WHO SHOT AT US ? 1992

This large-scale installation was created together with my wife, Carmen Paiu, for the international exhibition “EARTH”, hosted by the Art Museum of Timișoara in 1992, curated by Ileana Pintilie.

It was displayed in two rooms without ceilings, doors, or windows, in an unrenovated wing of the museum – located in the very square where people had been killed during the Revolution. The installation, conceived in a ready-made spirit, consisted of 22 life-size human sculptures made of diverse materials, with faces and hands modeled in clay. The number 22 clearly referred to December 22, 1989 – the day when the uprising in Bucharest erupted, one week after it had begun in Timișoara.

On one of the walls separating the two rooms, 22 dead crows with outstretched wings were nailed. Two of the bodies lying on the floor were in fact the authors of the installation themselves. Initially unnoticed by the crowd that flooded the space at the opening, the two suddenly stood up and began handing out the burning candles placed on the chests of the 22 figures. The sight of those bodies stretched out, covered in clay, with their feet apart and hands crossed on their chests – combined with the cadaveric smell of the nailed birds – created an extremely powerful sense of reality.

Only a few photographs of this work survive, as a flood in the studio later destroyed the negatives. However, some video recordings still exist.

Ten years after the Revolution, I felt the need to return to this theme in a new project exhibited at the National Museum of Art of Romania. On that occasion, I presented an installation comprising eight life-size human sculptures made of germinated wheat (an entirely original ready-made technique), a monumental oil painting on canvas measuring 30 square meters, prints, and the complete list of the 1,052 identified dead.