ARTIST STATEMENT

Focusing on the romantic idea of the tragic hero, my works aim to address the self-portrait as a micro history through staged photography and moving image, with the camera as witness and companion. The portrayal of the hero, in his pointless attempts for a sublime experience, is the role, or the persona, that I play for the camera.

The works revolve around site-specific relations, considering site-specificity not from its political premise, but more from its poetic approach, as a psychogeography. In this sense, they assume a non-specific forest or cityscape as the mise en scéne where then multiple fictional or non-fictional narratives are layered.

I am drawn to staged photography and moving image by means of reconstructing past events, memories and places. An important aspect of my practice is the role of the camera, which assumes the role of the creator, of producer of events, rather than the recorder as an apparatus. And so, the photographic or video representation is not secondary to the performance that happens before the camera, and the image created via performance is the priority.

The dialogue or relationship with the camera is one of egocentric nature; that separates the artist, the photographer, from the hero, the protagonist, by means of framing, constructing, and executing the image. Performing in front of the camera is for me a liberating experience, whilst constantly obscuring identification through the hiding of my face.

Triggering this relief is the rejection of exchange of information that then emphasizes isolation. Even though my intentions in this concealing are withheld, photography is a means of exposing, of making visible, and in this sense the work interprets an act of estrangement that mimics my capacity to see myself as someone else. This occurs as a reflection on the concept of play, where play is seen as a performance or a role within an artistic practice.

I consider this to be a somewhat of a game of hide and seek with oneself, a play that allows me to interrogate the image of the self-portrait in relation to its performativity aspect. The actions I perform in front of the camera, take a behavioural form of sculpture and in the case of photography, which is a suspension of a moment, the performance takes on the instability of the gesture.

My practice is a self-referential, self-reflexive, thought process. An investigation into the persona of the performing artist where the separation between the two is a performance in itself. Where the two are the same, and where the self becomes an imperceptible entity.

The aim is to identify the spectator with the protagonist in the images and therefore, the viewer’s interpretation of my performance to be generated also from their own micro history. The images, thus don’t intend to inspire a state of futility to their audience, but try to produce an emotional release that then is shared as a common experience within the setting of the gallery.

May 2016

BIOGRAPHY

Andrei Venghiac (b.1990) is a Romanian artist currently living and working in Gothenburg, Sweden. Andrei has presented his work and participated in solo and group exhibitions throughout Romania, Moldova, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and USA. In 2015 he has been awarded the Theodor and Hanne Mannheimer Award, and the Eric Ericson Foundation Stipend. Furthermore, Andrei self-published his first book, Alexithymia, and Valand Academy has issued a monograph comprising his works from 2014 to 2015. In 2016, Andrei has been nominated for the Fredrik Roos Stipend from Moderna Museet in Malmö, Sweden. He has opened his solo show PERSONA. Performing the imperceptible self at Borderline Art Space in Iasi, Romania, and presented in the Photography Performing Humor Conference at LUCA School of Arts in Brussels, Belgium.