| The Welded Book (felt, resin, glue, clay, welded bolts, and hand-carved and hand-printed text) is the result of the brotherly collaboration between conceptual/visual artist Dumitru Gorzo, and poet Ilies Gorzo. The duo hand-made the work in its entirety, potently combining minimalism and romanticism. There are two stories that unfold. The first alludes to the accessibility of the content or text; the second investigates the idea of possession of an artwork, making an oblique reference to the collector. The book is closed with three welded bolts so you can’t read the text. A collector who buys the work of art, desires to possess it entirely, and craves to access the content—only he would face a dilemma: if the bolts are cut he or she would alter the venerated art object. |  |
Dumitru Gorzo and Ilies Gorzo
The Welded Book (felt, resin, glue, clay, welded bolts, and hand-carved and hand-printed text) is the result of the brotherly collaboration between conceptual/visual artist Dumitru Gorzo, and poet Ilies Gorzo. The duo hand-made the work in its entirety, potently combining minimalism and romanticism. There are two stories that unfold. The first alludes to the accessibility of the content or text; the second investigates the idea of possession of an artwork, making an oblique reference to the collector.
The book is closed with three welded bolts so you can’t read the text. A collector who buys the work of art, desires to possess it entirely, and craves to access the content—only he would face a dilemma: if the bolts are cut he or she would alter the venerated art object. Altering the integrity of the art object in order to fully possess its content—does it not represent an act of transgression?
Dumitru Gorzo provides a commentary as well, on how the lack of accessibility to the text, the object being a book after all, would take from the democratic aspect of books in general. His solution is to transfer the fixed, visual creation into performance through which the artist himself, on the city walls, using the same hand-carved stencils and clay, will publish the text, so that everyone could read it.
The Welded Book was presented in an exhibition with the same title. On the walls of the exhibitory space, Dumitru Gorzo, “published” in cement, the poems of his brother, Ilies Gorzo. The artist coated the top part of the walls with a thick layer of cement and subsequently “printed” the poems by using handmade lino cuttings. In this way, for a month, those interested could have access to the content of the art object, The Welded Book.
