10th May - 14th June 1997

" THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM:

HUMAN EXPERIENCE AND RELIGIOUS ART "

A month of multi cultural events at the University Church of Great St. Mary' s, focused on the work of the British artist DORU IMBROANE MARCULESCUU.

" Orthodoxy and Heresy and their Expression in Art"

" God in a Box - the Shape of a Holy Place "

" Some Presentations of the theme of the Crucifixion"

" Reinterpreting the Crucifixion in Contemporary Art"

By DAVID ETCHELLS

An extraordinary 2.4m (eight foot) high bronze statue depicting the head of Christ together with a hundred faces worked into the shape of a cross, is the centrepiece of an exhibition by Romanian artist Dr. Doru Marculescu at Great St. Mary' s Church in Cambridge.

Dr. Marculescu said the unusual design of the statue was intended to illustrate a quotation from a letter from St. Paul to the Galatians: "The Cross, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world ".

Because the statue is such a novelty in Christian art, the Romanian Orthodox Church took the unprecedented step of sanctifying it, although sculptures are not normally accepted within the Orthodox religion. The cross was also blessed at Westminster Cathedral, where it was exhibited for the first time last October together with a one-man exhibition of Dr. Marculescu' s paintings.

The paintings, which will also be on display in Cambridge until June 14, have a continuous religious undercurrent and include works painted by Dr. Marculescu when he was just 10 years old.

One of the events accompanying the exhibition will be a symposium on Art and Religion at taking place at Great St. Mary' s on Saturday, with Professor George Henderson, Dr. Sandra Miller, Professor Pierre Rouve and Dr. Lynne Broughton among the distinguished speakers.

Other events include a recital by the renowned Romanian violonist, Eugene Sarbu, on June 10 to which the Princess of Romania has been invited.

14th May, 1997