Now, at 90 years old, we celebrate him together, in a special meeting, where we will talk about theater, art, and life.
We invite you on March 25, from 5:00 PM, in the Ion D. Sîrbu Hall, to a dialogue moderated by Nicolae Coande. It will be an opportunity to listen to Vasile Buz talk about the world he built with so much passion and to be with him on this anniversary moment.
Born on 14 Jan. 1935, in Storojineț, Northern Bucovina, immediately after graduating from the "Nicolae Grigorescu" Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest, the scenography department, he debuted in Craiova as a painter-scenographer, creating the set and costumes for the show Măritate by A. Sofronov (December 1963). Between 1963-2005, at the Craiova National he created the scenography of over 100 shows, sets and costumes for the plays of Caragiale (A lost letter, A stormy night, Conul Leonida fațã cu rațiuna, Tips and tricks), Arca bunei speranțe by Ion D. Sîrbu and many shows with pieces from the national and universal repertoire.
A versatile artist, painter, set designer, and graphic designer, Vasile Buz has always established himself as a professional in his creations. His modern and classic sets were based on clear concepts, translated into an accuracy and natural simplicity of decor.
During the period 1997-2001, as a university lecturer and founder (along with actor Remus Mărgineanu) of the Department of Theater Arts of the University of Craiova, his artistic talent and professionalism were generously shared with future actors and students from Craiova.
He was honored with various diplomas and medals, including: the "Cultural Merit" Medal, 3rd class awarded by the Presidency of Romania in 2004, the Diploma of the Commandery of the Knights Hospitallers of the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta, the Diploma of Honor of the "Pro Bessarabia and Bucovina" Cultural Association (2019) and the Dolj Prefecture awarded him, in 2011, a diploma of excellence for his 50 years of activity in the field of fine arts and theater.
· “Vasile Buz's scenography serves, in a modern scenic way, the operability of the change of scenes, also benefiting from a screen – a suggestive and characterizing background”
Victor Parhon, „Ramuri”, nr.5/22, 15 mai 1966
· "Vasile Buz found a modern form for this valuable show on the vertical plane, a huge eye, in which he projects landscapes, while on the horizontal plane of the podium, modern circumstances are drawn in essential terms."
(Valentin Silvestru despre spectacolul Amurgul acela violet, în „România literară”, nr.42, 17 oct. 1974).
· “In this sense of particular value, Vasile Buz's scenography is of a captivating ingenuity; the romantic and apparently distracted Japheth descends from a net to return as if to earthly realities; the ark has a circular movement and an “en avant”, suggestively expressing the fierce identical debate that follows.
R. Diaconescu about the performance Arca Bunei Speranțe, by Ion D. Sîrbu, "Forward", no. 8034, from January 6, 1971
· “The utterly remarkable expressiveness and functionality of Vasile Buz’s sets, with metamorphoses (etc.) of great liveliness (…) but especially the skill of personalizing the elements of this set: the carriage, the fountain, the grave in the cemetery…”
Ion Parhon, about the comedy The Inspector, the last show of the National Theatre of Craiova, in which the set designer Vasile Buz collaborated / "Free Romania", no. 3537, 3 Oct. 2001, p. 10
· “Vasile Buz has established himself, from the very beginning, as a complex, multi-talented artist: set designer, painter, graphic artist, tapestry artist, a talented man doubled by a profound connoisseur of art history and theory, always maintaining great modesty and a sensitive state of grace, not liking to make demonstrations at any cost. He only accomplishes true demonstrations on stage, establishing himself as a set designer painter who does not remain between his own sketches and ideas, but carefully follows the directorial or acting act in Romanian or foreign theaters, adapting to them and completing them with inspired and original solutions.
At many of the performances he served, applause resounded from the first curtain raise: it was the spontaneous eulogy given to the set, its creator! Balanced in everything, Vasile avoids grandiloquence or pride, maintaining faith in a scenographic art of communication, atmosphere, color and artistic truth."
Alexandru Firescu and Constantin Gheorghiu, Lights from the Backstage, Aius Publishing House, Craiova, 2003, p. 51
· "In his studio there is always someone else. Buz is not a mixture of paradoxical natures, but an almost impossible alloy between earth, tradition and reverie. On the street he is polite, shy, almost a functionary. That is only if you don't look him in the eye: because there you can clearly see a will of steel, a pride of a medieval knight and a youthful drive towards fronde and sacrifice. In the theatre he is a wise man. He reads, listens, works. His sets neither scare nor caress you like a perfume or velvet. Buz has the bossa of metaphor, the atavistic instinct of symbolism. Without sacrificing the functional, he knows how to "send beyond and further". He loves light and this gives him youth and optimism. He thinks in clear lines and colours, he "sees" the playing space dynamically, he helps the actors breathe in the climate of the text and the poetry of the interior space. He doesn't load, he unloads the stage. He doesn't confuse with breezes surrealistic, but clarifies, as if through a discreet musical accompaniment, the message of the piece.”
Ion D. Sîrbu
