Decebal Scriba b. 1944
Biography

Decebal Scriba’s activity in the 1970s, which was overlooked following his emigration to France in 1989, has been recently subjected to a vast process of revisiting (and implicitly, of being placed in a historical context) […]. The extensive recapitulation of these projects and experiments highlights today a strong conceptual interest which is, I dare say, even singular in the Romanian art of that decade. The coordinates of those works open up many levels, including, on the one hand, that of the analysis of the systems of representation and production and reproduction of space, alongside that of the conceptualization of the (visual, mathematical and textual) signification systems and, on the other hand, at the level of a private, interiorized and nearly existential assumption of the artistic act. The latter always takes place at the unstable border between the inside and the outside, which it transgresses and at the same time suspends, installing the temporary separation between the autonomous space of the self, understood as a filtered  interiorizing of the existing symbolic regime, and the public one, specific of the conventional, impersonal and normative codification. this intimate process of reflection on the language and artistic process becomes the catalyst for the visual notes, codified according to a personal, sometimes linguistic, other times mathematical algorithm, which are more often than not enigmatic or abbreviated, and exposed to the public.

(Excerpt from Cristian Nae /A Field of Possibilities – Decebal Scriba and The Semiotics of Appearance published inRevista Arta #21-22/ 2016, Bucharest, Romania)

Selected Solo Shows

2019
Passages, Anne-Sarah Bénichou, Paris, France
2018
Memory Clouds, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest, Romania
2017
Separating Systems, Calina Gallery, Romania
2015
In-Side/Out-Side, Victoria Art Center, Bucharest, Romania

Selected Group Shows

2021    Crossing the same circumstances, Kommunale Galerie Berlin
2019    Because in our dreams we took risks, Art Encounters Foundation, Timisoara
2019    Displacement And Togetherness, CC Strombeek in the Framework of Europalia
2019    Présence, Anne-Sarah Bénichou, Paris, France
2019    This Part That Seemingly Needs To Be Extruded Through A Place In My Body, Salonul de Proiecte, Bucharest
2019    What ties us together, BF15 Gallery, Lyon
2019    The Infinite Convergence, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest
2019
La Brique, the Brick, Cărămida,La Kunsthalle Mulhouse
2019
Ex-east Des histoires passées et récentes des avant-gardes roumaines , Paris, France
2017
Art Encounters Timișoara Art Biennial: Life A User’s Manual, Timișoara, Romania
2017
Beyond the Concept Frontier, collateral event to Art Encounters Timisoara Art Biennial: Life A User’s Manual, The “Ion Mincu” Technical College Cafeteria, Timisoara, Romania
2017
Situations and Concepts, Salonul de Proiecte, Bucharest, Romania
2015
house pARTy, tranzit.ro, Bucharest, Romania
2012
The Poetics of Politics, Propaganda Gallery, Warsow, Poland
2011
When History Comes Knocking: Romanian Art from the 80s and 90s in Close Up, Plan B Gallery, Berlin, Germany
1996
Experiment in Romanian Art Since 1960, National Theatre, Bucharest
1986
Spațiu-Oglindă [Space-Mirror], The Institute of Architecture, Bucharest, Romania
1985
Objeto de Interferencia, São Paulo, Brasil [mail art]
1983
Messagio Terra, Milano, Italy [mail art]
1982
Spațiu-Obiect [Space-Object], The Institute of Architecture, Bucharest, Romania
1979
Photography and experimental film,House of Art, Bucharest, Romania
1974
Situation and concept, Atelier35, Bucharest, Romania

Bibliography

ARTA magazine, No. 4/ 1983, No. 5/1985, No.3/ 1990, No. 20-21/ 2016

“Mail Art Then and Now. A Brief Glance at the Network from Personal Experience”, Decebal Scriba, ARTA issue 32/2018 special issue on Mail Art, pp. 32-37

“Basements, attics, streets and courtyards : the reinvention of marginal art spaces in Romania during socialism”, Cristian Nae in Performance Art in the Second Public Sphere, Event-based Art in Late Socialist Europe,  Edited by Katalin Cseh-Varga and Adam Czirak, Routledge, 2018

Art and Politics under Modern Dictatorships: A Comparison of Chile and Romania, Caterina Preda, Plagrave – Macmillan, 2017

Performance art in Eastern Europe since 1960, Amy Bryzgel, Manchester University Press, 2017

Arta în România între anii 1945 – 1988. O analiză din perspectiva Prezentului [Art in Romania between 1945 – 1988. A present times analysis], Coordinators: Călin Dan, Iosif Király, Anca Oroveanu, Magda Radu; Autori: Mădălina Braşoveanu, Irina Cărăbaş, Adriana Copaciu, Mirela Duculescu, Simona Dumitriu, Celia Ghyka, Bogdan Iacob, Cristian Nae, Olivia Niţiş, Adriana Oprea, Veda Popovici, Magda Predescu, Magda Radu, Mara Raţiu, Irina Tulbure, Noua Europă Foundation, Bucharest/ Editura UNArte, Bucharest /The National Contemporary Art Museum, Bucharest, 2016

House pARTy 1987-1988, IDEA Design & Print, Colecția Expoziții, 2016

“Gender and the Environment in Romanian Art Before and After 1990”, Olivia Nițiș, The Romanian Journal of Society and Politics, vol 8 nr.2, December 2013

Istorii marginale ale artei feministe, Olivia Nițiș, Editura Vellant, Bucharest, 2014

“Artistic Critiques of Modern Dictatorships”, Caterina Preda, The European Legacy : Toward New Paradigms, vol. 17, Issue 7, 2012

“Repere ale artei experimentale românesti în galeriile berlineze” [“Landmarks of Experimental Romanian Art in Berlin Galleries”], Mihaela Chiriac,  Observator Cultural, Bucharest, 2011

“Prezentare generală a evoluției fotografiei în România” [“General Presentation of Evolution of Photography in Romania”], Mihai Oroveanu, 2009

Art et pouvoir en Roumanie, Magda Cârneci, L’Harmattan, Paris, 2007

Negotiating artistic identity through satire: Subreal ’89-’99, Anca Izabel Galliera, University of South Florida, 2005

Romanian Way in Visual Arts Between ’60 and ’90, Ovidiu Muraru, Alina Muraru, Dorel Gaina, www.gallery4allarts.com, 2004

“Arta (cultura) alternativă (II)” [Alternative Art (Culture) II”], Adrian Guță, Observator Cultural, Bucharest, 2004

Photography – A proposed Chronology of an Experimental Epoch. i_CAN, Ruxandra Balaci, International Contemporary Art Network, 2003

The Aesthetics of Poverty. i_CAN, Călin Dan, International Contemporary Art Network, 2003

Experimentalism in Romanian Art after 1960. i_CAN, Alexandra Titu, International Contemporary Art Network, 2003

Actionism in Romania During the Comunist Era, Ileana Pintilie, Idea, Cluj, 2002

Experiment in Romanian Art since 1960, exhibition catalogue, CSAC, Bucharest, 1997