Touch of Memory

The project Touch of Memory includes a sculpture exhibition as well as several ceramic workshops with the participation of blind people and young students from Feldioara and Făgăraș. The exhibition in the Feldioara Citadel is part of a constellation of creations on the theme of memory while also being blind people friendly. The interdiction of not touching museum exhibits is something common, without any particular impact on the general public. However, it is precisely this prohibition that represents an indestructible barrier for people who cannot see and who, in the absence of touching, are forced to construct their images solely from descriptions. With our project we aim to remove this barrier in order to provide a complete cultural experience for blind people. Touching will become integral to the sculpture and its raison d'être. The prohibition becomes an exhortation: touch the sculptures in order for them to achieve their purpose.

The artistic concept of the project is related to the importance of memory for the survival of the community. We propose a discourse at the intersection between the destruction / erasure of memory during the Communist dictatorship (through the demolition of monuments of vital importance for the identity of the Romanian people) and the reconstruction / identity recovery through emblematic monuments: the Făgăraș and Feldioara fortresses.

            The reflection on the temporal and psychological consequences of the loss of memory (whether collective or individual, as a symptom of civilization) has become necessary both in terms of understanding this loss as a basis for the recovery of identity and from the perspective of the cultural construction of this identity today. Feldioara's lands contain the memory of an early ceramic art. An important archaeological inventory of pottery objects of the Ariușd type, dating back to the Neolithic period, has been discovered here. By integrating the works in the space of the Citadel, as well as by holding the workshops, the project creates a millennial arch over time between the ancient community that produced these archaeological remains and the present-day inhabitants.

 

Vlad Basarab is a visual artist working with multi-media installations, ceramics, sculpture, performance and video. He has had over 20 solo shows in the United States, China, Romania and Hungary. One of his most important solo shows was held at China Ceramics Museum, Jingdezhen (2019 - 2020). His work is part of important international public and private collections in China, United States of America, Republic of Korea, Romania, Hungary, Republic of Moldova, Germany.

He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Ceramics from the University of Alaska Anchorage (2001) and a Master of Fine Arts from West Virginia University (2013). Basarab holds a PhD degree in visual arts from the National University of the Arts, Bucharest, Romania, 2023. In 2013, he returned to Romania after 18 years to conduct research under a Fulbright grant. 

 

Basarab Art & Science Association operates in the field of visual arts, with the aim of creating complex projects designed to familiarize the public with the importance of recovering the past and making a link between tradition and contemporaneity. Through collaboration with cultural institutions and associations, we aim to contribute to the education and training of young audiences through the intersection of art, technology and science.