Season two of the podcast is starting with a remarkable woman, Victoria Rocaciuc — the artist who successfully combines creative activity with scientific research in the field of fine arts. Victoria was born in Chernivtsi, but was educated in Chisinau, so she has roots in two neighboring lands, Moldova and Ukraine.
Samizdat in conversation with Victoria Rocaciuc:
We are acquainted with you predominantly from painting, so could you tell us more about your research activity?
Let me start by telling you that fine arts shaped me, and by studying in this field, the research came as a natural fall-back, even logical. Several things in my environment served as a resource for the research development. Even so, I should mention that my parents’ activity was largely related to pedagogy, therefore several pedagogues influenced my scientific training, those at home being the primary example.
At the art school I studied with children of painters and artists, and there was this difference between those who grew up in the art studios and those who came to learn how to paint out of passion. I looked at these painters’ children not with envy, but rather with great interest and I studied their art supplies, especially that in the Soviet period only a member of UAP (Union of Fine Artists) could buy a kit, some more professional materials, even with the UAP abbreviation on the materials. It was quite limited and totally unknown, and this woke up the curiosity in me. I sometimes think that the Soviet school, the language shift — I initially studied in a Russian school, and later I went to a university where I studied in Romanian; all served as a challenge to spend more time with books, dictionaries, and many other circumstances favored me to be attracted to the books even more.
How did you combine the artistic field with the research in the context of which there seem to be two extremes when it comes to the verbal expression?
From the very beginning it was really strange to me how people related to art spoke versus those who are not in the field and how their language developed.
No other person is searching for the right word more than the artist itself.
That’s what I noticed in my teachers as I was trying to help them find the right word, and thinking hmm, how weird it is — why are they so racked? And after many years you start to do exactly the same, you look for the phrase, you look for the right word, and you realize that in fact, you are at the starting point — just like your teachers.
Besides the book “Fine Arts in the Republic of Moldova in the sociocultural context of 1940–2000”, original: Artele Plastice din Republica Moldova în contextul sociocultural al anilor 1940–2000, what other reference publications did you have related to the artistic field?
I think that most of the articles that I wrote were actually serving as a support, as a basic material for these monographs of mine, which I have been working on for more than 20 years. It is a constant search for information, an attempt to raise awareness or to focus the attention on certain issues, so these articles are some kind of a routine.
I started this research being in my training as an artist, so it was interesting from this point of view as well. I may not have a certain material, or I can’t find it at the moment, but if I have written down my task, somehow along the way the necessary materials are found and everything is arranged in one place.
It’s a type of constant self-education that leads to major publications, right?
Yes, my father, who was a doctor of philosophy (May his soul find rest), once said that my method is empirical. So yeah, it’s more of an experience.
Maybe because it’s an occupation you live for day by day?
Yes, it is a part of life and it is a part that is related to creation, to everything that interested me as a child.
A journalist once asked me: What is the connection between painting and theory for me, and I noticed that in fact, in order not to take professional breaks, the theoretical process became this coverage of breaks.
Honestly, it was more like an attempt, let’s see if it works out. And I started teaching when I was a student, at the age of 20. Also during my university years I started writing my first articles, and around that time I thought that this was the perfect period for me to research, until I got married and developed other goals. But that’s how my education was, I knew from the beginning that my doctorate was waiting for me. Because I grew up with my father who wrote his dissertation during my childhood, and I grew up between research books, including those related to aesthetics.
Where do you get your inspiration?
It is easier for me to continue someone else’s thought rather than to start from scratch. I have so many ideas that I can’t stop, but if someone tells me a key phrase, I will have no issues further on, I sit down at my desk and I work smoothly. Even the name of the research for the book “Fine Arts in the Republic of Moldova in the sociocultural context of 1940–2000” was suggested to me by Tudor Braga, saying that we lack this subject and we need synthetic research. Having no idea about the research in this field, I accepted the challenge, after which my colleagues, seeing the topic, concluded that I would write it in about 10 years. This thing bothered me, what do you mean 10 years for a subject?! And somehow in 5 years I defended it, although I came with the first version in 3 years, however it took some time at the institutional level to solve things. Instead, in 10 years I wrote the book, compared to the thesis that went faster.
Who finances our art research publications?
The first book — “Fine Arts in the Republic of Moldova in the sociocultural context of 1940–2000” was more empirical as a release, I did not dare to look for sponsors outside the family. I was pregnant, and I thought that if I didn’t edit it now, who knows how the circumstances would go further, and what life would be like after the baby was born, and I was sort of in a hurry. The people I approached suggested that it is best to publish the book with my own investments. It belongs to you, you are the full owner of your creation, and I thought that was the right approach. Although, it cost me a lot, it was like a breakage from the budget of a newly created family, practically from the wedding money.
How did you gather material for the (last) new book “Narration and Symbol in Moldovan Book Graphics”, original: Narațiune și simbol în grafica de carte moldovenească?
Basically through articles, so it’s a long-term research, again with many stages, which continues to a second book on graphics (in addition to the existing one). I have already started the work, and it is a project within the researches of the Institute of Cultural Heritage, also being financed by them, the research is called “Epic-folk motifs in Moldovan book graphics. The study of repeated editions “. It is a natural continuation of the research from the book “Narrative and symbol in Moldovan book graphics”.
Older colleagues supported me in “Narration and Symbol”. The scientific supervisor was Tudor Stavilă, a habilitated doctor, and he has remained to this day the person who consults me with ideas, serving as a spiritual father to me. His opinion means a lot to me, and it is quite decisive.
What is the national situation when it comes to archiving and storing information?
Initially I was mostly alone in the library when I was doing my thesis, it was not allowed to study so much. No one saw a future in the scientific research, at least in our country, in our city, so as not to go too far. It was like a shelter and the libraries served as studios, where you stay without paying for it. It was very simple with the documentation, even when I went to Moscow to research Moldovan works in museums, nothing had to be kept anywhere. Even at our museum when I came to look for the archive, I was the only one interested in it, and it was seen as a burden. I think I might be the person who directed the attention to the archives in our field, at least that’s how it seemed to me. I was coming to the library and I already knew on which shelf the books I needed were. I stayed there a lot, I really didn’t go out for a long time, I also ate in the library or in the archive. I was taking it with me to somehow save time, because I understood that I would not be able to afford to stay like this all my life, and somehow this period must be overcome.
How easy is it to find the necessary information in the archive?
Well, I was finding information not only in the archives, my acquaintances gifted me books, from booksellers I found many, which you often did not even find in the library. By the way, some books I saw at the library once, I might not have the luck to see them again, or when I searched for a newspaper article, I flipped through the whole newspaper and found that the article that I was looking for was cut out with a blade. It was different, people are different, this moment shapes you somehow too.
What is the popularity of the scientific field at the moment, maybe in terms of gender?
I don’t know, I notice that there are many women in the field of artistic research, but there are also men, even in the pedagogical field. I don’t know if there is a gender priority, but young people really don’t choose to specialize in research, they prefer something that’s applied, something like pedagogy, where there is more funding, which is what dictates the trend, I think.
In my case, the research field serves as an inspiration, and the financial part is supplemented by pedagogy and the fact that I did not abandon creation permanently, where sometimes my so-called salary awards come from.
Tell us more about the latest book “Narration and Symbol in Moldovan Book Graphics”
My book is composed of five chapters: the first one is about the narrative and the symbol and their connection to the art of book graphics — a bit of theory, but rather as an initiation, plus the historical part as an introductory subchapter. The strong part of this book is the amount of images it contains. I tried to emphasize the narrative aspect, some images also appear in monochrome and color to show the difference, I also tried to include more illustrations from the same books to maintain the narrative line in this aspect. I’m glad I managed to include over 500 images in my book. In the first book there are almost 300 images, and it seemed to me that there are too many, well then in the second book due to its format, we managed to include as many images as possible, the text line being significantly enriched. It came out as something that reaches to complement my research, a more successful formula, in my opinion. It was also me who chose the cover image, Gheorghe Vrabie’s “Luceafărul”, a suggestive image for the national graphic art, and his contribution in the field of national symbol was not negligible, thus being a well thought choice.
Many circumstances influenced a certain peculiarity that was observed in the Soviet period in the creation of several local book illustrators, including Gheorghe Vrabie, and Ilie Bogdesco. Although we have authors who devoted themselves to the construction of books like Isai Cârmu or Arcadie Antoseac — from the younger generation of the Soviet era, they tried to see the book as an organism, as a compositional and stylistic unit, and as a method. Many artists have worked on this issue, including Alexei Colîbneac, indeed each artist with their own unique style, and this can be seen in the works. Artists in the field of book graphics include research as part of the illustrative process, and I believe that they are the most skilled researchers in the field, they know who they are competing with. I enjoyed one of the interviews where Mihail Brunea told the story of how he illustrated the Praise of Stupidity by Erasm of Rotterdam, and how he interacts with Holbein and the whole list of forerunners who illustrated the same book, so he knows who he will stand with, what I think is a responsible thing to do.
What is the significance of such a study?
First of all, the capitalization of the aesthetic and artistic part of the field of book graphics, we will know how this evolution has developed historically. Secondly, we will discover several works of art, because not all of them have been collected by museums, some of them being kept in private collections/archives. Thus few know that not only Pavel Shilingovschi illustrated “The Odyssey”, but also the painter Dimitrie Peicev, and few who know that the painter Mihail Țăruș also had some experience in the field of books, or because not all the works went into the funds to the museum of Valentina Neceaev’s books illustrations, which we know from the field of tapestry, so there are many things that reveal the vision on the national book graphics.
