Florin Tudor & Mona Vatamanu.

Florin Tudor

* 1974

 

Mona Vatamanu

* 1968

 

live and work in Bukarest, ROM, and work together since 2000

 

Exhibitions [Selection]:

2012 The order of things, DAAD Galerie, Berlin
2011
 There Will Be Hope, D+T Project, Brussels, BE

Land Distribution, Lombard-Freid Projects, New York, NY
2009
 All Power to the Imagination!, Secession, Grafischess Kabinett, Vienna, AUT
Surplus Value, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, NL

Rite of Spring

Date: 2010
Length: 07:51 min.
Format: 4:3
Specifications: Colour, No Sound, Single Channel
Courtesy the artist

 

 

The surface of a road. Rough and grey. Dust and dirt. The sunlight throws the shadows of trees on the asphalt. Crumbling, dilapidated kerbstones. A few balls and whole bunches of white poplar fluff on the road, some of them whirled up by the gentle wind. Then flames. A flame snaking its way along the poplar fluff like a chain reaction. Children appear in the picture, watching as each bunch of fluff flares up and dies out, only to ignite the next one. A routine activity. Again and again. The smoking ashes remain. But also, previously hidden by the poplar fluff, there appear green blades of grass, growing out of the cracks in the asphalt and the earth at the side of the road.

Only occasionally does the shaky gaze of the handheld camera look up and capture the “summer snow” drifting down from the poplars, with the adjacent houses, parked cars and parts of the Bucharest Houses of Parliament as a background. A bleak, monotonous scene with a recurring activity. And yet – several details point symbolically to an approaching change: Blades of grass sprouting under the burning fluff. Life flourishing in this dreary environment, where everything seems to repeat itself. The attempt to give this touch of green more space seems to be a hopeless undertaking in the face of the never-ending mass of poplar fluff.

Susanne Röskens
 

 

Interview:

 

► 1. Your work has been chosen among over 2000 festival entries to participate in VIDEONALE.14. In which context do you prefer to present your work, festival/cinema context or exhibition? And what kind of difference does therespective mode of presentation mean for you / your work?

 

This work has been presented in both contexts, sometime the audience overlaps, sometimes not. We did not had in mind while working with the kids on the street on their poetic performance a specific context for the presentation. It is for sure a difference in concentration in the way a film is screened or looped but in the end it is the content which establish a relation with the viewer with a certain intensity or not.




 

 

► 2. Art can be seen as a mirror that registers and reflects life or as a tool that transforms it. Is there a particular theme, concept or problem your art addresses the most?

 

We focus on reality and for this particular film the metaphor of the renewal as ritual came into our mind while witnessing the kids burning the poplar fluff and was maybe linked to problems of expenditure, combustion, illusion, dissapearance.



 

 

► 3. In which way is thevideo medium an excellent possibility to express your intended subjects, especially in contrast to other media you use? Or do you work exclusively with video?



 

Somehow in the process of working the idea dictates the medium. Beside our practice as artists we maintained a constant interest in film as medium andsource.

 

 

► 4. If you have the chance to ask the visitors of the VIDEONALE.14 exhibition questions about your own work, what would be your question?

 

We would choose not to ask a question.
 

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