future past present

andreea lupescu / aurélien prévost

UNAgaleria 02 - 10.12.2010

“future past present” is a collection of 200 living images that create a(rt) history based on sight, memory and imagination.

On show at UNAgaleria, G-ral Budisteanu 10, opening hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-16:00

about the authors:

Andreea Lupescu – 23 y. o., student, Faculty of Art History and Theory, National University of Arts (UNArte), Bucharest, Romania

Aurélien Prévost – 34 y. o., engineer, PhD nuclear physics, Paris, France 

Aurélien and I met through a social network in the autumn of 2009 and started a correspondence that makes up for a total of 1306 emails sent from 27^th September 2009 to last one received on 30^th November 2010. We wrote each other on an almost daily basis and got to know each other so well that if we could’ve changed roles, we would have done it to live the life of the other, effortlessly. 

The idea of “future past present” as a project is in fact a one-line email dating back to 10^th January 2010 in which I let Aurélien know how I came up suddenly with this great thought… He replied immediately out of curiosity and what happened next is that we started working on the project in a weird and wild burst of enthusiasm. Our first postcard was sent on 14^th January 2010. We imagined it as a spontaneous exchange based on the idea of image and sight in time, meant to be entirely private. We have never taken into account the possibility of the existence of a third person simply because the person wasn’t there and couldn’t see. It was just us, some 1500 km apart, choosing randomly the printed reproductions and the real images that would describe the reality we shared in spite of distance and the one-hour Western to Eastern time difference. We used ink to write and real mail to send these images, constantly submitting them to weather and transport. The post mark, the stamp, the blue priority sticker give an unmistakable proof of time and place. They trace the coordinates of an urban tale in which we seem to be placed somewhere above the city, in a constant flight from one image to another.

What we sent each other was a daily dose of description. Our means to render thoughts visible turned us immediately into absent spectators to one another’s lives. We experimented on the real closeness that can exist between two people whom have never met but are together in a time of their own design and in the completeness of their vision, limitless, imperfect and absolutely free. We are not artists, we are opposites. Aurélien is left-handed – together we have written with the two hands of the same body. 

Each postcard contains a written image that can also be something felt, heard or imagined. It can tell an absolute truth or a perfect lie. Put them together and they make a narration to be read before going to bed but in reality they are a year from someone’s life. Aurélien and I have spent 10 months working on the project (January-October 2010) out of which 100 days of sending postcards (10 days every month). We’ve met twice in real life, in Bucharest where we tried to have a relationship, but we have failed. The project remains a success.

“future past present” can be anything. In theoretical terms, we’ve also created a travelling museum which makes famous paintings available to the public out of their original context through the means of mass reproduction. The printed reproduction is a symbol of the continuous fight in between word, image, dimension and surface. It’s also something that can be bought. Instead of focusing on masterpieces, we focused on the instantaneous being eternal. And we have paid for it. 

A few days after we sent our first postcard, I filled up a form for a fictitious exhibition, trying to escape the close deadline of an exam. Taking the project to school meant to give it a public dimension that includes today not only a third, but a fourth, fifth and many other persons. You participate actively to the life of the image through the means of your own perception. You relate to us through your subjectivity. Our 200 written images are a pretext for you to create more. Aurélien and I have seen and shared the experience. Now we pass it on. It’s your turn to make it neverending.