INTERVIEW ON 1X.COM
ALEXANDRU CRISAN:
ON THE BOUNDARIES OF SALIENT CONCEPTUAL SURREALISM
on
November, Bucharest 2020
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Alexandru Crișan – Interview for 1x.com
By Editor Marius Cinteza
Alexandru Crișan is a visual artist based in Bucharest, Romania, and architect by formal education. He was either painting or photographing his entire conscious life and his works are published in art galleries around the world, in peer-reviewed magazines or in privately-owned collections. The early projects (e.g. ‘My Romania’ (2009-2015), ‘Impossible Worlds’ (2010-2015), ‘Lost Highway’ (2014-2015), ‘Surreal Manipulations’ (2013-2015), ‘Impossible Objects’ (2013-2014), ‘Minimal White’ (2012-2014) or ‘Minimal Black’ (2014-2015)) are surreal interpretations of own understanding over time and space concept. Since 2015, Alexandru decided to get more “tactile” and “Erotoarchitecture” ensued. Then “Alien Structures” and “Impossible Architectures” followed naturally, driven by re-compositions and surreal obsessions. From 2017 onwards, the human condition acquired the main focus and several projects developed speak more about himself: “Dreams”, “Asylum”, “Lust”, “Hypnosis” or “Fairy tales”. These works were awarded in famous international photography contests and you can admire them also in 1x.com Gallery. I invite you discover more about the man behind the camera, his thoughts and projects in the interview below!
Alex, first of all I would like to thank you so much for taking your time to answer my questions! To begin, please introduce yourself shortly and tell us more about you, your hobbies or other projects you are involved in!
Thank you for your interest, Marius!
I am a visual artist and architect who, as years went by, became amused by the inherent swags of any self-description. I guess I’m fortunate enough to have others describe me, even though some depictions were rather bemusing: “mood visionary”, “cosmoplastic shutter”, “monochrome man”… I find contentment in imagery contemplation, since I am a dreamer at heart, and, complementary, in the fact that I’ve reached that point when my works are more discussed than my résumé. No need or room for embellishing there! So there I am, warts and all, and by that I mean, naturally, projects and awards, works and musings, conveniently and rather commercially distilled and decanted in one place: click www.alexandru-crisan.com and you’ll get everything you’ll ever know about the way I tick and the ways I click!
For many of us photography is either a hobby or a way of life. How would you define your relationship with photography?
In one word? TRICKY! The reason for that is a pragmatic one: photography emerged, in fact, as an annex of my creative output. Sure, it’s been an intricate part of my entire conscious “eXistenZ” (sic!), but there’s a stark difference between world appreciation and memory preservation, on the one hand, and artistic expression, on the other. When it came to the latter, painting was my “weapon of choice”, with photography as an auxiliary tool for my works. The goal was brush-to-canvas, the catalyst was the shutter click. It was love at first touch, but a stepping stone kind of affection. When I’ve began studying architecture, it seamlessly integrated into the educational process. It turn out to be a different kind of instrument, a volumetric assistant, so to speak, yet a somehow soulless one. From those games of convenience, it grew to insinuate itself into my creative core. It gradually became my artistic go-to place – temporarily or not, I’m not sure… Within the last two decades, it became a distinctive way of expressing entirely different emotions, sometimes contrasting those conveyed by my paintings. And it certainly outgrew its mere augmentative role in my architectural endeavors.
So right now, I feel like this “entity” called photography is having an affair with me, that we went through a lot together – puppy-love and addiction, sharing a bathroom (aka dark room) and threesomes, miscarriages and parenting, and that we’re still flirting, while being in an unsettlingly open relationship…
What would be the most important experience so far that has influenced your steps in photography?
Well, we’re talking about a sinuous road with a lot of stops, all taxing in certain emotional and formative ways. Receiving my first film camera from my father, taking that camera apart and failing to put it back together, my borderline mechanical Humpty-Dumpty moment. Taking a photograph of a dead crow when I was in my early teens. Using my camera to try to impress my (then future) wife – still not sure if that really worked, but I guess it didn’t backfire! The first trip to Cappadocia, the sixth trip to Veneto, the last trip to Chengdu … Switching to digital during a workshops in the southern hills of Romania just to confirm that nude photography is somehow bastardized if there are more than three people in the studio, regardless of one’s gear. A self-portrait in my first five stars hotel – and not a seflie! Nursing the intellectual vertigo that Zaha Hadid threw at me in the MAXXI Museum. Having a breakdown after photographing Auschwitz-Birkenau. Scratching my head at the attempt to shoot one of my own works for a Biennale of Architecture. Switching back to B&W expired stock film. Photos-> storage-> dilemmas! – still unsolved, but crucial to most future choices and techniques! If you’re shopping for the definitive one, more than some light-bulb or heart-beat skipping moments, you’re going to have to ask me this question again, in the last day of my life…
You received your first film camera when you were 12 years old. When have you realised that you would like to follow a career in photography?
Indeed, I have fond memories about getting that Zenit E… I sometimes fantasize about how I would have captured that moment on film: me, grinning in awe, my father smiling… Well, I guess that’s just some sort of a residual self-guiding mechanism.
Skip forward some fiddly 15 years. In the winter of 2008, a win at the Romanian Biennale of Architecture: it was a photography award, not an architecture one! An eye-opener! Don’t get me wrong, my architectural work was not in shambles or anything like that, I was not looking for some “career change”, it’s just that what started as an amusing side-project was met with instant acclaim. Something like that gives you the confidence to experiment with gusto and to go public with your stories! It was my free-pass to trial and error with an audience. And, to this day, it also affords me the hedonism and arrogance to state that I don’t see myself as having a “conventional” professional career in photography! You see, I’ve experienced almost all the photographic techniques that I am aware of, except for drones, but… and this is the climacteric one: I don’t do events and I don’t do cute! So there are no wedding gigs or nice color-bright snapshots anywhere in my future!
How do you maintain and grow your passion for photography?
I would say that the passion for imagery is part of every human being! It’s just that some try to explore it, while others try to tame it. Me, I’m of the former sort, so photography organically became part of my ecosystem. I don’t do anything in particular to keep the flame burning. I’ve never tried to domesticate it, that’s for sure! In fact, most of the times, I get hyperactive within its incandescence. I don’t fear I’m trapped, yet, most of the times, I feel that I have no idea what should I do next! So I start over and over again, from what it feels like scratch, compulsively photographing, not knowing whether it’s some quixotic milestone or just a bad habit! I do try to remind myself that any passion is a never-ending game with one’s self…
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Copyright © Alexandru Crisan 2020. All rights reserved. All images are under strict copyright regulations and require a license for reproduction in print or online. Any artwork cannot be used without written consent from its author.
