While working on the project of the exhibition Spacetime’s a Wastin’, Sebastian Moldovan talked about it with professionals from different other fields that interest him tangentially. The exchanges of ideas contributed to the final form of the exhibition, allowing him to develop certain works, put others on hold or transform an initial plan into something else.

One such give-and-take was with the architect Toni Baghiu. The way visitors navigate his exhibitions is central to Sebastian Moldovan as he aims to create spaces for interaction and direct experiences. He may achieve this through delicate installations that bring the outdoors indoors. Or by reconfiguring a venue with radical interventions that confound viewers’ expectations or visual perceptions. The exchange with Toni Baghiu – based on the artist’s recent interest in black holes – revolved around the latter strategy and resulted in several plans of a “black cube” made by the architect.

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Toni Baghiu is an architect with whom I had several discussions and collaborations over the years, on his projects or mine, usually because one of us needed input from the outlier with a complementary expertise.

In this particular case, our conversation started from black holes and focused on the possibility of building a ‘black cube’ in the gallery’s central room. The structure was meant to provide the black interior, with no benchmarks, to be used in the spirit of the exhibition. Seen from the outside, it would have occupied and nullified the room, while forcing a harder, constricted route in the exhibition.

Although it was not built in the end, the discussion about making the structure and about the use or abuse of the space influenced the way other works were staged. The drawings themselves are plans for a future intervention. – Sebastian Moldovan

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