Valentin Ionescu & Andrei Ciurdărescu. For the moment, the first workshop on our map, shared by two artists. How does this cohabitation work? Do you steal each other’s brushes :)? Do you influence each other in any way?
Vali: Yes! We do steal those brushes, but only the unused ones. We have different chromatic affinities so we would not “fight” for the same colors; we share everything else, chassis, frames, spray cloths, like in a lasting relationship, but we do not always tell about where we put stuff, so we often look for certain colors or brushes one at the other.
Our styles and directions are quite different and that’s why we are a very good match when we work. Influences, if any, would mostly be chromatic accents.
Andrei :)))) Yes. it is very interesting that we already have a long experience of living together both at home and at the studio and after such a long time this is something natural.
At the studio things are just like at home where we “tolerate” each other very well, or rather we complement each other nicely. There are no conflicts between us because we respect each other a lot and we have no time to lose for that. Time is precious so we prefer to use it as well as we can and to focus on what each has got to do.
What are you working on now? Would you give me a reading key to your work?
V: I am continuing or trying to continue a series of works. I do not always feel like strong contrasts and electrical colors, but that is also me. I still have a recurring series in my work: Blueprint. Because I work in oil, the technique makes me take breaks from my works in progress or, as they say, to take a step back, and in such moments I start other works. I am usually starting or working on several projects at the same time.
Prior to coming to Cluj, I studied architecture and design at the Ion Mincu in Bucharest and I guess that experience has somewhat helped me and it influenced the way I work and choose my themes. Landscape and space have gradually become a leitmotif of representation along with the visible or suggested structures behind. Whether illustrating geological formations, natural or artificial elements, all of it can be decomposed into a network or specific structures. Beginning with urban plans, infrastructure networks, terrestrial or space satellite imagery, light and laser shows and ending with daily relationships and activities, everything falls within the category of networks and describes a dynamic structure. What more can I say? I’m one of those freaks who like geometry 🙂
Andrei?
It’s easy for me. Being rooted in the idea of origins, the place I come from, in childhood, I have developed a wide range of projects built around themes such as memory, collections, but also space and location.
After finishing my PhD, I spent one year in Rome, experience that awakened in me a process of evaluation and of return to the place of my affectionate affiliation.
That’s how I came up with new concepts and started the Giardini and Realtá di Venere projects, where I identified myself with dear places and bygones, remembering the cultivation of plants, and also utopian constructions, observing the conflict between natural and artificial and the struggle for dominance between the two elements. Venus and exotic vegetation are two elements very much present in my works in recent years.
Appeal to Nature or to Culture? Which one feeds your work predominantly?
V: The topic is somewhat is anchored in nature but it then metamorphoses into structure with an artificial, Cartesian, synthesized appearance. My sources of inspiration are all around me – people, situations, friends, conjunctures, places.
A: I think I equally rely on both sources. Although nature is currently favored as a source of documentation. I do not think the culture element can be left out of calculation for any artist – it is permanently there.
For both of you painting seems to be the first choice as a medium of expression, although I also spotted collage, video, installation ... Do you have a favorite color? Andrew this is a funny question for you, I remember you from university drenched in black :).
V: I find it hard to say that I have a favorite color, I rather have several favorite colors, but it also depends on the state and the work itself. I like hues of turquoise, china green, chrome green, various types of ocher and, obviously, colored grays. I sometimes I prefer quality contrasts to those of complementarity but my works really show which colors I prefer or which of them are dominant.
A: :)It is indeed a funny question because I love everything that is adjacent to color, although lately I have started to expand the spectrum of my chromatic interest. Previously, black was predominant, now I’m all about color, maybe also because of sharing the studio with Vali.
Techniques: stolen, learned? How important is it to you to master them?
V: Both. It is fundamental for an artist to master the process of painting through technique or technical combinations – this is the only way to come up with something new, to innovate, and one of the methods of experiment is the trial and error process.
A: I think it is not the source of a certain technique or method which is important but rather the way you exploit them and the results you reach. Although it doesn’t sound good, we have to admit that in this area we all “borrow” a little from each other.
What about the relationship between intention, execution and the final product when it comes to art?
V: It is a whimsical relationship. Intent or planning often influence execution and the final product as the idea I start from organically transforms along the way.
A: This is more related to other areas of visual arts I think, where technical fairness is more rigorous. In painting, though I am a great supporter of projects and work sketches, I do not always succeed to stay consistent, I easily transform my works. I think it is also the result of a certain curiosity born from impatience.
How do you put yourself in the state of doing in moments of no inspiration?
V: I often get out of these moments by listening to different genres of music. When not even that works, I’m trying to document other projects or to do something completely different.
A: When I am not in the mood for work or when the muses are gone, I take a break. If it does not work, I start working because work yields new results from which you can build further. These are my recipes for unwinding.
Tell me 3 artists you like, who motivate you and put you to work.
V: Olafur Eliasson, Frank Gehry, Anselm Kiefer have a special place for me in terms of contemporary art and architecture, and I use them as value marks, but they are not the only ones to motivate me.
A: It is very difficult to delimit three artists I am very fond of, I am seduced by many artists from different artistic currents and periods, but I think Miquel Barcelo and Pierre Soulage are very important to me. Lately I have rediscovered pre-Renaissance art.
Tell me a moment that you consider essential to your development as an artist.
V: An essential moment was seven years ago when I met Andrei and decided to join UAD learning painting. I have not painted until then in oil even though I studied art in high school. Years spent in architecture and advertising have taken me away from the manual work, from hands-on doing, and I really enjoyed getting back to this creative process, to the artistic environment.
A: Maybe the crucial moment was 2003, when my family emigrated and I stayed behind to finish my studies. Then I traveled a lot and I think I could have repeatedly broken my connection with Cluj, but there was always a reason enough to stay.
How much does your art depend on the location and space you're in?
V: I try not to associate the topic or the work with a particular location. I prefer not to use local or recognizable elements in works in order to trigger a certain state, to get some depth. If I would use a recognizable element, the viewer would associate the element with the location and would try to find other similarities – that’s not my intention.
A: Location is very important for an artist who works with traditional environments because it influences your way of working, you change dimensions, techniques, you are forced to adapt and that helps you. I have been through such an experience in Rome and I ended up changing my chromatic palette there.
Are there things about your art that you do not want to reveal? A clue is accepted :)
V & A: Time allotted to a work. :)))) I think this is the most common question an artist gets. Nobody asks you about costs, inconveniences, if you had any problems, ideas, concepts – just: How long did it take you to …?
What do you think of the local artistic community, how do you relate to it?
A: I am on very good terms with many artists from Cluj, but like any minority (we are a minority after all) members are quite divided with matching pride issues and frustration. Which is not to say that others fare different or better. Only when you notice it in your own people it hurts more.
But I think our great chance is that the young are enthusiastic, the city has this effervescence which brings together groups and personalities and they contribute to the change of a state of affairs. I think new people are needed especially in cultural management, people able to influence the local landscape and we should absolutely have private trainers associated to no public institutions.
How do you relate to the international artistic context?
V & A: These years we could travel abroad and visit museums, galleries, biennials, we could directly experience meeting art and contemporary artists we appreciate. We are usually connected to social networks and we see what’s happening in other artistic centers.
Your workshop also works as an artist run space in which you perform curatorial and exhibition projects. Can you share some details? How did you come up with the idea of this hybrid space, if it might be called that?
V & A: A + Project Space started as a collective initiative for visual artists, curators, architects, landscape designers and designers, I imagined it as an open space for experiment, for artistic and interdisciplinary projects. Through curatorship we want to put into practice creative ideas and arguments, emerging art projects both personal and collective, by young local and/or international artists.
A + Project Space overlaps perfectly with our workshop, has an area of 42 square meters and can be visited on the first floor of the Center of Interest building at Fabricii de Chibrituri Str. 9, Cluj-Napoca.
How do you select the people you decide to promote?
V: So far we have invited artists we knew and close friends, but in the future we want to expand searches internationally and offer residences and scholarships, and for that we will need funding, using our own resources as we have done so far will not do.
We try to diversify the projects we exhibit, to always come up with something new and relevant to what is happening now in contemporary art.
A: Our plan is to raise the level of projects and to bring to Cluj and to the Center of Interest as many young artists as possible, bringing various perspectives, projects and approaches along. So far we have invited projects of artists in whom we believe strongly, artists unknown to the Cluj public.
We have reached the end of it. Tell me three essential things about art from your perspective: the good, the bad and the ugly?
V & A: The good: there is art. The bad: there is pseudo-art. The Ugly: the second category is often more appreciated.
I: Ouch ..... A pertinent and painful conclusion :). I'll keep my eyes wide open :)
