BIOGRAPHY

PROJECTS

The quiz of Victor Man
 
Among the works presented in the Biennial for Young Artists in Bucharest the one that impressed me the most was Untitled, an audio installation by Victor Man, one of the few young Romanian artists who is refusing the local fetishism of new media. I think that the power and fascination of Man’s project consist in the fact that it is somehow a witty comment of the general assumption that ‘the contemporary’ must be technological. Untitled is a contemporary work that speaks about communication, manipulation and other concepts of the Information Society without using hardware technology which  could deny the conceptual approach to art production.
From a dark room with no door but just a window you can hear, when you come closer, some very intriguing sounds. In my opinion this is one of the most interactive projects I have ever seen and at the same time it is a project about narrativity and open scenario. Anything could happen and there is no viewer who might just pass by and ignore the installation. Every person has a strong response and this response is different every time. The viewer’s reaction is dependable upon himself. Some people try to take a look and when they realize they can’t see what’s really happening just quit and go away. Some of them are too proud and self-important to come back and, when they pass by the installation for a second time, just look in a different direction. This is probably the response of the mature or indifferent audience. Other people come back and try again different methods to look through the window and solve the mystery. They try to jump for a quick gaze or to climb the wall, they don’t give up easily and this is probably the same way they deal with problems in real life. These ones remain for some time near the mystery window but, if some other viewers were to come and start to stare at them they would probably quit too. The third reaction is shared by  most art students and other young people. They are simply fascinated with the installation. They don’t look around, never care about other people passing by or staring. They simply have to find out, to solve the quiz. They climb the window and enter the room even though they might get some dust or paint on their clothes. They have to break through and conquer the threshold.
In my opinion this is an interesting meditation about the way people communicate and deal with their problems, with their desires. A comment on manipulation in the Information Society,  an opportunity for the artist to play an interactive game with the viewer without using the hardware but analyzing the principles of a society ruled by Information Technology. In his paintings, Victor Man has the ability to re-build the world, re-stage a moment, and explore the limitations of art while his installation is capable of constructing a virtual reality and immaterial image without any attachments to the local fetishism of technology.

BIBLIOGRAPHY