“Manuscript. The Dance of the Line” – an intersection between biological rhythm and artistic gesture, where line becomes dance and rhythm becomes form. This concept emerges from my artistic evolution: from non-verbal Communication “THE OBJECT” → non-verbal Dialogue “SILENT DANCE” → non-verbal Writing “Manuscript.” Three projects united by that essential pivot – the non-verbal – which has crystallized in this manuscript of dance.
What I present here are not borrowed philosophies that I later adapted to my own needs. These are my own experiences expressed through drawing and line, meant to bring before the viewer an art that doesn’t seek to illustrate, but to develop emotions. As I wrote in the journal panel of the work “THE OBJECT” from 2023: “I believe that an artist should not explain what they have created, but rather the result of their creation should communicate in such a way that the viewer discovers their own meanings.”
The roots of this manuscript return to my 1998 thesis project – an “object book” made from ten cherry wood plates in the form of woodcuts. The text was written in an alphabet I invented that, at first glance, resembled ancient writing. The paradox was that, even though you encountered those letters for the first time, if you followed the text carefully, you realized that content could be read – as if the line itself transmitted meaning beyond the form of the letters.
The same principle of separate panels and “invented writing” is found here, in another form. On the 168×330 cm canvas, 48 drawings of dancers in movement can be seen unfolding sequentially in an almost invisible grid system, like hieroglyphs. The rhythm across the entire surface is an alternation of dense panels and others more aerated, between solo gestures and group moments – the appearance of writing constructed like an “alphabet of movement,” each panel becoming a distinct “letter” in gestural language.
The technique clothes the concept in a contemporary palimpsest: the initial drawing in pencil, then the vibrant neutral gray background, black applied gesturally, accents with pencil writing overlaid with brush writings, additions with white correction fluid and a few corrections in red – the layers of thinking and rethinking, the mark of authentic artistic process. The technique used in acrylic is one I developed specifically for my need to create the most vibrant line possible and to not control the drawing entirely, letting the chance of creation bring that extra spontaneity and personality to the image. Each layer tells its own moment of creation: hesitation, certainty, correction, accent. The canvas thus becomes a visual journal of the process, where time settles into pigment and gesture.
This stratification of process extends into the seriality of complementary works. The nine drawings made in pencil capture a more static image of dancers, functioning as echoes of the central element. These create a necessary transition, a breathing space between the intense dynamics of the main manuscript and final contemplation. Arranged on the gallery wall at wide intervals, they maintain the same gestural language but offer the viewer moments of reflection in traversing the exhibition’s narrative.
In the overall ensemble, there is a small photograph (8.5cm x12.5cm) developed on original photo paper, taken with a film camera in 1998, showing the ten woodcut plates made the same year, part of my thesis work – testimony to the beginnings of this concept that functions here as a punctuation mark which, although representing something from the past, puts a period at the end of traversing the exhibition narrative. It is proof that artistic ideas have their own organic evolution, that what seemed closed 27 years ago finds its fulfillment in this contemporary form.
Just as in 1998 I invented a writing that, even though you didn’t know it, you could read and understand, here too the language of dance can be read in the same way – line becomes word, gesture becomes meaning, and the manuscript transmits its content through the perception of movement. The cycle closes and opens at the same time: from alphabet to gesture, from gesture to alphabet, in a spiral that transforms time into space and movement into visible trace.
Project Curator: Prof. PhD Dragoș Pătrașcu
Artist statement, photography, catalog design: Iulian Copacel
All images © Iulian Copacel, 2025
Below is a clip where the ‘Manuscript’ project was present together with the central works from “DANS MUT” at the “BEYOND.” event organized by MEDARU Arhitects – together with ZUMTOBEL – Innovative LED lighting solutions.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
