THE FACTORY OF FACTS AND OTHER (UNSPOKEN) STORIES

Book launch: Friday, 6 October, 19.00


Introduction: Vasile Ernu

Authors: Alex Răuţă, studioBASAR, Irina Tulbure, Laura Popa‑Florea, Matei Bejenaru, Puiu Lăţea, Nicu Ilfoveanu, Şerban Savu, Alina Şerban

Design: Radu Manelici (Faber Studio)

Editor: Alina Șerban

“The Factory of Facts and Other (Unspoken) Stories is a perfect exemple of artistic approach that unveils one of the fundamental functions of contemporary art, namely how it succeeds to surpass the boundary between fiction and non-fiction, creation and information.”

Vasile Ernu, writer

The volume is an extension of the main research themes explored by artists studioBASAR, Matei Bejenaru, Nicu Ilfoveanu, Șerban Savu in the framework of the exhibition The Factory of Facts and Other (Unspoken) Stories, held at Salonul de proiecte between September 21 and October 30, 2016, as part of the programme Building the Social: Art and Architecture.

“A surprising book, which, from the poetic and well-found title, The Factory of Facts and Other (Unspoken) Stories to the alert assemblage of texts/images, interrogates and puts forward a reading of the socialist public space via what constituted its new milestones: the civic centre, the house of culture, and the universal store. These three complex objects are pertinently explored from various viewpoints, each of which restores to them different facets. Densely‑structured texts (by Alex Răuţă/Irina Tulbure/Laura Popa‑Florea) that examine the theoretical and historical sides of the objects in question are complemented by less unexpected approaches that resituate them in their post-1989 becoming: memory with a hint of sociological questionnaire (studioBASAR); partial transcription in the videogrammes of a documentary (Matei Bejenaru); photographic essay (Nicu Ilfoveanu); reanimation of ideological meanings from the press of the time (Puiu Lăţea). Masterfully orchestrating all the fragments that make up the volume, Alina Şerban places them in dialogue with exceptional period photographic material (selected by Irina Tulbure) that has preserved intact its evocative power. Brought together, words and images set in motion the Factory of Facts of life (imagined/dreamed/real) in the socialist city.”

Carmen Popescu, architecture historian

Special acknowledgments: Carmen Popescu, Vasile Ernu, studioBASAR, Nicu Ilfoveanu, Matei Bejenaru, Șerban Savu, Radu Manelici, Ileana Tureanu, Ana Maria Zahariade, Silvia Ciocârlan, Vlad Gaivoronschi, Șerban Țigănaș, Irina Tulbure, Laura Popa-Florea, Alex Răuță, Puiu Lățea, Fabrik (Nicoleta Radu, Alin Cincă, Claudiu Ștefan), Ștefania Ferchedău și Simona Necula, Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan, Ștefan Sava, Alexandra Croitoru & Magda Radu

The Factory of Facts and Other (Unspoken) Stories is published by pepluspatru Association within the editorial programme P+4 Publications and continues the series of publications dedicated to the cultural research of Romanian contemporary architecture, which began with the book Enchanting Views. Black Sea Tourism Planning and Architecture of the 1960s and 1970s (editors Kalliopi Dimou, Sorin Istudor, Alina Șerban).


www.pplus4.ro


This book was published with the support of the Romanian Chamber of Architects from the architectural stamp funds.
Editorial project supported by the Union of Architects of Romania and the Romanian Chamber of Architects – Timiş Branch.