It is probably no coincidence that the summative imaginary of the Primitive Logistics project is structured around four emblematic figures: a fish, a monkey, a human being, and the Earth (mentioned here without necessarily following an overall chronology). MATCA artspace is hosting a project structured in four chapters, tracing an itinerary from the obscurity of the cave to the clarity of the surface: a performance focused on the themes of evolution and survival, an exhibition dedicated to strategies that underpin civilization, a group exhibition that investigates the relationship between current technologies and nature, and, finally, an exhibition that combines land art, a Neolithic oven, and ceramic production. “Traditional medium”, “digital realm,” “interdisciplinary,” “national & international” are terms that define the descriptive scope of the selection of artists.

The primordial reflexes that consolidated the operational foundations are brought back into discussion within the Primitive Logistics project. In analogy to the fractal, a set of basic laws shows its continuity in the nature of our functioning. What can be called a “primitive” trait or practice enters a process of decoding, through which we understand its presence in everyday life, routines, and current technologies. These pre-modern mechanisms function as active processes, reverberating in the agglomeration of current technology. They preceded conceptualization, classification, or labeling and were subsequently integrated into methodologies applied by humans. The artistic perspectives and production practices offer a gesture of attention and an analytical dimension to these intrinsic abilities, focusing on the imprint of a continuum that links the primal to the contemporary.

Whether observed from the lower floor through the screen, hearing it from outside the space and imagining the rest, or fully feeling the intensity from the upper floor, Sasha Bandi’s performance evokes a primordial impulse. He does not hesitate to express it aloud, literally, manifesting an authentic longing, a disturbing affect towards the limitations of the human condition and the impossibility of overcoming them. From the desire to solve or domesticate a certain gravity of existence, a cruel, uncomfortable ritual is born. The body, transposed into a state of nakedness, becomes a conflictual bridge between primary instinct and the constraints imposed by socio-moral structures. The ritual is choreographed as a repetitive and harsh survival reaction, close to a process of exorcism. The body becomes the vehicle of an ineffable vector, extending beyond what rationality can or is accustomed to perceive, ready to deliver something ancestral and otherwise inaccessible. The performance operates at the level of extremes, through a fusion of all its constituent elements, generating intensity and, yet, vulnerability.

The exhibition space becomes a place to seek spiritual shelter, paradoxically both a personal refuge and a setting that demystifies the resolution of existential challenges. In this trance, Sasha Bandi oscillates between a slightly moralistic position and emotional exposure—where self-renunciation becomes inevitable, even necessary. Building a strident soundscape, this compulsive rhythm unfolds in a scenographic universe imbued with references to European pagan culture, mythology, and reinterpreted personal landmarks. The knife, the piano, the meat, the sofa, and the purple light punctuate this narrative that coagulates adaptation, existential challenges, instincts, and survival, giving birth to a masked, transfigured alter ego, ready to release an emotional accumulation. His act takes on the dimension of a sacrifice, a perpetual dissolution in which the sacred and the profane lose their relevance, and the only possibility left is that of immediate cathartic destruction. “TROGLODYTE” took us out of our comfort zone and inevitably made us wonder what comes next (and when).

“TAIL END” magnetizes towards another pole, that of the research substratum. Vlad Olariu’s solo exhibition forces us to confront the question: how have power and greed been able to shape society on a micro and macro scale, and how can they continue to do so? The dynamics of power consolidate decisive factors in social structuring, not only through direct force, but also through indirect mechanisms of influence, mediated by beliefs, symbols, and cultural representations. To highlight not only the perspective of progress, but also the way in which domination is maintained through various intermediaries, the flying monkey becomes a central symbol of the exhibition. It reveals how the tail, a primal sign of our evolutionary origins, becomes a recurring motif in the anatomy of control. Functioning as a joker-like element, it constitutes a moral warning against manipulative schemes. The change in meaning of the tail invites a critical re-evaluation of authority and progress, seen through the lens of the human-monkey evolutionary filter.

Perhaps religion, Machiavelli, or even algorithms show us how control and manipulation take various forms over time. What remains unchanged, despite various strategies of representation, methods of storytelling, or the formation of personality cults, is the essence. History finds its expression and is reiterated in art, predominantly through allegorical forms. Through sculpture and objects made of inexpensive materials, Vlad Olariu accesses ideas and forms from the ancient world, reminding us of the decadent nature of society at that time—or perhaps of society today. His artistic practice focuses on analyzing the power structures that shape social reality. Authority is simultaneously glorified and dismantled. The works in the “TAIL END” exhibition question how systems of domination continue to evolve, influence, infiltrate, and infuse the dynamics of communities, amounting to more than a question but less than an answer.

The curatorial initiative of the Primitive Logistics project at MATCA artspace stems primarily from the desire to investigate an intrinsic intelligence present in all manifestations of the surrounding world. The exhibition “The Common Torpedo Runs Now on Autopilot” places us in a dialogue between everyday elements and this driving force that dominated, shaped, and evolutionarily oriented the world order before being understood or defined as technology. Malapterurus electricus, also known as the Common Torpedo, acts as a representative avatar, a symbolic guide to the exhibition, used as an “early remedy” in Antiquity to treat conditions such as migraines, epilepsy, or depression. Long before the advent of modern science, nature offered its own forms of technology, and this fish symbolises early bioelectric intelligence. The show proposes a fluctuation between objective reality, myth, speculative thinking and intuitive associations. Nature provided “technological” solutions long before modern science discovered or formalized them. It is evident that intuition returns as a coordinating principle. Through the appearance of chance, speculation, or even accident, steps forward are generated, climbing the ladder to discovery. “The Common Torpedo Runs Now on Autopilot” provides a framework in which we can observe the recontextualization of primitive solutions in contemporary settings.

Through perpetual symbiosis, beings and ecosystems regulate themselves through networks, mutations, and replication processes. Analogous to the spread of myths, the information embedded in organic matter can be recognized and further developed in technology. We can also observe how early instincts evolved into common practices. This is where the speculative dimension comes in: not everything can be explained rationally. Instinctual behaviors, collective knowledge, and cultural memory contribute to the generation of phenomena recognized as innovation or improvement. Technological evolution thus manifests itself as an interdependent process, correlated with nature. Its abundance and the adoption of anthropocentric views, as well as confidence in constant computational development, make us forget how nature has fueled all processes. This selection of works also touches on the semi-fictional dimension, a perspective that cannot be fully explained on many intrinsic technologies, but which is culturally transmitted from one generation to another. Multiple lines of investigation are proposed, even if these approaches may seem absurd or non-technological.

The works of Dan Beudean and Hortensia Mi Kafchin reveal an exploratory side, perhaps even one of chance, coincidence, superstition, and projection, seen by some cultures as magical instruments, but which can generate a theoretical framework for various practices and disciplines. Alexandra Boaru develops the relationship of care and symbiosis with nature, highlighting the inner magical quality of the environment. In a similar manner, Marina Sulima’s drawings reflect the idea of innovation as an act of attention, effort, and community care, exploring the relationship between the artist, community, resources, and environment. The works of Marina Oprea and Vincent Gallais, perhaps inspired by the “stoned ape” theory, investigate the connection between psychedelic mushrooms and the possibility of speculating and accessing a higher consciousness.

No cycle can be complete without an end. Thus, Cătălina Milea reminds us of the funeral, understood here as a “primitive” practice, not in a derogatory sense, but as a component of a fundamental and early system of organization. The works of George Crîngașu and Marta Mattioli investigate symmetry and the rules that govern it, as well as its intrinsic mathematics, visible both in nature and in the structure of the human body. Almost transforming them into an archetypal register, Keresztesi Botond brings together and recomposes common knowledge, configuring an image-consciousness of our past.

“Brought from Below” serves as the concluding chapter of the project. Sometime in June, the team leaves the city with a single, hands-on goal: to build a kiln. It may be viewed as a key for both practice and comprehension. Alexandra Mocan (co-curator and co-founder of MATCA artspace) later states that this practice was, in fact, about honesty: “How you lay your foundation is what you build on.” The approach requires a constant return to attention and understanding of the method in order to consolidate a solid foundation from which the process of construction or creation can be further developed. In this case, the focus was not on the final result, but on the process itself and the lessons learned. “We didn’t want to fire the works in a functional electric kiln, even though we risked them not firing properly in ours. The goal was not to have a perfect result.” The accumulation of information and experience is transformed into applied technology, identified as an empirical conclusion of this project.

The construction of a ceramic kiln from scratch stands out as a milestone, wrapped in effort and fragility, within the Primitive Logistics project. Nature has its laws, and you cannot resist them – this was the central message that resonated throughout the entire experience. In collaboration with Slow Architecture Lab  and artist Alexandru Mihai Budeș, the kiln was built in small steps and many exhausting hours. Starting from earth, transformed into brick, and ending up as a functional kiln for firing ceramics, this trajectory provided a platform for collective interaction, experimentation, and collaboration between several invited artists.

As a sign of support for art that is difficult to commercialize, MATCA artspace is also launching a call for land art, inviting six national and international artists to propose ephemeral interventions outside the conventional exhibition space, in a language that does not have to comply with conformist criteria. Through an environment defined by the interdependence of space and time, the initiative aims to address the relationship with the natural sphere. The exhibiting artists trace a map of reflection on the relationship between the human subject and the biosphere, organism and habitat, time and memory (Emanuel Pop, Xianne Han & Cristian Roncea & Stol Collective, Louis Kareem Jamal, Ekaterina Shcherbakova, Alexandra Pop-Arad, Júlia Kusztos & Levente Borenich). Primitive Logistics, which ran for six months, concludes with an exhibition of the ceramic results obtained through the shared practice around the kiln brought to life, alongside documentation of the land art interventions. The project reflects the ethos of MATCA artspace, but also its practical dimension: both established and traditional forms of art, as well as non-conformist languages, expressions that transcend market values, find their place and are supported.