De-construction of the integration without substance

Dan Acostioaei, FLUCHTPUNKTE (Vanishing Points),

Video installation (one projection + two monitors)

8 - 18 June 2005, Vector> Gallery, Iasi

According to the context in which they are presented, the artistic projects with a social and political orientation have a resonance limited to the expectancy level of a public used to the coherent imitation or to a relevant _expression. Respectively, used to the cutting of reality and its hypothetical embelishment or to the composition of a reality substitute, together with its affective or rational overflow. The confrontation with this theoretical relationship brings into discussion the relevance or even the seductiveness of an alternative project. It would be relevant if it transmitted an information that critically or rhetorically comented upon the found or constructed subject and it would be seductive if it succeeded in creating a special atmosphere for the project’s presentation.

The project of Dan Acostioaiei, presented at the Vector> Gallery in Iasi is relevant and it seduces. Its relevance consists in that it takes in its sight the balance between the „European requirements” and the „local situation”, that is the balance between the political, social and cultural ideal and the symbolical and material reality of Romania. The seduction, in its turn, is built through the installation of the works in the exhibition.

The artist built a wall of adobe, acquired from a nearby village, onto which he projected a film about the architectonic buildings in Iasi, from public institutions to private houses, in which he speaks about the relationship between the ideology of the European reconstruction, the boom of buildings made with money brought from Europe and the construction material which is at the foundation of most of the houses in the rural environment.

On the monitors there were two videos: one which has in its subtext the zeal of hanging near the national flag that of the European Union, the two flags flying as accomplices on a Richard Wagner heroic soundtrack, and the other one about the apropriation, from faith or from social compromise, of the mechanical gesture, differently rhythmed and drawed, of the cross in the public space, showing images of people from different ages and social categories making the sign of the cross in the public spaces, in the tramway or on the sidewalk, when they pass by the churches.

Starting from the idea that a vanishing point is both the place where parallel lines that go from the observer seem to meet each other, probably in order for him to test his adaptability degree, as well as a time or a place in which something disappears or stops existing, probably for celebrating his ignorance, the exhibition depicts both the background and the attitudes which are different, however adequate for seeing, of the inhabitants of a country politically candidate for the UE integration, as well as the hiding of appearances after principles built in the smallest details, foreign to any concrete reality.

Thus, the video installation of the artist Dan Acostioaiei examines the vanishing points of the political discourse and the social practices found in a relationship of visible contradiction. Through the visual analysis of ideology, doctrine, faith and habit, the artist deconspires the forced super(im)position of political intentions over the social realities. Any attempt of covering, hiding or ignoring the daily practices evidentiates, however, the structural gap between the political requirements and the social habits.

Catalin Gheorghe

Art critic and theoretician

Vector> Gallery

Cuza Voda 41, etaj 1 700 038, Iasi, România

tel/fax: +40 232 237 486

email: vector.gallery@gmail.ro