Raluca Băjenaru

My installations and performances explore the idea of the memory within the material, at the same time questioning the use of lanugage and of various techniques of recording used to prevent oblivion.

I am attracted to the idea of interacting with the public in order to create works, bringing out the innate creativity every human posseses. As a playful anthropologist, through public space interactions and performances, I explore the way people express themselves when using basic visual elements and are required to perform simple tasks - as writing thier signature on a canvas (”Asemia”) or drawing a map to help a stranger find his way around the city (”Maps of Everyday”). Sometimes I ask them to dive into lost memories through simple questions like: ”What words did you invent when you were a child?”. I record and use these words in performances that challenge the public to abandon the need to understand a written text, instead to enjoy it as a mere visual or audio sign. (”Breath Screen”, ”Omphalos”).

I consider handwriting as a precious tool for creativity slowly being lost to the use of electronic devices. I try to document its last traces before it*s gone.

Some of my favorite materials for developing installations and performances are rusted nails recovered from construction sites (”Increate”, ”Alchemy”, ”Hieropgyphs”), human hair, human breath as a visual sign (”Sensual Archaeology”).

As a painter, I create colorful abstract compositions with industrial oil and tar, inspired by the aesthetics of my own installations and by the reinterpretation of the aquatic environment.