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MEAM, Europian Museum of Modern Art
Barra de Ferro, 5, Barcelona

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The MEAM will exhibit the works of the international painting competition "Lohengrin", organized by the Wagner Club and the MEAM in collaboration with the Gran Teatre del Liceu. The 49 works, which include the 4 winners, deal with the plot and concept of Lohengrin from the figurative side and have been selected by a jury made up of Katharina Wagner, Dr. Sven Fiedrich, director of the Wahnfried Museum in Bayreuth, Lourdes Jiménez, an expert in Wagnerian art, Víctor Garcia Gomar, Christina Scheppelmann among others.

ARC Associate Living Masters Arina Gordienko and Mikel Olazabal will be among the exhibiting artists.

  

Arina Gordienko painting 'Full Moon (‘Not for nothing am I versed in the most secret magic arts’ willbe exhibited at the MEAM during the LOHENGIN Exhibition.

This portrait was created specifically for the ‘Lohengrin’ Contest, it is my version of Ortrud - the most fascinating (for me) personage of the Lohengrin opera. The title of my painting is ‘Full Moon’ with an additional subtitle that is a direct quote from the Ortrud’s words in the opera’s Act II – ‘Not for nothing am I versed in the most secret magic arts’.

Below is the story behind this portrait.

I was fortunate enough to study classical music for 7 years at Music School and afterwards for 2 years at Music College as a chorus conductor. And so classical music and opera in particular have always been a big part and passion of my life alongside with painting, and Richard Wagner and his opera Lohengrin are in the list of my favourites. Ortrud has always been contradictive, intriguing and fascinating character for me, because ‘officially’ she is a negative personage of the opera but her personality is so bright and her determination for revenge is so strong that she radiates a strangely attractive ‘dark’ charm. So for me was no doubt what personage to paint - it must have been Ortrud! I wanted to take a chance and show my perception of her character – not only her obvious strength and ruthless yet brave determination to revenge and win but also her sharp mind complementing her bewitching ‘fatal’ beauty, and her softer hidden ‘magical’ side of a woman who decided, at some mysterious point of her life, to become a witch and to armour herself with powerful skills in the darkest and most secret magic arts. She is a mesmerizing personage with a riddle that many people are attracted to.