Vlad Basarab (b. Bucharest, 1977) is a multi-media, performance and video artist, currently a recipient of a Fulbright research grant on the impact of the communist period on intellectuals in Romania.
He recently won the international competition for The Monument dedicated to the Romanian Language in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova. In 1995, he moved to Alaska, where he received a Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree in Ceramics from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2001. Since 2013, he holds a Masters of Fine Arts Degree in Electronic Media from West Virginia University, Morgantown.
His ongoing series, The Archaeology of Memory, confronts the viewer with raw clay books that slowly fall apart. The work was featured at this year’s NCECA conference. The following is an essay about the project written by the artist.
Vlad Basarab, The Archaeology of Memory; installation, books made out of clay, wooden table, water. Click to see a larger image.
The past plays an important part in my creative process. My role as an artist is to dig through layers of history like an archaeologist. The Archaeology of Memory series has been influenced by the loss of collective culture and memory. My work is an attempt to make my audience link the present to the past through questioning traditional methods of preserving and transforming collective memory. The time-based work in this series, presented in both real time and as a time-lapse video, addresses different forms of memory loss.
I have chosen to reference books because they are historic symbols of knowledge and collective memory. Clay and water reference historic floods as well as the first forms of written language: clay tablets. Thus, from the beginning of history, there has been a connection between words and earth. The deconstructive aspect present in the disintegration of clay books, references on a metaphoric level the breaking down of the mind and memory. I use clay because it heroically the fragility of the human condition.
Vlad Basarab, The Archaeology of Memory. Click to see a larger image.
I made all clay books out of thin clay slabs. Clay books without writings allude to unattainable or concealed knowledge. The dried clay books were later arranged on wooden tables in installations, which I allow to erode by dripping water. The end result consisting of destroyed books, a metaphor of the loss of collective memory, is later fired in atmospheric firings (soda and salt) in order to solidify the eroded residues of books as traces of memory. I rearrange the fired remainings of the books on a large table surrounding it with wet clay as a new installation. The work functions as a mourning of books and knowledge. The cracking of the drying clay reminds of the original transformative and performative installation. The process of disintegration is reinforced by the time- lapse videos projected in the exhibition.
While The Archaeology of Memory symbolizes the natural process of losing knowledge, the video and installation International Intellectual Property references ideological, political and personal censorship and the desire for access to those prohibited writings. The 5 hour long video documents a performance in which for one hour the author covers the book page by page with clay slip and for 4 hours the artist attempts to wipe away the clay in an attempt to bring back to life the content of the book. The action and futility of going back in time to wash the clay-covered book in order to save content that can’t fully be salvaged, suggests how hard it is to regain lost knowledge. While covering the book takes only one hour, the attempted action of salvaging takes over four hours. This aspect points to the difficulty of saving culture once it has been subjected to censorship and destruction.
Vlad Basarab, The Archaeology of Memory.
International Intellectual Property functions as a warning about the effects of censorship. By referencing historic attempts at cultural effacement with political, ideological and religious motivations, I comment upon the importance of preserving memory. The act of covering memory and then fighting to regain it can happen on a personal level as well as on a cultural one. The human experience of uncovering something while covering something else points to the history of knowledge and human intellectual evolution seen as strata of information.
The action and futility of going back in time to wash the clay-covered book in order to save content that can’t fully be salvaged, suggests how hard it is to regain lost knowledge. While covering the book takes only one hour, the attempted action of salvaging takes over four hours. This aspect points to the difficulty of saving culture once it has been subjected to censorship and destruction.
Vlad Basarab, artist.
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Vlad Basarab, The Archaeology of Memory. Click to see a larger image.
Installation view of Vlad Basarab works. Photographs courtesy of the artist.
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