I met George Roşu in 2013, when, in an effort to explore the cultural context of Braşov, I began trying to connect with artists and people involved in contemporary art, to share and discuss an idea I had: to open an artist residency in the countryside, 40 km from Braşov, in my grandparents’ house.
At the time, the format of the “artist residency” was still quite uncommon in Romania, and there was little to no interest in the countryside, furthermore, Braşov completely lacked a cultural context with which to engage. Indeed, not long after, George left—fled—to Cluj, where he stayed for nine years, then moved to Timișoara, and finally to Bucharest.
Over the years, he became a well-known graphic designer and artist, especially thanks to the wide sharing of his work on social media, and he designed and curated several exhibition spaces including the Artă.nonstop space in Sibiu, and RAFT, co-founded with Alina Andrei, the only independent art space in Brașov, which consists of a shelf of the Contemporary Art Library of the Multicultural Center of the Transylvania University, and which later found other locations in Cluj, Timișoara and Sibiu. He is also co-founder and co-editor of the Crai Nou Cultural Insert in Suceava (?), and colaborating as designer and producer with the Auzit audio theatre platform.
His work is based on language—on words and their multiple meanings—to create written drawings with an ironic and critical spirit: at times sharp, at times accommodating.
As for me, I launched Intersecția, and since 2017 I’ve been hosting artists for research periods in the rural environment. This year, I invited George for a short residency during the first week of July. It was his first artistic experience in the countryside, where there is no public for art, and “nothing to do”.
We spent the time talking and exchanging thoughts on all sorts of topics. Intersecția is, in fact, above all a space for conviviality and intellectual exchange, where—rather than the pressure of production and exhibition—priority is given to comparison and field research.
I truly appreciated the spontaneity with which George engaged with the house-garden context, gradually inserting his drawings day by day, with some “hidden” surprises I would sometimes stumble upon by chance.