West Virginia University graduate student Vlad Basarab was recently featured in the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts 2012 Projects Space.

His exhibition entitled “Cenzura Memoriei,” which is Romanian for the “censorship of memory,” was performed in Seattle.

“Cenzura Memoriei” consists of a constructed 9×19x10-foot space made out of lumber and burlap. Once constructed, Basarab coated individual pages of a book with kaolin slip and hung them on rows of strings stretched from one side of the space to the other. The space also housed a projector and desk where Basarab worked on the pages.

“Various political regimes have burned and destroyed many books, thus collective memories were lost while flooding people’s memories with propagandistic slogans and literature,” Basarab said. “The burning of books is intended to reproduce historical memory of censorship.”

Basarab, originally from Romania, is a graduate student at WVU studying in the School of Art & Design in the areas of multimedia, sculpture, performance and video. His research goals are to travel and conduct collaborative performance videographies. He works collaboratively with other artists in the production of artworks that either reflect or are tied to the local environment. He has won various awards and grants for his work. Basarab has also been a contractor for eight years and owns Artistic Homes in Anchorage, Alaska.

The council chooses from an international pool only three individual and two collaborative artists teams whose conceptual and material conversation takes them beyond the confines of their kiln.

Each artist was provided a stipend to present a live on-site specific installation or performance-based artwork that explores the 2012 Conference theme, “On the Edge.”

Projects Space is intended to act as a platform for experimental and innovative work that stretches the confines of the contemporary ceramic field.

The artists were selected by 2012 Projects Space Coordinator Marianne McGrath, Jeffry Mitchell and National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Exhibitions Director Linda Ganstrom.

For more information, see the website: http://nceca.net/static/projectspace.php.

-WVU-

Lb/4-9-12

CONTACT: Charlene Lattea, College of Creative Arts
304-293-4359, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu

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