The Union of Plastic Artists formed still in the first years after the World War II more than four decades was the unique centre round which the plastic and decorative professional arts from the Republic of Moldova gravitated. The situation began to change towards the end of Gorbachiov's "transparency" and in the first years after the declaration of independence of the Republic of Moldova in 1991. Even at the beginning of 1985 the architect Nicolae Ischimji and the sculptor Valeriu Moscov incited the contemporary's spirits by the ensamble of iron sculpture from the Sculeni Barrier (the outskirts of Chisinau). The independent artistic groups that existed in inter-war Bessarabia but which disappeared in the Soviet period appear again after 1989. Thus, the groups "Ten" and "Phantom" appeared.
The establishment of the Soros Centre of the Contemporary Art in 1996 at the Soros Foundation, registered as a non-governmental organization, which became independent from the Foundation in 2000 under the name "Centre for Contemporary Art, Chisinau" (KSAK) was a powerful impulse in the development of artistic phenomena though naive a little bit. This Centre organized many important manifestations and launched a generation of young artists that began to capitalize the new (for the Republic of Moldova) possibilities of expression in the sphere of visual arts: performance, installation, "Video" art, multimedia and photo collage etc.
The first remarkable project organized by KSAK was the creation camps "Carbon-Art" in 1996 (tutor: O. Esanu). There followed the manifestations:
"Kilometre 6" (1996), "Messages from Tzara. Reflections in RE" (1997), Video Marathon from the National Opera Square (1997), the International Festival of "performance" with the generic "Gioconda's Smile" (1998), the exhibitions "The Object as a Portrait of the Reality" and "Breaking (deviations from the socialist realism), the project "Kinovari. Imitation (2000)", "The Invisible Festival" (2001), the project of the ceramics workshop "Exile-2001", the project "InvAsia" (Invasion) -2001), etc. From November 1996 the Centre published the "Edina periodica"Art-hoc".
At present it is too early to capitalize the successes and the failures of KSAK. It still goes without discussing the fact that after half a century a powerful group of relatively young artists (the oldest of them - Valentin Tarna - was born in 1962) was organized in the 60-70-es of the XX century in Chisinau. They generated a series of important artistic phenomena absolutely independent from the official institutions being able to lead the contemporary artistic process. It is necessary to recognize by right that the appearance of this alternative was not initiated by the conditions or the artistic environment from the Republic of Moldova, but, on the contrary, it was created to a great extent artificially by foreign financial support, as a phenomenon of "inculture" with the aim of urging the synchronization of the artistic process from our republic with the international artistic processes and with the aim of informing as soon as it is possible the public of the republic who enjoys art with the tendencies and the directions of modern and post modern universal art.
Alexandr Alesenkov /
Elena Melnic