In a book about Romanian Dada1, I read about Romanian writer Demetru Demetrescu-Buzau – also known under his penname Urmuz – who in the 1920s took a cab with a friend and drove around all night, continuously telling the driver to turn left at intersections. Supposedly the driver became quite unnerved. Almost 90 years later, after more than four decades of communism, how was this project relevant in Romania today?
For this residency with ArtistNest at the European Cultural Centre in Sinaia, I proposed a video work based on this action of always turning left. With a Romanian speaker and my video camera I would get into taxis/cars and go left only to see and film what would happen. It was the absurdity of this action that drew me to this project, the fact that it is a completely senseless act on one level, yet in its rigour and consistence makes perfect sense on another.
1 Tom Sandqvist: Dada East
