The UAD Camp on the USAMV Cluj-Napoca campus, 3rd edition! Eleven chisels, one heart. Chronicle of a metamorphosis Foreword – by Lect. Dr Radu Handru, Department of Sculpture / University of Art and Design

As teachers, our favourite moment is not the opening of the exhibition, when everything is finished! Our favourite moment is the beginning, that instant when a tense silence settles before the block of rough stone, when eleven young people look at an inert block of stone and see, in their mind’s eye, what it is destined to become.

At the sculpture camp at USAMV Cluj-Napoca, we didn’t just see students at work; we saw a team. Coordinating eleven students on a single collaborative piece is a challenge that goes beyond the technique of chiselling. It is an exercise in tolerance and collaboration. There, on our creative worksite, ego gave way to a shared vision.    

The days passed at a steady, mechanical pace, yet full of spirit. You could hear the staccato sound of the pneumatic hammers mingling with the metallic clink of hand chisels. I watched them take turns at their stations, one finishing the curve of the neck whilst another chiselled the jawline free from the block of stone. It was not the work of a single person, but a relay of talent.

What began as a simplified sketch, I saw, began to come to life. Before our very eyes, the stone shed its weight. ‘Metamorphosis’ – as we like to call this work – began to breathe.

The result? A horse’s profile that seems to emerge from the earth. But for us, who stood there in the dust and sunshine, this work represents much more than a noble animal. It represents the power of transformation. We transformed matter into spirit, but, more importantly, we transformed eleven individuals into an unshakeable team.

I look at this work now and I see not just the marks left by modern or ancient tools. I see the heated discussions about proportions, I see the fatigue at the end of the day transformed into satisfaction, and I see the students’ pride in saying: ‘We made this’.

This symphony of nature, released from the stone, remains on the USAMV Cluj-Napoca campus not merely as public art, but as living proof that, when eleven chisels strike in unison, the stone has no choice but to come to life.

Participants:

Academic staff

Associate Professor Dr Florin-Lucian Marin

Lecturer Dr Vlad Berte

Lecturer Dr Radu Handru

Students: Maria Avram, Maria-Noelia Damian, Nadia-Lorena Fiordean, Lorena-Ștefania Iagăr, Amedeia Negrea, Veronica-Bianca Prunduș, Teodora Rus, Irina-Sofia Stănescu, Filip-Gabriel Toader, Elena Uliniuc, Victor-Nicolae Brezeanu (second-year students).

USAMV Cluj-Napoca extends its warmest thanks to the creative team from the University of Art and Design – Department of Sculpture and eagerly awaits the opening of the large-scale thematic work from the equine world, entitled “Metamorphosis”!