Camera Arhiva is an archival platform seeking to unearth Romanian printed matter published between 1947 and 1989. Functioning as a research platform that is a permanent work in progress, Camera Arhiva retrieves material traces of communist everyday life, such as almanacs and journals, state periodicals and union-owned magazines, newspapers and pamphlets, posters and exhibition catalogues, paperbacks and do-it-yourself manuals.
The publication is a less reverential take on the act of showcasing an archive. It functions as a kaleidoscopic flow of signs, symbols, clues, patterns, images, rather than a detached and cold exploration of the Romanian publishing industry before 1989. Through an immersive creative algorithm we gave ourselves the necessary space to experiment with new forms and meanings, revamped settings of archival data, decoded connotations and nuances, which have resulted in a powerful set of graphic associations—a free flowing and irregular narrative shaped through archival spreads