Operating as performance artist, writer and director, Buescu’s artistic praxis combines autobiographical elements with techniques of research and documentary mainly staged as live performance art pieces. Alexandru Buescu was born in 1985 in Bucharest, The Socialist Republic of Romania, under the communist regime of Ceaușescu. His work questions social issues related to: freedom of speech, fake news, internet, individual or collective memory, distribution of the sensible, human alienation due to technology, rituals, family, adulthood, isolation, fear, loss of individuality or the duality and problem of the ego. At the same time, it challenges assumptions, perceptions and expectations related to his own art practice and research. To this the live dimension of his performances aims to create inspiring or provocative experiences for the audience, where the vitality of the (rebellious) human body as opposed to fixed, rigid structures (buildings, concrete floors, machines, the earth) is always displayed as a declaration of freedom against oppressive treatments. By creating unexpected situations or inventing ambiguous “characters”, directly or indirectly related to his own nature, in his performances Buescu investigates the roles of the performer and the audience, the exposure of body, the question of the representation from conventional schemes to real situations. The use of videos, voice or sound recordings, objects made out of paper, toys, photos, poems, official documents, interviews, sand or even animal meat acquire symbolic meaning in his work while the traces left on stage became evidence of the everyday absurd human behavior. Driven by his own life experience, curiosity and critical thinking towards a profound understanding of the present issues that shape our society, Alexandru undertakes long time periods of research practice across various fields, usually opposite to his artistic training.
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Unseen
Performance

10-15/05/2021

A coin from 1995 is an undisputed proof of the time when it was created. It gives information about the status of a country, its economical, social and political situation, and, as well, it might offer details in relation to culture and religion. A coin is a historic document. Perhaps in the future, the plastic payment cards will be considered historic documents as well. But what is a comment left in 2020 on a video on the internet? Is it just a comment? What are 10 comments left in 2020 on the same video? Are these comments telling us about the video or do they give us more pertinent evidence about society’s trending topics and behaviour.

In 2015 Alexandru Buescu found on the internet an emotional text written by an unknown author whose main concern at that time was his transition from adolescence to adulthood and how it is defined and perceived by his friends and family. Having as a starting point this written material, in his ongoing artistic research, Alexandru Buescu gradually becomes a researcher and archivist by finding, gathering, selecting and assembling a large number of digital and physical documents that are saved in a digital archive.

UNSEEN deals with the abstract and complex process of what and how maturity is perceived in today’s society through a collection of selected text based materials. A society that is full of rules, articles, advice, statements and procedures. A society that is not yet ready to understand individuals because individuals do not have time to get to know themselves. How does it look and what should compose an archive on this topic? What and how is this delivered to someone that would be interested in having a deeper understanding of this unpredictable phenomenon of our lives?

Methodology

By using data collection and techniques of marketing research, Alexandru investigates the fine nuances that emerge from his documentation on the chosen topic. The space in between is questioned, explored both physically and digitally by inserting personal notes in order to interlink a second perspective. The unknown visitor is invited to discover the traces left by others in order to rediscover (perhaps) forgotten traces of his own childhood, adolescence, maturity.

Mentorship: Falk Richter.
Previous supervision and support by: Inger Eilersen, Solveig Gade, Rasmus Ölme.

Translations are done together with Andra Bellu.

The entire research is available upon request. A number of 21 visitors have been present physically and 15 via video calls.

Location: AC Hotel Bella Sky Copenhagen