“Should we always hide what we feel in order to keep what we love?”
André Maurois, Climates, 1928
Radu Rodideal’s artistic creation centers on exploring the dynamics of the couple in contemporary society. His series of works are often conceived as deep investigations into human behavior, as well as acts of self-analysis and/or introspection into the individual’s psyche, seeking to understand relationships and one’s rapport with the other.
Many years ago, the artist stated: “My approach offers a commentary on the couple in its contemporary understanding—an analysis through the lens of stereotypes, tensions, and disagreements that arise from a male-female dialogue caught in a constant oscillation around a central axis of balance.”
The solo show Couple’s Anatomy by Radu Rodideal from the Altes Dampfbad in Baden-Baden, is a profound visual exploration into the dynamics of intimacy, within a silent dialog between two individuals. Rodideal is particularly interested in those moments when words lose their meaning—those silences filled with subtext, when presence, distance, and touch shape both the fragility and strength of human connection. In his works, conversations are not heard, but felt. Gazes are suspended in a time that does not flow, but halts. The spaces between people become places for reflection.
Rodideal is a painter of silence. His couples either contemplate memories, wear masks that suggest the impossibility of dialogue, or appear in symbol-laden scenes set in a world of uncertainty, fragile closeness, and unspoken emotions. Here, the exploration of human relational dynamics takes place through silence as a form of communication and as a perception of suspended time.
The works unfold like cinematic scenes, with characters exuding a near-metaphysical aura, caught in moments between introspection, desire, and isolation. The artist captures those moments between two beings who feel each other without touching. It is that sensory emotion that transcends time and eras—that feeling of great untold stories.
And what could be more beautiful than an untold story that lives on endlessly…
Curator: Diana Dochia, PhD
