Download pdf version of issue no. 16 (4 Mb) - Pavilion

[140]
Marina Albu
The Real People’s House
During Ceausescu’s “reign” in Romania,
we had power supply back-outs that lasted
between a few hours during daytime
and usually the whole night when started
in the evening. This event happened very
often, sometimes daily. In this time, people
used oil-lamps and candles for being
able to complete activities around the
house, read or just see each other. But
almost every time these things would not
happen, the reality would shift, a change
of ambiance implied a change in living,
being, in the pre-thought program. This
would be a break, a pause in which one
could think things over, but also a time of
closeness - we are all in this situation and
we feel it in the same way. We are abetters
to one another. We are open, we put
our arms, guards and shields down. We
realize that not everything we urged to do
is that urgent or even needed.
Paradoxically, closer to darkness we see
more clear. I am creating a room that contains
lit oil-lamps as we used to use,
church-usage candles in a glass, refilled
to supply for the whole biennale period,
accompanied by an audio describing the
situation and the state of being. The room
invites for this pause in the flow of things
and actions for each of the visitors and
suggests a break of the like in the flow of
things and actions on the larger scale, in
the way things happen in the world, in our
societies. Stop, question, realize. Also, if
then this lack of electric light was a troubling
situation seen as directed against
the people, nowadays we are aware of
the finiteness of resources and propose a
self-constructed system of black-outs. In
this black-out we allow ourselves to feel
without object, to be without reason, to let
go.
Marina Albu, The Evercoming Potentiality of Infinity, textile band and wool thread, 2012.
Courtesy of the artist. [141]