LILIANA BASARAB

Truth/s consists of a series of different length performances recorded on video. The starting point of the project Truth/s is the game Charades (a game of pantomimes whereby the players have to "act out" a word or phrase without speaking while the other players try to guess what the phrase is as quickly as possible). Participants were invited to perform Charades in front of the camera and the word that each individual had to embody was TRUTH.

Each performance was recorded in a neutral setting. Performers were selected from a wide range of social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, both young children and adults, women and men from various fields, not just from the arts. The project Truth/s began in Iasi in June 2003 and continued in Chisinau in November 2003 and it will continue in Bucharest in January 2005 on the occasion of the artist’s exhibition at the 2020 Home Gallery.

Truth, a concept which technically should be the same for everyone, is reshaped here by the large variation of its forms and versions, depending greatly on personal beliefs and the way in which each person miming the truth sees themselves in relation to the rest of the world.

The final result is equally important to the entire process: the artist interacts with the performers and the public; the performers come from the public to perform in front of the camera and then take their place back again in the public.

The idea of searching for Truth (also like searching for Beauty) is less a demand than a question. “Truth is a thing of this world: it is produced only by virtue of multiple forms of constraint." (Michel Foucault, 'The archaeology of Knowledge').

Imagine Beauty! Define Beauty! Describe Beauty!
Postcard project, work in progress , 2003-2004

People were given blank postcards with the inscription 'Imagine Beauty! Define Beauty! Describe Beauty!' (written in English, Dutch and Romanian) and were asked to write, draw or create collages which would illustrate what they believe beauty to be and then they were asked to post them back to the artist. This project began in September 2003 in Iasi (Romania) and it was continued in Chisinau, (Republic of Moldova), Helsinki (Finland) and during 2004 in Amsterdam (Holland).

Imagine Beauty! Define Beauty! Describe Beauty! challenges the understanding of beauty. The way this 'old-fashioned' concept is visualised today and how people may position themselves in relation to it by means of communicating via another old-fashioned medium: postcards. Generally a postcard as a means of communication sends a positive message, and due to this medium (the postcard being a tool of communication that obeys quite precise rules) it forces people to make an active use of clichés in order to find a single image (visuals, text or both) to illustrate beauty and make the connection between themselves and the artist.

How do both women and men speak of beauty and tackle this subject? What is the difference between children’s perception and that of adults? Between educated and non-educated people? What do people commonly associate with the concept of beauty? Love, nature, freedom, home, safety, God, innocence, small children, starlit skies?