THIS IS NOT AN ARTSPACE | Open House #4: Vasile Leac

THIS IS NOT AN ARTSPACE
OPEN HOUSE #4: VASILE LEAC

Saturday, 8 October 2022, 16:00 –20:00

Erou Ion Călin 19, Bucharest

In the frame of THIS IS NOT AN ARTSPACE, in the monthly Open House event series, dedicated to the P+4 Publications editorial programme, the guest for the encounter in October is poet and artist Vasile Leac. On October 8, between 16:00–20:00, the workspace of the Institute of the Present will become Vasile Leac’s studio, where visitors can watch him perform a series of live interventions based on P+4 Publications, transforming them into customised collectable editions.

a much-loved object
which almost everyone has had
and which we rarely separate ourselves from
it seems so simple
but when carefully examined it is no longer
you smell it fondly, you caress it like a bottle
it passes from one hand to another
sometimes it heals, sometimes it poisons
always a place of refuge
if I were a similar object
sometimes carried by the wind
or simply forgotten in a mundane place
maybe it’s not even worth that much
to talk about it
sometimes you fall asleep and wake up next to it
it doesn’t ask for anything, and that’s when you can let go
assuming that there is nothing after life
just this object

VASILE LEAC has published several volumes of poems with various publishers (Seymour: sonată pentru cornet de hârtie [Seymour: sonata for paper horn], 2005, 2006, 2013; Dicționar de vise [Dictionary of Dreams], 2006, Lucian — un experiment [Lucian—an experiment], 2009; Toți sunt îngrijorați [Everyone is Worried], 2010; Unchiul este încântat [The Uncle is delighted], 2013; M o n o i d e a l, 2018).
I always wanted to write poems for two, three slightly distracted astronauts, in which life barely flickers; they navigate, like that, without a definite destination. I want you to imagine the astronaut’s smile sitting at a table, by the porthole, sipping his drink—what could he be drinking? After reading it, you have the impression that the poet rises (from the page) on his tiptoes; he kisses you on the cheek; then turns away in a rush; stops; turns back and laughs in your face, like a mischievous child who you think knows the secret of happiness.

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In the Open House series, the Institute of the Present organises monthly encounters around its P+4 Publications programme, aiming not only to open the access to these books, to offer them “a new life” and to enlarge the community of art book lovers, but also to engage the publishing endeavour in a new terrain, that of performativity. Open House is an informal frame of encounter and dialogue in which the visitors of the space can browse through the P+4 Publications recent and older titles and can discuss with the artists and their authors.

In the frame of the THIS IS NOT AN ARTSPACE initiative, the Institute of the Present puts forward a series of interventions taking place in its own working studio in Bucharest, addressing the present and triggered by the way in which the independent artistic platforms and artists choose to respond to the energies of the context in which they operate. THIS IS NOT AN ARTSPACE is above all conceived as a place for dialogue, sharing of individual and collective experiences that are hosted in the septic terrain of the white cube, but in a working studio of 50 sqm. THIS IS NOT AN ARTSPACE is conceived by Alina Șerban and Ștefania Ferchedău in the frame of the artist and theory resource platform the Institute of the Present.

Cultural project co-funded by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.
Visual identity: Daniel & Andrew Design Studio (Andrei Turenici)

The project does not necessarily represent the standpoint of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN cannot be held liable for the content of the project or the manner in which the outcomes of the project may be used. These shall devolve entirely on the beneficiary of the financing.

Contact: ip@institutulprezentului.ro