M Gallery, CICA Museum
May 18-22, 2022
2022.05.18-22
White RoOm
White RoOm – a self/investigation, a journal of daily thoughts, fears, wishes, protest, observation and memory.
”White RoOm” is approaching 4 interdependent and continuously changing dimensions of:
body – (living)space – memory – depression,
investigating the constant interconnection within condition of encapsulation.
Emphasizing the symbol of a white box were people are caught and double isolated as mind/body, the long term site specific installation was developed during a year (2020-2021).
The artistic study of body un/presence in relation with the living space is aimed to investigate, observe and question the state of encapsulation, emphasizing the problematics of double self isolation condition (physical and mental) of a body at home.
The research starts from a monologue – a personal experience and observation of the author in her Soviet type apartment, built in 1960 in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova. Narrative develops through a polilogue discourse of voices – revealing the interviews of people in depression from Republic of Moldova collected by artist during this time.
For people struggling with depression locked in their apartments – the personal habitat become an entire world for a long time, and the isolation becomes even comfortable, the double isolation condition draws the scenario when even with the open door you cannot move outside. It implies the interaction between a man and architectural object, the contact space which, on the one hand, has an impact on a person, and on the other hand, it undergoes a reciprocal influence. There is some kind of “dialogue” between a person and the environment around him.
In former Soviet countries the problematics of depression is showing high growth rates, as a result of massive economic, political and social changes, the transitional context.
Does Soviet architecture, the same type of faceless buildings (the so-called boxes), panel houses, hruschiovka legacy have affect the mental state of a person?
Body and place become interdependent, overlapping each other. Since space leaves an imprint on the body through memory, the presence or absence of the body leaves an imprint on the space itself. Mutual permeability of boundaries.
According to a study by the World Health Organization (WHO) from 2017, over 300,000 people in the Republic of Moldova suffer from depression and anxiety disorders. In the 2nd semester of 2020, According to Moldovan National Bureau of Statistics, 38% of respondents were affected by depression and anxiety (1076 households). In Republic of Moldova depression is a subject that is often disregarded, aggravated by the situation of undeveloped systems of primary care. According to the World Health Organization, the Republic of Moldova ranks 15th in the top of countries with a high number of suicides. The depression is still not enough studied, there is no separate record of cases of depression. Medical statistics refer to the evidence of mental and behavioral disorders, which in 2015 was 31.5 new cases (incidence) per 10 thousand inhabitants.
”White RoOm” is part of My Apartment – a total installation created by Moldovan artist Valeria Barbas. The project was developed within AZART art/text residency Verbarium Covid-19 story research edition 20-21. Presented at exhibition “Get Real!”, Liuda Gallery, Sankt Petersburg, Russia as a result of art residency School of New Practices of Coexistence, Tok Curators; and at exhibition „Breathing in one voice”, Zpatium, at Zemstvei Museum, Chisinau, R. of Moldova.
