Hello Matei and welcome to NotRandomArt. The current issue is revolving around the problem of communication and identity. Is there any particular way you would describe your identity as an artist but also as a human being in dynamically changing, unstable times? In particular, does your cultural substratum/identity form your aesthetics?
When planting a seed in the ground, the fruit that will make it, will have the flavor and identity, of the place where it grows. That is also the case with art. A consciousness, it is like a seed, that grow roots in its culture, and the "fruit," that is, his art, is natural to have the characteristics of the identity in which he has developed.
For me, art requires a lot of sincerity. I do not follow trends and look for shortcuts to success.
There is sometimes a desire of artists to get a wider audience, to be successful, no matter what, and then your art becomes just a product for consumption. At that moment, the identity of art is diluted or even erased, and loses its essence, its meaning (the mystery that makes the artwork unique is gone).
I'm not against success. But I want to be successful with what I am. It's more important to find out my inner voice than to lose myself in the general noise.
Would you like to tell us something about your artistic as well as life background? What inspired you to be in this artistic point in your life when you are now?
My father was an artist, and he inspired my passion for art, since childhood. When I was 9-10 years old, my father was deciphering the secrets of art history. He opened the art album, and telling me stories about art… And I was absorbing all the information like a sponge. At a fairly early age, I had a lot of knowledge about art, than others of my age. After the death of my father, I realized that art is my vocation. In my youth I was impressed by the singular artistic destinies such as Van Gogh, Cezanne, Giacometti or Brancusi. And also William Blake. Personalities who searched for their inner voice, ignoring the easy route to success. Later on, at the age of 17-18, I set out to create assembly artworks, from fragments of wood that recompose and restore the image to the wall of display. I have clearly assumed this destiny, and follow this path.
I followed the restoration section of Theology Faculty from Bucharest. In the restoration faculty I participated in the restoration of some ancient monuments in cities like Piatra Neamt and Cluj. And, after my graduation, I alone restored the church "St. Nicholas" in the Bitina Village of Ialomita. In the faculty, I discovered the beauty of Byzantine painting, which had a great influence on me. Byzantine art was like a reflection of my identities, the land where I can grow, my roots. But I did not use it religiously. My art is more spiritual or mystical than religious. For me it was more like a spiritual journey into myself, in my identity and in my consciousness.
The restoration gave me the opportunity to enter into the visions of others monumental artists. When you work at the wall, you are much closer to the work of an artist, observe more details and some painting solutions, seen at old church painters, have become very useful. Some of them I liked it so much that are found as an influence in my works.
Could you identify a specific artwork that has influenced your artistic practice or has impacted the way you think about your identity as a participant of the visual culture?
I don't know if I can name only one favorite work of art. But I think I have discovered (and I let myself be influenced by that) a way to looking at art, that was specific prior the renaissance. I have noticed that in ancient art, a work was part of a larger ensemble, designed for a specific place, a piece that was part of a whole. There were no works of art that could be exposed randomly anytime, anywhere (as it is today). Each work of art was a fragment of a larger composition. And this way of seeing things, this fragment– assembly– whole relationship, I tried to use it in my art.
Since you transform your experiences into your artwork, we are curious, what is the role of memory in your artistic productions? We are particularly interested if you try to achieve a faithful translation of your previous experiences or if you rather use memory as starting point to create.
I never thought about that. I know that memory is, in fact, a story that we tell ourselves. Practically a memory changes over time. Every time that we remember something, we do not remember the actual event, but the last time we remembered it (it is as a recall of previous learning, which gradually changes according to your state of mind). So, memory can be misleading as to what is real and what is not real. I'm more interested in a deeper layer of memory, the collective unconscious, the inherited unconscious memories passed down from generation to generation. There we find archetypes and symbols that modify and manipulate the way we relate to reality. In my case, sometimes I use sketches to visually record various sensations, situations or events. But they are filtered through my consciousness. And so they are not a description of one event, but rather what I felt about an event. It keeps a certain ambiguity, because it is obviously passed through my consciousness. And these sketches are integrated, partially or totally, into future larger compositions.
To explain my process of painting: a work takes shape in my imagination. My consciousness perceives it as a reality before it exists physically. By the act of creation, the work comes into reality and can be seen / perceived by other people besides me. My consciousness is like a portal, from where my art comes through and enter into reality. My art talks about inner life, about the spiritual reality. In fact, art is the place where reality and spirit intertwine in order to create new realities.
There is a scientific experiment that I think explains my artistic approach: To several human subjects under hypnosis, have been suggested that an object (a pen, a brush, etc ...) is very hot (not actually being hot). When they woke up from the trance and touch the object, and felt burning sensation, like it was very hot(but actually wasn't). It was all in their minds. What is interesting is that the subjects are left with burns on their hands(from some non-hot items). This shows that our conscience actually creates the reality! So I create realities that initially existed only in my consciousness.