Museikon_1_2017

148 | Cristina Bogdan in dialogue with painter Constantin Cioc
certain manner. I try to defend myself from the violence of
the outside world which, with its noise, attempts to cover my
inner silence – the one that actually helps me paint the icon.
To do this, I need a retreat. I need to retreat within myself, I
need to retreat inside a workshop, I need silence and, naturally,
I need prayer to be able to paint the icon quietly, peacefully,
while having the belief that what I do is right and is
of use to many.
cb: You earlier said that the icon labours you. Do you find
yourself different after painting an icon?
cc: When I paint an icon, I always break myself down,
meaning I realize how incapable I truly am. Despite all
my knowledge in painting, I feel small and powerless in
completing this labour by myself. I also feel, perhaps in
a more acute way than with my paintings, the need for
help; so, I ask for it.
cb: Is there also a joy in this weakness? Is it a weakness that
obliterates you or, on the contrary, one that elevates you?
cc: It is a weakness that fulfils me, because I gladly discover
myself weak.
cb: If you were to think of an appropriate word to describe
the idea of icon, which would it be?
cc: The word I consider best to embrace the icon is immortality,
because, ultimately, it is about being.
cb: Does this mean that an icon is never finished? Does it not
have an end, a closure?
cc: It does not have a closure, it does not have a time and,
naturally, it does not have an end.
cb: Yet still, icons are dated. We may say that they at least
have a beginning when they were sent to the world by
their creators. Is there a temporality of the icon? And a
certain time the icon imposes on the iconographer? For
instance, if you were demanded to paint an icon within a
month, could you comply with the demand?
cc: I would definitely try to do so. (smiles) There are always
two ways in which I speak of the icon. These are, the Icon
with a capital i and the icon with a lower-case i. The latter
can be done by any of the painters who deem it worthy to
dedicate themselves to this labour. When speaking of the
icon with a lower-case i, naturally, I need a certain physical
time and, with enough endeavour, I could complete it within
a given time span, answering to someone’s demand.
But then again, it also depends on my existential involvement
in the genesis of the icon. I like using this word, because,ultimately,
making the icon is a creation in itself, just
like the genesis of the world. When creating an icon, you
re-generate a world... a spiritual world.