Listen to episode 2.
With two participations in documenta (documenta 11, 2002, Kassel, and documenta 14, 2017, Kassel and Athens), as well as in Manifesta 10 (2014, St. Petersburg), the Moldovan artist Pavel Brăila is a strong regional figure with a complex footprint resulted from his presence at numerous international art exhibitions and film festivals, where he stood out. For many years, Pavel has been a friend of Gaep Gallery. Learn more about him: Pavel Brăila – gaep gallery.
He created the artistic concept for the first Moldovan Pavilion at the World Expo (2015, Milan) and his film Definitively Unfinished was awarded at the Oberhausen International Film Festival 2009.
Andrei Breahnă’s talk with Pavel in the framework of podcast Accelerator Today brings a roller-coaster of thoughts, feelings, challenges, answers, and why not questions any artist could ask himself of herself.
In turbulent times such as the beginning of 1990’s, Pavel made a choice: to let his profession as an engineer go and pursue passion for photography and English.
Being an artist is the air that makes you breathe.
In the early stage of an artist’s career, there is a certain drive and naivety. (…) I had no idea that works of art could be sold. Until I arrived at Basel, in 2001, I didn’t have any knowledge about the history of art. I used to follow my intuition and improvised. Some tools started to be available – i.e. recording camera or video projectors. Yet, they were quite expensive.
Without a doubt, Pavel is a role model. Hard working and inspiring, he knew exactly what do to at the right time and in the right place to prove his talent and the powerful message of his artistic practice. He broke barriers, persevered, reached his highest goals and received the highest recognition.
If an artist wants to be seen, then he/she should produce works that are understood in the West.
It is true that my first participation in documenta changed my live. I thought that, once having arrived at the exhibition, there was nothing more I should do next, because my life had been sorted out. This was a big mistake.
Pavel anchors his works of art in circumstances of the society. On this note, he believes the context of the war in Ukraine will bring a new vector in the history of contemporary art.
I started to travel, everybody knew who I was, but they know only this specific work of art. It is a good artwork. Especially now, in the contest of the Ukrainian events, it has become even more relevant and important than when I created it. For 5 years, nobody asked for any other work of mine, but this one.
I was lucky to work with the best curators – those who understand artists and don’t impose their ideas on them but listen.
His success made him become even more aware of the artist’s role in educating the public, the collectors and in shaping the art market.
“The artist needs collectors who are art lovers. So we should grow a new generation of art collectors. If we succeed, the artists won’t dream to be present at Art Basel, but at Art București or Art Cluj”.
Here you can listen to the entire conversation with Pavel Brăila. If you missed the first episode of podcast „Accelerator Today”, where Andrei Breahnă and Ana-Ilinca Macri present an overview of Accelerator. Mentoring and Production for Emerging Artist programme, it is available here.
The aim of Accelerator Today is to share inspiring talks about contemporary art and connect audiences with artists (those in the programme and guests as well), curators, cultural managers and project partners.