Alex Boca, artist, curator and cultural manager, is active on the art scene in Timișoara. He attended the Faculty of Arts and Design in Timișoara, where he studied video art and sculpture, after which he studied curatorship for a year in Paris. In 2017, he co-founded Lapsus, a space for artistic experimentation, where he initiated and hosted numerous personal and group exhibitions, especially encouraging the efforts of emerging artists.

Tell us about the transition from video art to sculpture and curating. What exactly stimulated you in this direction?

My first real practical interest was photography and video art. Still, I started my research on contemporary art and liked many sculptors I discovered on this occasion. But I never became a sculptor but began a slow transition from artistic practice to theory and organization. Learning to value visions and aesthetics that I find unique or authentic is more important. In Paris, I saw a lot of art that I consumed greedily. I loved how soothing a space with well-installed works can be and what a sense of freedom the act of aesthetic contemplation can give you. When I walk into an exhibition, it’s just me with something out of this world. I wanted to recreate that, too.

The role of the curator is in a continuous dynamic. From your point of view, what does it mean to be a curator today, and how would you define your curatorial activity?

I see the curator as a mediator between the reality shared by all and the subjective world of the artist. I am not interested in the political role of the curator in the art world or the social environment.I am more interested in the role he has as a shaman or as a philosopher.
Through curating, I look for what is unnoticed and want to facilitate the artistic act. That’s why I like to look at the creative intention in a person.
I often ask about the inner reflection and experience of the artist, and then about the decisions and methods by which he manages to materialize or convey them. I’m interested in intuitive thinking, that is, what is not rationally aware, and I try to put those intuitions into words through dialogue, like a mirror. Curating takes care of the artistic act, makes sure it has the necessary conditions for it to happen and looks for ways to challenge the artist to create the most surprising works for the world, for himself, to discover himself as a person through the process.

You are the co-founder of the Lapsus space in Timișoara. What was the context in which this project took shape? Did it happen spontaneously, or was it a long-considered decision?

August 2017 – I came back from Paris quite confused, and after two months of going around in circles, I decided to rent myself a studio as I was still doing my master’s in sculpture. When I found the space at the former “Azur” factory, it didn’t take long (a few days) to realize that it was too valuable to keep just for myself. So the first step was to invite an artist friend, Cătălin Bătrânu, to make an installation there that I knew he wanted for a long time, and that was a spontaneous idea.
Cătălin is a co-founder because if he hadn’t accepted the proposal, who knows what I would have done there? It was also from him that I took the name Lapsus when I realized that we could transform what seemed to be a one-time solo show for the White Night of the Galleries into a space with a program of recurring events, i.e. in what it has become.
We didn’t manage to open the space for the White Night of the Galleries event because we didn’t finish on time, but we opened it a week later. On October 16th, we had the opening for the Environment project. Many friends and acquaintances came, some of whom are still close.
Founding the Lapsus space was not at all a well-thought-out plan. But, we went step by step, discovering what an art space is and what it means to pay rent, materials, services and fees for what we do, although many projects have been carried out mainly through voluntary work and enthusiasm. It was a spontaneous decision that was then analyzed at length, and it still is.

Is there a story regarding the choice of the name Lapsus?

The name Lapsus came from Cătălin’s dissertation work – a series of large abstract paintings that put you in a fog when you looked at them, so he named them Lapsus in 2015. I remember being in the space (then still unnamed), and Cătălin was painting the walls for the Environment project while I was writing variants of the title for the project on my laptop. Iproposed to call the exhibition Lapsus, and he disagreed because he associated that title with the dissertation. But when we said, “Let’s call the space Lapsus and make more exhibitions here”, we thought it was a good idea. Then we realized that we could have our gallery, ha!
Lapsus is a name that doesn’t have an intentional message, but it’s funny, has an impact when you hear it, and sounds intriguing. I also make the connection between Lapsus and the idea of ​​emptying your mind of rules that you have memorized in order to be more free and confident in what you do, and that is the attitude that I keep reproducing in Lapsus, even when we make mistakes.

Since the inauguration of the Lapsus space in 2017, you have organized numerous personal and group exhibitions. Can you broadly describe the proposed curatorial program, the selection criteria, the relationship with the exhibiting artists, and the community created around the project?

The curatorial program changed as I changed; I used the space to experiment and go through several stages as a curator; I had no set criteria. Initially, I invited artists who graduated from art school in Timișoara and who I thought were doing good work but who had not been given the chance to exhibit locally in a contemporary art space – I was looking for a fresher way of presentation for new generations of artists, also fresh.
Then I changed and started inviting everyone to participate in collective projects – I would invite whoever was present, or I knew wanted to participate. At one point, I was surprised to learn that some wanted to exhibit in Lapsus but never told me. I also made open calls for projects for Lapsus, worked with artists from different countries, and organized small residencies, workshops and video screenings – all these events were exercises for me to observe how people react to emerging artists and projects.

I’m like an observer in a laboratory gallery where a social experiment occurs. That’s how I feel after Lapsus. I have a lot of fun looking at everything I’ve done from this perspective. We can also look at it from the angle of founding an emerging network of new artists, curators and professional creatives. Still, it’s a too weak of a network and not such an aggregated community to say it’s the main subject. Communities are difficult to manage and hold together, especially today when the Internet and virtual communities take up so much of our time and attention – each of us has two or three parallel lives.

Please tell us about the educational program Lapsus Laboratory, developed in collaboration with the Șiințescu Fund. What does this project entail, and what audience are you targeting?

This program was another challenge I took on in Lapsus. It was also my way of harvesting my interest in nerdy things, inventiveness and new DIY/makerspace technology. The lab was the stage where we started to create more interaction with the public, offer virtual sculpting tools to children and look for collaborators in STEM fields.
I wanted to create in Timisoara the prototype of a learning space as I saw at FabLab in Paris, in the City of Science and Industry, a place I fell in love with for the openness they showed to the public and to anyone who wanted to experience 3D printers, laser CNC, electronics. We address children and young people, but also artists or visitors who have not had the opportunity to see these emerging technologies. The French call it “Vulgariser la technologie chez les jeunes.”

A year ago, you released the book “Everything you wanted to know about art, but were afraid to ask” – Vol. I. What exactly inspired this endeavor, but the book’s title?

Searching for contemporary art on the Internet I ended up on all kinds of forums where I downloaded interesting discussions, not knowing what I would do with them. Between 2015 and 2021, I formed a small archive of PDFs with first-hand information from anonymous users, an archive that I kept on a hard drive until I had the idea to turn it into a series of publications with the content ” filtered”. I took the title from pop culture but used it before for another project (a collage workshop where I cut up a bunch of contemporary art magazines and created works from them).
For this book, I thought a good introduction to art problems can be made through informal discussions between people with different opinions, informed or opinionated, light and non-academic – as happens on the Internet. Online, people aren’t afraid to ask stupid questions and risk embarrassment, so I thought the content fit the title – for the courage to face your ignorance.

Starting from the topics covered in this first volume with the meta theme “I could do that too!” can we consider art anything an artist does or says? What exactly makes something a work of art?

I believe that the subtitle “I can do that myself!” is a confused reaction to the difference between object and process. If we look at art strictly as an aesthetic object, we will understand the form or skill with which it was created. And if we look at art as a process, we will understand the intention and the discourse of which it is a part. Often, even art doesn’t know exactly what it wants to do or which side it is on. Hence, we can encounter poorly created works from a technical point of view, with a random aesthetic or decontextualized works that create confusion and a cryptic atmosphere.

Turning something into a work of art is based on the decision between making or not making sense of something. For example, working on a series of works, no matter how absurd the idea from which it starts, can result in art if it generates meaning or an impressive aesthetic, and the artistic creation lies in the decisions to take on a research topic, to create consistently and try to discover your authentic vision. Otherwise, if it’s not genuine work, you can work hard, fooling yourself and others.
If you do something once and call it art and call yourself an artist because you decided to validate yourself, I don’t consider that art. Art is not what you did once but what you continue to do because it makes sense to do it, and has meaning created by you in relation to the world, not meaning only in your head. Whoever creates or sees a work and does not use it as an opportunity for existential analysis and contemplation, I consider that has remained in his head, cut off from the world.

You are part of the Center for Projects of Timișoara Municipality team, which opened in 2021 and was delegated to deal with the Timișoara 2023 cultural program. You provide advice on funding opportunities from non-refundable public funds from the local budget of the Timișoara Municipality. What recommendations do you have for a beginner cultural operator?

A novice operator should not put the “Culture is work” thing first but ask himself questions about his own interest in culture and creativity. It sounds pretentious, but you will produce mediocrity without critical reflection and acknowledging your ignorance. Then, it is related to work – typical of a consumerist era to turn aesthetics, philosophy, and human sensibility into hypertechnical processes instead of trying to become simpler, wiser, and generate change.

Suppose he wants to obtain non-reimbursable financing from public funds. In that case, an operator should prepare for rigorous technical work resulting from the requirements of a rigid and confusing legal system, which is unfortunately complicated and hinders the dialogue between the citizen and the state. We still dedicate ourselves to these bureaucratic and convoluted funding systems, mechanisms that create toxic competition through project competitions.

A beginner, whether an NGO or an individual, should first know what he is doing for himself and then try to work with the system if he wants to, but he should not try to conform to the rigid system completely. I would also advise him to experiment with a project with his own budget before embarking on a long road with public funds, possibly also to look for a method of generating income before trying to fund a project. People want to buy quality cultural goods, and if you try to sell them (services, tickets, works), you will find supporters.

Timișoara celebrates this year, holding the title of European Capital of Culture through numerous art exhibitions, cultural conferences, plays, concerts, films, festivals and shows.
How would you describe Timisoara at this moment?

Timișoara is apparently changing through all these cultural events, but deep down I believe it has the same challenges as any other place in the country; that is, it conflicts with itself, smoldering with everything that concerns us as people. We find self-deception, shallowness, fear, mistrust, and radicalism at the individual and institutional level, things we are unaware of and have not addressed enough as a society. These latent issues that are not being discussed will continue to develop and contribute to value crises and outbursts.

Nowadays, all cultural events improve the general mood of people and give more chances for those discussions that matter to happen. Still, it does not seem that the dialogue is existent publicly. We are still in a paradigm of rhetoric and entertainment.
What can be seen now is that Timișoara is different from other cities. Still, I notice a difference between Culture with a capital “C” and financing or the organization of events. This place behaves differently now; I don’t think it’s better or worse. Maybe it’s favorable for certain phenomena that can be the basis for a change in mentality. That’s what I think we wish for.

Is there something you’d like to try, but the proper context hasn’t been provided yet?

I would like to work more with people through practical philosophy workshops to stimulate dialogue. A few years ago, I started reorienting myself towards the “art of questioning” (philosophical counseling), which worked very well for me. However, I still haven’t managed to transfer it from philosophy circles to everyday life, except to a small extent. I use principles borrowed from philosophy to organize my mind, which informs everything I do. We desperately need to increase our thinking skills through argumentation, conceptualization, interpretation, problematization, and questioning exercises to understand better what we do and the lies we choose to believe.

From another perspective, I would like to be able to expand the activity of Lapsus so that more young people participate in the organization so that the organization does not depend only on one person, but I noticed that I am not good at facilitating collective management. I try it now and then with group projects or Black Friday art sale shows; it’s a lot of fun.

What plans do you have, and how do you see your professional path in the coming years?

I would like to finish some projects and work less as an organizer and more as a curator or writer. I have a plan of what kind of projects I want to create in the next three years, but I don’t want to unravel it yet.

The interview is part of the project REPERE, an approach through which I aim to present outstanding people, with a beautiful and healthy professional career, with inspirational stories, people who have transformed Timișoara into an effervescent cultural city through numerous exceptional events initiated and coordinated over time, but also on the occasion of the celebration of holding the title of European Capital of Culture.

This journalistic material was made through the financing program Energie! Burse de creație, supported by the Municipality of Timișoara, through the Center for Projects, within the Power Station component of the National Cultural Program “Timișoara – European Capital of Culture in the Year 2023”. The material does not necessarily represent the position of the Center for Projects of the Municipality of Timișoara, and this one is not responsible for its content or manner it may be used.