At one of the Artist Talks organized for Two Gorzo, we had the pleasure of being visited by Silvia Dumitrache from Observator Cultural. The encounter between her and the two Gorzos was electric, especially as what started as a series of questions during the public conversation led to an extraordinary impromptu interview in the gallery's office. The theme of Ioana Gorzo and Dumitru Gorzo in that Artist Talk was about the difference between self-knowledge and self-construction through image creation, a topic that fascinated the audience and inspired Silvia to continue her questioning.
Silvia Dumitrache: Beyond the different paths you each choose to reach form, image, or the deconstruction of the image, I’m curious to know what the common thread in your vision of the image is. What is that stylistic congruence?
Dumitru GORZO: When we explore the image or the tools with which we produce the image, we approach it differently. For me, there is a need for a period of becoming familiar with the medium/media. And the simple path is usually as follows: I start with some drawings on small surfaces. These are drawings made from the shoulder. In my case, the line is harsh, it cuts, and in a way, it has a certain speed. I take a fairly large number of surfaces that I work on as an exercise in seeking form, which later moves into other media; that is, I start with a small surface, then it becomes larger, and later I experiment with a variety of materials. In this entire search, I somehow pursue multiple directions, but there is a clear foundation—a kind of immediate drawing that takes into account the rules of the image, in the sense that it must have a certain presence, it must have a thread, intensity, and visual information. These are things that go together, things that contradict each other. In many instances, this path becomes clear, only for me to take another route precisely when it seems a resolution has appeared. So, for me, it's a rather fierce struggle, I would say, with the image and with myself. Eventually, I arrive at surfaces that might be considered finished, a sort of final station at a certain point, because I almost always revisit things.
Ioana GORZO: His drawing, which I like to say has the speed of thought, involves using his shoulder; in fact, he draws continuously and has an alphabet of forms—"inventory of beasts," "Gorzonian creations," etc. For me, the working process is long, and I draw from the wrist, meaning I immerse myself in the work and am bombarded by all sorts of thoughts. Somehow, the common thread you were asking about is, in fact, working with memory in my case. I sit and place information that has relevance to me, and I’m always seeking a different kind of resolution starting from the same form because I always feel there are so many possibilities there. I don’t give up; instead, I add meaning to an image. And each image stands on its own but also works very well in a series."
