Nicoleta Moise: The Blue Dream
tranzit. ro/București and The Last Archive present:
Nicoleta Moise: The Blue Dream
21 December 2023, 4-7 p.m.
A temporary intervention at the Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life
Coordinates
Access: by car via DN1 or A3; by bus no. 446, departure from Piața Presei Libere, arrival at Pescari stop
Since 2012, when the Maya apocalypse did not exactly happen on a planetary scale as predicted, we have witnessed instead an agglomeration of gradual apocalypses, usually inflicted on those who don’t have back-up plans, with bunkers and rifles and know-it-all-scenarios, protect-your-family infrastructures. The world is falling apart, not only in its physical condition, but also in its very reason for existing as a space that allows breathing and thriving of the spirit, be it human or other. As we write these lines, we are watching the erasure of people, of humanity, of common sense, of any sense, of reason and empathy altogether, of the will to live, confronted as we are with the capitalist-colonial-military apparatus. Destruction and doom, repression and censorship, chemical weapons and threat of nuclear escalation, on top of the existing wars, and the countless disasters that the media only reports for a limited time, on the backdrop of lifestyle advice, with gym exercises and nutritional advice, cooking and gardening recipes, pictures of cats and babies, watch the apocalypse from the cosy, fireplace-heated living room.
With tranzit. ro/București, every year on the 21st of December we gather to celebrate we survived for one more year. What about those who didn’t survive? Not because they were old and their time on this earth was peacefully coming to an end, but because of so many other reasons that we find hard to come to terms with?
We cannot fight death, no matter who inflicts it. We can, however, remember those who tried to live.
“The intervention on the land of the Station, within the Last Archive project, started initially from the idea that newspapers prepare and print their ‘last minute news’ the night before, which only reach the news stand in the following morning. Something you read or hear now, you don’t know what could mean tomorrow, in a few months or years. My proposal is a symbolic gesture*, at the threshold between day and night, which functioning depends on meteorological conditions and light sensitivity. An installation that only functions fully after the sun sets.
The first level of the intervention: I chose to write the phrase forget-me-not on the land of the Station referencing a dream** from the 12th of July 2021, and the discussion about that dream with Carmen C., Ionuț’ mother, from the 17th of February 2023.
The second level: after a relatively long practice of work with the archives, the invitation to participate in the Last Archive project coincided with the decision to finish my working with archives for an undetermined period of time.
The Last Archive of a last archival moment. Forget-me-not.
*‘To assume clumsy, but honest works, no matter how obsolete or naïve they could appear to the current context.’ Ionuț Cioană / Mircea Nicolae (1980-2020)
**Ionuț and his plan to make a work with discarded car bodies. A train that was going to Bacău carrying a blue car body. I saw the car body from another train and I wrote down for Ionuț the time when the train left the station. A bond of complicity and understanding had been created between us. Sketch of the work: the blue car body in a wooden frame.” (Nicoleta Moise)
Nicoleta Moise is an artist. Her practice combines work with archives, video and text, to make visible stories less known, which require time and a careful, longstanding work. She lives in Berceni neighbourhood, in Bucharest, when she is not traveling for artist residencies. Recently she started journalism, writing for Scena9.
The Last Archive is an artistic project initiated by artist Vlad Basalici and enacted together with curator Raluca Voinea as part of the programme of tranzit. ro/București. In 2012, Vlad Basalici collected newspapers printed on the 21st of December of that year, the last day before what should have been the Apocalypse presumably announced by the Maya civilization, with this event and the news published about it constituting the basis of The Last Archive.
Starting with 2013, a series of artists were invited to propose an exhibition reflecting on the material of this Archive. Péter Szabó, Monotremu, Giles Eldridge, Vilmos Koter, Kiki Mihuță, Maria Baroncea and Anca Bucur are the artists who enlarged the concept of The Last Archive, through the realisation of a project-exhibition, inaugurated each year on the 21st of December, in the space where tranzit. ro/ București activated between 2012-2019. The Last Archive project from 2020, 2012 Alphabet Book, took place in the virtual space and can be seen here Since 2021, the project continues with interventions at the Station, having had as invited artists Adrian Ganea in 2021 and Kristin Wenzel in 2022.
In 2023, we invite you to the celebration of these apocalypse anniversaries. To those who join us, we will offer a glass of wine, a piece of cake, a bit of warmth by the outdoor oven, a bit of shelter in the glasshouse, a bit of hope from the seeds of Myosotis that you will get as a present.
If you have difficulties in organising your trip to the Station, let us know: vlad@vladbasalici.com.
ERSTE Foundation is the main partner of tranzit.ro.
