ARTIST SHOWCASE: ANDREI STAN

My name is Andrei Stan, I’m a mixed-media artist and a creativity trainer currently based in Bucharest, Romania. My creative journey has taken me through many artistic branches, such as dancing, acting, filmmaking, music, poetry, photography, and collage art.

Throughout the years, I’ve learned that human imagination is one of the most powerful and miraculous components of consciousness, it is the space where we define ourselves and the world around us. The Latin word “imaginari” means to picture oneself, the self-reflexive property of imagination, emphasizing the imagination as a private sphere. Imagination is the space where the unconscious meets the conscious, the place where we perceive our likes and dislikes, the place where we can access our memories, our dreams, and the place where we grow and evolve. It is the only space that we spend all of our existence in.

I’ve always been fascinated by Sci-fi stories, movies, and art. I find that these creations can push the boundaries of our imagination, they can help us see the world in new and magical ways. It can give us glimpses of possible paths that humanity, technology, and societies can take in the near or distant future. Sci-fi can give us more inner space to explore and grow, it can push us to look beyond the ordinary, the familiar.

I believe that our imagination has a component of sci-fi in its structure, in the sense that:  first, we must learn the science (the facts, the theories, the structures), and then we can add fiction on top of it (our own views, interpretations, and correlations).  We cannot imagine a flying red elephant if we don’t know what an elephant is or flying for that matter.

Sci-fi is one of the tools that have given humanity glimpses of the future. I remember being fascinated by authors such as Aldous Huxley and Philip K. Dick who managed to create such fascinating and complex realities that turned out to be some sort of premonitions more than fictional stories.

Art requires discipline and dedication, it is a lifelong practice that evolves with us, it transcends us. It’s not enough to have an idea if we don’t put it into action. Salvador Dali put this in a beautiful frame: “Ambition without doing is a bird without wings”

I believe that a disciplined imagination leads to a fulfilling life, and so, may our imagination be ever-growing and filled with wonder, a wonder that we may share with our brothers and sisters.