When You Look at the Archives, You Also See the Shadows and also the Grays, the Different Degrees of Grays”

This interview with Romanian artist, architect, and educator Iosif Király, conducted by Cristina Vatulescu, explores his long-standing engagement with archives, memory, and time through visual art. It focuses on his early work with the subREAL collective, especially their innovative use of the discarded photo archive of Arta magazine in post-communist Romania. These forgotten materials became both artistic media and tools for historical reflection, challenging dominant narratives and anticipating the “archival impulse” in contemporary art. The conversation also examines Király’s more personal projects on aging, family memory, and the body’s material transformation. Through collage and photographic juxtaposition, he reimagines aging as a site of beauty and history, rather than decline. Across these works, Király reflects on the ethical, political, and aesthetic dimensions of working with images and archives, raising questions about visibility, authorship, and cultural value. His practice ultimately invites a reconsideration of what is deemed obsolete, urging us to find meaning in the ambiguous and overlooked

Genealogy · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · History