The project Action in the public space [the artist as an activist]
Poland and Romania (the selected countries) are European post-communist states having similar obliteration. In this countries, where people’s despondency to leave behind every piece of the totalitarian regime, there is also the tendency to forget or disconsider cultural remains of the communism, such as industrial sites. Thousands of industrial areas in the post communist countries lost their primary functions just after the fall of the political regime, being totally or partially abandoned, privatized or left in ruin through public authorities’ decisions. Still, they are part of the European cultural identity, so the first thing to do is to raise awareness of people and public authorities towards a sustainable preservation of these assets.
As I was born and raised in Romania, but having studied and lived in Poland, I’m rather familiar with the issue. So, I started an initiative to learn more and raise awareness about the hidden stories locked behind the abandoned buildings’ doors in Bucharest (Romania) and Poznan (Poland). I focused on abandoned industrial buildings using as main artistic and communication method the EXIST sign that I have chosen (*EXIST sign is the same size, color and typography as the emergency EXIT sign).
I presented the sign in 2 ways to use them depending on the doorway type. 1st presentation: normal EXIST emergency sign placed on the top part of the door/ 2nd presentation: perspective view/ from one point of view you could see EXIT and from another EXIST) We are speaking of a vicious kind of history, marked by a systematic policy of the communist regime that destroyed the vestiges of the past: churches, cultural and historical centers thus bringing a destruction of the community, a kind of destruction that we continue in the present by refusing to use the abandoned places. History is lost piece by piece.
Thanks to: Maria Duda (BAZA), Alex Iacob, Roxana Wring, Dragoș Lumpan
project presented to Uzinele Faur (Art-Factory Festival)
