Flaviu Rogojan
(b.1990)
lives and works in Cluj, Romania


A stroll, 2022


The Bittersweet Chaos of Becoming 
04. 12. 2021 ‒ 19. 01. 2022
curated by: Michelle Panthère & Edith Lázár 
at Galeria Ivan, Atelierele Malmaison, Bucharest, Romania
Inspired by the fact that animal behaviour scientist, Jacob von Uexküll, chose the Picture Book as the literary form for his 1930s theoretical text* about the relationships between animals and their environment, Flaviu Rogojan redraws a few of his illustrations together with his own ink drawings to create a sketch for a new picture book, a story board, speculating on the imaginative potential of one of Uexküll's metaphors.

Science and science communication always relies on analogies and metaphors to create an intuitive understanding of the processes described, but it is precisely these metaphors that often lead to profound misinterpretation that build up problematic worldviews. (Back when steam engines and intricate clockwork were the leading technological innovations, we see scientific literature focusing on mechanistic descriptions of nature and animals. Nowadays, everything seems like it can described as computers or information processing. This is why Flaviu Rogojan thinks the image of the soap bubble used by Uexküll is such a charming metaphor. Its simplicity and almost child-like nature when framed in a picture book makes it very appealing but also makes its limits clear.)

* The text that would prove to be very influential in ecological thinking, Jacob von Uexküll's A Stroll Through the Worlds of Animals and Men - A Picture Book of Invisible World.