Balchik - my oasis of peace and sign, where the stones and the houses' walls, worn by time, speak to me and the pontoons extended over the sea appear to me as paths of light to a beyond that I’ve always been loking for. Here, also, I find the echo of the steps of Queen Maria from the "Lonely Nest", the small castle with minaret, near the sea, surrounded by beautiful flower gardens. Something of the struggles of the "queen of hearts" found home in my heart, opening new windows of sign and meaning over time. This is how "Reverie in Balchik" was born, an exhibition dedicated to my mother's memory .
Manuell Mănăstireanu, visual artist
„Reverie in Balchik”, the painting exhibition signed by the Romanian artist Manuell Mănăstireanu, reflects an intertwining of the past, present and future, through an appeal to memory. Balchik, seen through the eyes of the artist, becomes the Balchik of memory, contextualized, in paintings, by two hypostases: one of the queen's passage through this enchanting space, the other of reference to the arcane unspoken of, yet lived by those who stepped on its stones. The paintings seek something beyond physical reality and transcend to an immaterial dimension, one of deep states and feelings, in which the deck and the stone become iconic, connecting the shore with the sea, as a transition to an introspective dream state. Seen through the eyes of Queen Mary as a place of peace, silence and introspection, Balchik is recreated by the artist, at the same time, as an overlap between spirit and matter. The double self-portrait - the child artist and the mature artist - opens the exhibition's discourse, creating an emotional connection both with the specific space - Balchik - and with the inner space, one of nostalgia, of deep feelings, of recovery and maybe even of loss. We find, at the same time, an interconnection that the artist realizes on several levels of the artistic message's receptivity, portraying the complex personality of the queen who fulfilled her duty in all her roles, a queen caught in a certain state of being, with a look shrouded in mystery, with a warm, gentle face, but penetrated by the inner tension of the free spirit which characterized her. Surprising her deep and dreamy side, Manuell Mănăstireanu refers to different inner valences, which he contrasts with the external reality. Thus, the paintings let the emotion penetrate the viewer, make him asking himself questions about the meaning of existence - which each of us looks for, in one way or another –, Manuell Mănăstireanu bringing, in his paintings, a touch of modernism, through the inclusion of the psychological concept, one that embodies deep inner states.
Felicia Acsinte, art critic
