’s Apple Tree – lengthened owing to gravity, Saint Valentine’s Cherries – in the form of hearts, the Tulip with Thorns or the Snake-Cucumber. Each fruit, vegetable or flower has a scientific name translated into Latin by a titled French professor. As the whole Europe animatedly discusses the genetically modified plants, the artist decided to create his own comical and intellectually modified herbarium. It is not excluded that the scientists will create such plants in the future, Alexandru C. Minca said. The artistic value of the paintings is doubled by the value of the raw material. Twelve works are made on old paper, sheets from a French bookkeeping notebook of 1780, while the others on modern paper made by hand also in France. The frames are gilded according to the graphic tradition of the XVII-XVIII centuries, while some of the colours are created by the artist according to an ancestral formula, on the basis of pigments and bonding material. The paintings have been exhibited firstly in Moldova because the artist has lived in Chisinau for a year together with his wife that works for the French Embassy. Alexandru Constantin Mica hopes that his works will be exhibited in France too. He also plans to publish a book for children that will include works from the collection “Imaginary Botany”, a book with preparatory drawings and white sheets where the children can create their won imaginary plants. Artist Sergiu Cotofan points to the old and scrupulous manner in which Alexandru C. Minca works. The painter uses the material of the pictures tenderly and respectfully, emphasizing in an original way the smallest defects of the paper, Sergiu Cotofan says. Alexandru Constantin Mica was born in Onesti, Romania, in 1956. After graduating from the humanities department and not wanting to submit to the artistic canons of the Communist era, he failed two times to enter the Bucharest-based Institute of Plastic Arts “Nicolae Grigorescu”. Yet, he did not give up his passion and started to “hunt” artists’ workshops. Obliged by prosaic rationales to integrate into the professional life, he continues to create in cooperation with the Union of Plastic Artists of Romania and becomes known under the name Cami. Since then, he has signed all his works with this name. Forced into exile in 1984 together with his wife who was a diplomat, Alexandru Minca takes a break in creating, but remains creative. Before deciding to resume, this time alone, the artistic education that he avoided at the age of 20, he cooperated with advertising agencies from the UK, drafted an airship design for a Canadian research company, created décors for the French television. Afterwards, he went through a long and difficult period of apprenticeship, long hours of biological research, visits to numerous museums and years of assiduous reading with the aim of understanding the essence of the techniques used by the great masters that have inspired him in his creation.