The life, work and universal legacy of sculptor Constantin Brancus will be on display at the exhibition 'Brancusi The Path to Light', mounted by the Gorj County Centre for the Preservation and Promotion of Traditional Culture (CJCPCT) on the 150th birth anniversary of the renown sculptor born at Hobita.

According to CJCPCT Gorj Director Ionut Viorel Bordeiasi, it is an international travelling photo-documentary exhibition, and so far there are already requests to be toured in Romania in about 20 counties, and from an international point of view discussions are held to set the date in Lisbon, Porto, Beijing, Prague, Szeged and Sofia.

'It is a project close to our heart, (...) we started from the idea that in 2026, Gorj County, as the birthplace of Constantin Brancusi, as the place where Constantin Brancusi learned his first cultural, human and artistic formations, Gorj owes it, at least morally, that 150 years after Brancusi's birth, to talk about Constantin Brancusi, not to mention the fact that Gorj is the depository of the largest and most significant monumental creation of Constantin Brancusi (...) We thought of creating a photo-documentary exhibition, a formative-educational project (...), an experience that will leave in the souls of those who will be presented a minimum of information about Constantin Brancu. We thought of this exhibition on the one hand as a traveling, photo-documentary exhibition, meaning that it will be launched here and from here we will take it and we will take it from place to place, both in the country and abroad, we will see, we will need two copies, three, five, so that we can circulate them concomitantly in as many locations as possible,' Bordeiasi told a news conference on Tuesday.

The exhibition is built upon 150 works in six chapters - a chapter of ethnographic photographs from the late 19th - the early 20th century, which highlight the environment in which Constantin Brancusi was born, the social life, traditions, folk costumes, folk architecture; a chapter with documents - photos including of the birth certificate and other documents, a chapter with portraits of Constantin Brancusi and photographs of the sculptor with various personalities in various circumstances of his life; a chapter dedicated to the sculptor's works with photographs of them, a chapter with documentary photographs from the building of the Heroes' Path Monumental Ensemble , and the chapter 'Gorj - Home to Brancusi', with photographs of the ensemble at present.

Also, three albums were produced, made by the CJCPCT Gorj publishing house - 'Brancusi - The Path to Light - Between the Earth and the Absolute', 'Gorj - Home to Brancusi' and 'Folk Masters and Makers from Brancusi's Gorj, all in Romanian-French-English trilingual format.

'The exhibition covers 150 works, but we cannot take it to all the spaces in its entirety as such, so we have divided it into chapters, somehow, depending on the space that can be made available to us, to be able to take from 20 to 150 works. In each version, the message should be the same, that is, to show the environment in which Constantin Brancusi was born, documents related to the life and activity of Constantin Brancusi, portraits, essential works, the history of the creation of the Monumental Ensemble 'Heroes' Path - documentary photographs and to conclude with some of the photos that can be found in the album 'Gorj - Home to Brancusi' as an invitation to those who have seen this exhibition to come to Gorj (...) The project, in a small part of it, 20 works and the three albums, travelled to the Romanian Embassy in Sofia, another part were exhibited in the halls of the Gorj County Council, another part was taken to the Cultural Centre at Bradiceni to be opened on February 19. A larger part will open at the headquarters of CJCPCT Gorj on February 19'.

February 19 marks the 150th birth anniversary of the Gorj sculptor Constantin Brancusi, with 2026 being declared the Brancusi Year. AGERPRES (RO - editing by: Oana Popescu; EN - writing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)