Ion Barladeanu and the art works he made whilst living as a homeless tramp on a dump in Bucharest are, in a very real sense, outsider art, which is one of the reasons why the Romanian artist’s story is so captivating. The other is a sense that in some way, the exposure recently given to his works equals a form of social justice. Barladeanu used his collages to create refusenik Dadaist cinematic visions in the hyperreal brights of mazagine cut-outs of the life under Ceaucescu that he had, as far as possible, opted out of. For more than 30 years he refused to participate as a citizen under Ceaucescu, and lived in the garbage room of a block of flats, scrapping together a living doing odd jobs. Untrained as an artist, he collected scraps of newspapers and magazines and assembled them into a collection of more than 800 collages: politicised, irreverent, savage, satirical. Whilst he was in Romania, his art was unseen because if attention had been drawn to it, its content would have put him at risk. He has described Ceaucescu as ‘my greatest fear.’
IN 2007 he showed his work to another artist, Dan Popescu, whom he had met by chance. Popescu is a gallery owner and within a few months, Barladeanu had been given a show, and found a flat. More shows followed, and recognition of his significance as a contemporary artist. With an exhibition opening at the Anne De Villepoint gallery in Paris this week, Barladeanu has literally gone from rags to the riches, and perhaps more vitally, from being hidden to finding exposure for his work.
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