ECO CULTURAL TIDES.
Submerged narratives of the Danube and Oslo Fjord

01.11.'24/28.02.'25

Exhibition 
31.01.’25 – 22.03.’25
Open:
Tue-Sat: 12-18
Free event

No posts were found for provided query parameters.

  • Promotor de proiect: META Spațiu
  • Parteneri de proiect: SENT SITE-ECOLOGYNATURETECHNOLOGY. BERGAUST
  • Valoarea totală a proiectului: 584.857,39 lei (117.566,36 euro)
  • Valoarea finanțării nerambursabile (100% Granturi SEE și Norvegiene): 584.857,39 lei (117.566,36 euro)
  • Durată: 01.11.2024 – 28.02.2025
  • Locație de implementare: Timișoara (România)

Despre Granturile SEE și Norvegiene

Granturile SEE și Norvegiene reprezintă contribuția Islandei, Liechtensteinului și Norvegiei la o Europă verde, competitivă și incluzivă. Există două obiective generale: reducerea disparităților economice și sociale în Europa și consolidarea relațiilor bilaterale dintre țările donatoare și 15 țări UE din Europa Centrală și de Sud și Țările Baltice. Cele trei țări donatoare cooperează strâns cu UE prin intermediul Acordului privind Spațiul Economic European (SEE). Între 1994 și 2014, donatorii au furnizat 3,3 miliarde EUR prin scheme consecutive de granturi. Pentru perioada 2014-2021, Granturile SEE și Norvegiene se ridică la 2,8 miliarde EUR. Mai multe informații sunt disponibile pe www.eeagrants.org și www.eeagrants.ro.

Despre Programul RO-CULTURA

Programul RO-CULTURA este implementat de Ministerul Culturii prin Unitatea de Management a Proiectului și are ca obiectiv general consolidarea dezvoltării economice și sociale prin cooperare culturală, antreprenoriat cultural și managementul patrimoniului cultural.

Bugetul Programului este de aproximativ 34 milioane de euro.

Mai multe detalii sunt disponibile pe www.ro-cultura.ro

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  • Project promoter: META Spațiu
  • Project partner: SENT SITE-ECOLOGYNATURETECHNOLOGY. BERGAUST
  • Total project value: 584.857,39 lei (117.566,36 euro)
  • Grant amount (100% EEA and Norwegian Grants): 584.857,39 lei (117.566,36 euro)
  • Duration: 01.11.2024 – 28.02.2025
  • Implementation location: Timișoara (Romania)

About EEA and Norway Grants

The EEA and Norway Grants represent the contribution of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to a green, competitive and inclusive Europe. There are two general objectives: reducing economic and social disparities in Europe and strengthening bilateral relations between the donor countries and 15 EU countries in Central and Southern Europe and the Baltic States. The three donor countries cooperate closely with the EU through the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA). Between 1994 and 2014, donors provided EUR 3.3 billion through consecutive grant schemes. For the period 2014-2021, the EEA and Norway Grants amount to EUR 2.8 billion. More details are available on www.eeagrants.org and www.eeagrants.ro.

About the RO-CULTURA Program

The RO-CULTURA program is implemented by the Ministry of Culture through the Project Management Unit and has as its general objective the consolidation of economic and social development through cultural cooperation, cultural entrepreneurship and cultural heritage management.

The Program’s budget is approximately 34 million euros.

More details are available on www.ro-cultura.ro

About

𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐎𝐬𝐥𝐨 𝐅𝐣𝐨𝐫𝐝 – 𝐄𝐜𝐨-𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 initiated by META Spațiu brings to the forefront interdisciplinary collaboration between artists and curators from Romania and Norway, connecting the Oslo Fjord and the Danube Cluster. Through artistic research, intersectional curatorial practices and transdisciplinary dialog, the project articulates themes such as the relationship between nature and culture, landscape, ecology, in an attempt to develop an artistic vocabulary of water and to connect, at a conceptual level, the Danube area in the Iron Gates I and II area and the Oslo Fjord.

Despre

𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐎𝐬𝐥𝐨 𝐅𝐣𝐨𝐫𝐝 - 𝐄𝐜𝐨-𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 inițiat de META Spațiu aduce în prim-plan colaborarea interdisciplinară între artiști și curatori din România și Norvegia, conectând Fiordul Oslo și Clisura Dunării. Prin cercetare artistică, practici curatoriale intersecționale și dialog transdisciplinar, proiectul articulează teme precum relația dintre natură și cultură, peisajul, ecologia, în încercarea de a dezvolta un vocabular artistic al apei și de a conecta, la nivel conceptual, arealul Dunării din zona Porțile de Fier I și II și fiordul din Oslo. Cele doua rezidente în Oslo, Norvegia și Dubova, România au inclus sesiuni de explorarei, întâlniri cu cercetători locali, vizite în atelierele artiștilor și discuții despre modul în care apa poate defini noi tipuri de abordări artistice și curatoriale. În acest fel, arta nu este doar un “martor pasiv” al pericolelor ecologice, ci un participant activ în încercarea de a examina și de a regândi modul în care ne raportăm la apă și rolul său în ecosistemele dinamice și perpetuu supuse transformărilor actuale. Promovând schimburile bilaterale și generând noi direcții artistice și curatoriale, 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐎𝐬𝐥𝐨 𝐅𝐣𝐨𝐫𝐝 - 𝐄𝐜𝐨-𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 își propune să susțină, prin multiple forme de acțiune și reflecție, noi forme de cunoaștere și producție artistică relevante pentru arealele naturale parte a acestei cercetări.

Take a virtual tour of the exhibition with the curator and the artists

Submerged narratives of the Danube and Oslo Fjord – Eco-cultural tides takes place at META Spațiu contemporary art gallery, in Timișoara, Romania. Curated by Mirela Stoeac-Vlăduți, this exhibition highlights an interdisciplinary collaboration between artists and curators from Romania and Norway and represents the outcome of an international project that intertwines artistic research, ecology, and the cultural heritage of the Oslo Fjord and the Danube Gorge. Developed through an interdisciplinary collaboration model, the project has been carried out in partnership with artists and curators from Norway and Romania.

Submerged narratives of the Danube and Oslo Fjord – Eco-cultural tides project has been developed over multiple phases, including field research in the Danube Gorge area and an artist residency in Oslo. These activities involved collaboration between artists and experts from various fields, emphasizing a transdisciplinary interaction model between art and science. Throughout the project, the Romanian-Norwegian teams have explored themes such as the ecological impact on natural landscapes, the preservation of collective memory, and how water can serve as an artistic metaphor for the connection between people and their environment.

The exhibition is a meditation on the fluidity of existence, the interconnectedness of cultures, and the ecological urgencies that define our time. Through the works of the five artists—Kristin Bergaust, Alex Mirutziu, Marina Oprea, Cosmin Haiaș, and Alexis Parra (Pucho)—this project invites us to navigate the liminal spaces where water, memory and history converge.

Water is not merely a resource; it is a living entity, a witness, and a storyteller. It carries within its currents the weight of history, the echoes of forgotten voices, and the traces of ecological and cultural transformations. Water, in its ceaseless flow, becomes a metaphor for transformation, a site where past and present dissolve into one another, where narratives are submerged, resurface and are rewritten. The Danube and the Oslo Fjord, two bodies of water separated by geography yet united by their ecological and cultural significance, serve as the anchoring points for this exploration. These rivers are not passive backdrops but active participants in the stories they carry—stories of human endeavor, ecological fragility, and the enduring resilience of nature.

The works presented in the exhibition are not simple reflections on bodies of water; they are explorations on the ways water carries, distorts, and sometimes protects the stories we leave behind. The artists do not approach them as distant, neutral spaces, but as active agents in shaping and reshaping our narratives. The waters themselves are protagonists in these works—repositories of cultural memory, fragile ecosystems, and contested sites where ecological, political, and social histories are in constant flux.

Water, as the exhibition suggests, is a force that both separates and connects. It can be a source of life, but also an agent of transformation, erasure, and renewal. Through the destabilization of linear narratives, the artists subvert conventional storytelling, embracing instead a fluid state of being that mirrors the paradoxes of water—always in flux, yet holding the power to shape and alter.

Submerged narratives of the Danube and Oslo Fjord. Eco-Cultural tides is a plea to recognize the interconnectedness of all things. It is an invitation to dive beneath the surface, to uncover the truths that lie hidden in the depths of water and time. 

Kristin Bergaust – River of many names

Kristin Bergaust’s video essay River of many names is a poetic and stratified exploration of landscape, memory, and ecological entanglement. Through a synthesis of moving images, archival material, animated sequences, and layered soundscapes, the work examines the river not merely as a geographic entity, but as a living archive of cultural histories, environmental transformations, and shifting human narratives.

The artistic practice situates itself at the intersection of art, technology, and research, engaging critically with the relationships between people, environments, and the infrastructures that shape them. In River of many names, the river becomes a conduit for examining historical webs and contemporary ecological urgencies. The title itself evokes the multiplicity of identities ascribed to bodies of water—natural systems imbued with cultural significance, economic utility, and contested territorial histories.

Deeply engaged with speculative ecologies and the interplay between nature and technology, the artist constructs a fluid visual and conceptual space that reflects on how waterways shape and are shaped by human intervention. The video essay interrogates how industrialization, urban expansion, and climate change inscribe themselves onto aquatic landscapes, underscoring both their fragility and resilience.

The work extends beyond documentation, employing a performative and affective approach to storytelling that challenges anthropocentric perspectives. By weaving together historical references, scientific discourse, and artistic speculation, River of many names not only maps the river’s physical transformations but also amplifies the voices embedded within its currents—voices of forgotten histories, ecological imbalances, and the urgent need for new modes of coexistence.

As part of Kristin’s  broader artistic inquiry into sustainability, material memory, and the intersections of art and science, the work offers a space for critical reflection. It invites the viewer to consider the river not as a passive backdrop, but as an active participant in our collective futures—one whose past is written in sediment and whose future is increasingly uncertain. 

Alex Mirutziu – Dump Cinema

Alex Mirutziu’s film constructs a provocative dialogue between the subterranean erotics of subversive urban life and the fluid irrationality of water. Set against the backdrop of the Danube—understood here not as a definitive site, but as a prelude, a foreplay—Mirutziu’s work operates as an autoreferential extension of his ongoing inquiries into queerness, guilt, and the dialectics of consciousness. The river’s movement becomes both a conceptual and physical metaphor, articulating a tension between release and containment, between the ungraspable and the imposed.

Drawing from literary and philosophical references—including the works of Adrienne Rich (“heterosexuality is a violent political institution”) —Mirutziu interrogates consciousness as an unnatural construct, a mechanism that disrupts the organic flow of experience. Through a destabilization of linear thought, the film proposes a radical departure from cognitive fixation, privileging an emptied mind—one that resists the impulse to intellectualize, categorize, or impose structure. In this fluid state of being, awareness itself becomes a form of capital, a currency traded against the embodied immediacy of sensation.

Guttural voices punctuate the sonic landscape of the film, evoking a perpetual state of edging—a term borrowed from sexual practice, but repurposed here as a strategy of deferral, a method of keeping the subject suspended, disconnected from full cognitive integration. This perpetual withholding—an overloading of the mind that paradoxically engenders vacancy—mirrors the tension between action and belief, between the imperative to act and the need to justify action through belief. Sometimes in its most visceral, unfiltered forms (see works by Robert Mapplethorpe, Pipilotti Rist, Carolee Schneemann or Sarah Lucas) the artist provokes the viewer to confront repression, subvert dominant ideologies, and expose the intricate ties between desire, control, and social conditioning.

Mirutziu’s cinematic language resists resolution, favoring a mode of signification that oscillates at the threshold of comprehension, a complex erotical system in which the viewer (or should we say the voyeur?) is invited into an erotic dialectic of becoming—one that is not bound by consciousness, but rather by the fluidity of its own perception.

Marina Oprea – Where lucid waters flow

Marina Oprea’s practice engages with processes of accumulation, preservation, and transformation, constructing speculative archives that interrogate identity and memory. In her installation, she combines video, altered film photographs, and sculptural spheres that represent molecular structures, embedding found objects—stones, shells, plants—into epoxy resin. These elements, collected during the residencies in Oslo and at the Danube, function as both material traces of specific locations and conceptual artifacts that reflect on the fluidity of personal and collective histories.

The video feels like a dreamy, fragmented reflection on impermanence. The voice in the video flows like a quiet stream, weaving fragments of memory and longing into a whispered tapestry of time, a meditation on the fragile interplay between what is lost and what remains. It drifts, unhurried, through layers of sound, music and silence, carrying with it the weight of forgotten moments and the soft ache of impermanence. Each word feels like a ripple, dissolving as soon as it forms, yet leaving behind an echo that lingers in the mind. It is a voice that does not demand attention but invites reflection, drawing the listener into its current, where past and present merge like watercolors bleeding into one another.

It’s all about gestures, textures, and landscapes that seem to dissolve and reform before your eyes. There’s this beautiful tension between things decaying and being preserved, like nature and artifice are in this constant dance. Her film photographs take this idea even further—she physically alters them by embedding bits of material, blurring the line between the image and the object itself. It’s like she’s asking: What’s real? What’s left behind?

The artist’s approach resists traditional modes of archiving, instead embracing fluidity and transformation as essential conditions of existence. By preserving ephemeral remnants in synthetic materials, she highlights the paradox of conservation: the very act of safeguarding erases the original state. Her work ultimately questions whether identity can ever be truly fixed, suggesting instead that—like the landscapes she references—is in a constant state of reconfiguration.

Through this interplay of organic and artificial, Marina Oprea creates hyperobjects that incorporate both the concept of geological time and a continuous present. Her embedded objects exceed human temporality, existing beyond immediate perception. The act of encasing natural materials in resin mirrors the way geological processes fossilize and transform matter across millennia, suggesting an archive that is neither purely human nor purely natural. In reframing preservation as an open-ended process, she invites us to consider our entanglement with deep time, where objects, memories, and bodies dissolve into one another in an ongoing, inescapable flux. 

By preserving these fleeting moments in synthetic materials, she points out this weird paradox: the act of saving something often means altering it beyond recognition.

Cosmin Haiaș – Fish & (micro)chips

Fish & (micro)chips is a series of luminescent panels that resemble relics from a distant future. These works encapsulate the geological traces, vegetation, and chromatic essences of both the Danube and the Oslo Fjord, transforming them into artifacts that seem to have emerged from a world where nature and technology have fused into a single, hybrid entity, inviting viewers to contemplate the fluid boundaries between past, present, and future.

Haiaș’s artistic practice is defined by a unique fusion of engineering and art, reflecting an interdisciplinary approach. His works are not static objects but dynamic processes, embodying the idea that everything is in flux. In this series, Haiaș addresses recurring themes like: change, innovation, and the tension between permanence and evolution. The panels serve as subtle critiques of the emerging values of advanced technology, while also reflecting deeply on their impact on contemporary society. By embedding geological and botanical elements into synthetic materials, Haiaș creates a dialogue between the natural and the artificial, asking what it means to preserve the essence of a landscape in an era defined by rapid technological transformation.

Haiaș envisions a world where art plays a crucial role in humanizing technological progress, encouraging viewers to reflect on the ethical and existential questions raised by these advancements. His work is not merely a critique but a provocation, challenging traditional boundaries of art and inviting us to consider our responsibility in shaping the future, through these portals into a speculative future where the Danube and Oslo Fjord have become sites of both memory and possibility.

Alexis Parra (Pucho) – Fishing report

Through his lens, Alexis Parra (Pucho) invites us to reconsider the stories we tell about the past and the role of water as both a repository of history and a force that reshapes the boundaries of human memory. Far from simply capturing a geographical or historical account, the video is a layered, immersive exploration of the river’s cultural, social, political, ecological, and symbolic significance. The Danube and the Oslo Fjord, two lifelines that stretch across multiple territories and civilizations, hold within their waters the traces of countless human stories, each one shaped by time. Parra’s approach to these narratives is not one of linear storytelling but rather a non-linear, fragmented method that mirrors the way water erases, alters, and distorts the past.

The concept of „proofs of ways of living” is central to Parra’s work. These iron objects, corroded by time and water, become evidence of forgotten human narratives—stories of industry, migration, war, and cultural exchange—that have been submerged by the forces of nature. Through his meticulous study of these objects, the artist challenges us to think about the ways in which we remember and forget, how history is preserved or lost, and how water itself can act as a witness to time.

Alexis Parra (Pucho) is, in many ways, an archaeologist of water, diving into its depths to uncover fragments of history that speak to the ways we have lived, built, and, at times, failed. These objects, corroded and transformed by their aquatic environments, become metaphors for the fragility of human endeavors and the resilience of nature. His work asks us to consider what traces we will leave behind, and how they will be interpreted by future generations. In this sense, Parra is not just an artist, but a storyteller, a chronicler who uses his practice to bridge the gap between the local and the global, the past and the present.

In the end, his art is about connection—between cultures, between humans and nature. It is a practice that challenges us to see the world not as a collection of isolated fragments, but as an interconnected whole, where every action, every object, every story is part of a larger, ever-evolving narrative. And in this narrative, Parra is both a participant and a guide, leading us through the depths of water and time to uncover the truths that lie beneath the surface.

_______________________________________________________________________

ROMANIAN

Text: Mirela Stoeac-Vlăduți, curatoarea expoziției

Submerged narratives of the Danube and Oslo Fjord. Eco-cultural tides este o meditație asupra fluidității existenței, a interconectării culturilor și a urgențelor ecologice care definesc epoca noastră. 

Prin lucrările celor cinci artiști—Kristin Bergaust, Alex Mirutziu, Marina Oprea, Cosmin Haiaș și Alexis Parra (Pucho)—acest proiect ne invită să navigăm prin spațiile liminare în care apa, memoria și istoria se întâlnesc.

Apa nu este doar o resursă; este o entitate vie, un martor și un povestitor. Ea poartă în curenții săi povara istoriei, ecourile vocilor uitate și urmele transformărilor ecologice și culturale. Apa, în fluxul său neîncetat, devine o metaforă a transformării, un loc în care trecutul și prezentul se contopesc, în care narațiunile sunt scufundate, ies la suprafață și sunt rescrise. Dunărea și fiordul Oslo, două corpuri de apă separate geografic, dar unite prin semnificația lor ecologică și culturală, servesc drept puncte de ancorare pentru această explorare. Aceste râuri nu sunt fonduri pasive, ci participanți activi la poveștile pe care le poartă—povești despre eforturile umane, fragilitatea ecologică și reziliența continuă a naturii.

Lucrările prezentate în expoziție nu sunt simple reflecții asupra corpurilor de apă; ele sunt explorări ale modului în care apa poartă, distorsionează și uneori protejează poveștile pe care le lăsăm în urmă. Artiștii nu le abordează ca pe spații îndepărtate, neutre, ci ca pe agenți activi în modelarea și remodelarea narațiunilor noastre. Apele însele sunt protagoniste în aceste lucrări – depozite ale memoriei culturale, ecosisteme fragile și locuri contestate în care istoriile ecologice, politice și sociale sunt în continuă schimbare.

Apa, după cum sugerează expoziția, este o forță care deopotrivă separă și conectează. Ea poate fi o sursă de viață, dar și un agent de transformare, ștergere și reînnoire. Prin destabilizarea narațiunilor liniare, artiștii subminează poveștile convenționale, îmbrățișând în schimb o stare fluidă a ființei care reflectă paradoxurile apei—mereu în flux, dar cu puterea de a modela și altera.

Submerged narratives of the Danube and Oslo Fjord. Eco-cultural tides ne cheamă să conștientizăm interconectarea tuturor lucrurilor. Este o invitație de a ne scufunda sub suprafață, de a descoperi adevărurile care stau ascunse în adâncurile apei și ale timpului. 

Kristin Bergaust – River of many names

Eseul video River of many names de Kristin Bergaust este o explorare poetică și stratificată a peisajului, memoriei și încrengăturilor ecologice. Printr-o sinteză de imagini în mișcare, materiale de arhivă, secvențe animate și peisaje sonore intercalate, lucrarea examinează râul nu doar ca o entitate geografică, ci și ca o arhivă vie de istorii culturale, transformări ale mediului și narațiuni umane în continuă schimbare.

Practica sa artistică se situează la intersecția dintre artă, tehnologie și cercetare, angajându-se critic în relațiile dintre oameni, medii și infrastructurile care le modelează. În River of many names, râul devine un instrument de examinare a legăturilor istorice și a urgențelor ecologice contemporane. Însuși titlul evocă multitudinea de identități atribuite corpurilor de apă—sisteme naturale impregnate cu semnificație culturală, utilitate economică și istorii teritoriale contestate.

Profund angajată cu ecologiile speculative și cu interacțiunea dintre natură și tehnologie, artista construiește un spațiu vizual și conceptual fluid, care reflectă asupra modului în care căile navigabile modelează și sunt modelate de intervenția umană. Eseul video analizează modul în care industrializarea, expansiunea urbană și schimbările climatice se înscriu în peisajele acvatice, subliniind atât fragilitatea, cât și reziliența acestora.

Lucrarea se extinde dincolo de documentare, folosind o abordare performativă și afectivă a povestirii care pune în discuție perspectivele antropocentrice. Îmbinând referințe istorice, discursuri științifice și speculații artistice, River of many names nu doar cartografiază transformările fizice ale râului, ci și amplifică vocile cuprinse de curenții săi—glasurile istoriilor uitate, ale dezechilibrelor ecologice și ale nevoilor urgente de noi moduri de coexistență.

Ca parte a unei cercetări artistice mai ample privind durabilitatea, memoria materială și intersecțiile dintre artă și știință, lucrarea propune un spațiu pentru reflecție critică. Bergaust invită privitorul să privească râul nu ca pe un peisaj pasiv, ci ca pe un participant activ la viitorul nostru colectiv—unul al cărui trecut este scris în sedimente și al cărui viitor este din ce în ce mai incert. 

 

Alex Mirutziu – Dump Cinema

Filmul lui Alex Mirutziu construiește un dialog provocator între erotismul subteran al vieții urbane subversive și iraționalitatea fluidă a apei. Pe fundalul Dunării—văzută aici nu ca un loc definitiv, ci ca un preambul, un preludiu—lucrarea lui Mirutziu operează ca o extensie autoreferențială a cercetărilor sale continue privind homosexualitatea, vinovăția și dialectica conștiinței. Mișcarea râului devine atât o metaforă conceptuală, cât și fizică, articulând o tensiune între eliberare și reținere, între ceea ce nu poate fi cuprins și ceea ce este impus.

Pornind de la referințe literare și filosofice—inclusiv lucrările lui Adrienne Rich („heterosexualitatea este o instituție politică violentă”)—Mirutziu interoghează conștiința ca pe o construcție nenaturală, un mecanism care perturbă fluxul organic al experienței. Destabilizând gândirea liniară, filmul propune o abandonare radicală a fixației cognitive, privilegiind o minte goală—una care rezistă impulsului de a intelectualiza, categoriza sau impune o structură. În această stare fluidă a ființei, conștiința însăși devine o formă de capital, o monedă tranzacționată împotriva imediateții întrupate a senzației.

Vocile guturale punctează peisajul sonor al filmului, evocând o stare perpetuă de edging—un termen împrumutat din practica sexuală, dar repropus aici ca o strategie de amânare, o metodă de a menține subiectul suspendat, deconectat de la integrarea cognitivă deplină. Această reținere perpetuă—o supraîncărcare a minții care, în mod paradoxal, generează absență—reflectă tensiunea dintre acțiune și convingere, dintre imperativul de a acționa și nevoia de a justifica acțiunea prin convingere. Uneori, în formele sale cele mai viscerale și fără filtru (vezi lucrările lui Robert Mapplethorpe, Pipilotti Rist, Carolee Schneemann sau Sarah Lucas), artistul provoacă privitorul să se confrunte cu represiunea, să submineze ideologiile dominante și să dezvăluie legăturile complexe dintre dorință, control și condiționarea socială.

Limbajul cinematografic al lui Mirutziu se opune rezoluției, favorizând un mod de semnificare care oscilează la limita înțelegerii, un sistem erotic complex în care privitorul (sau mai bine zis voyeurul?) este invitat într-o dialectică erotică a devenirii—una care nu este legată de conștiință, ci mai degrabă de fluiditatea propriei sale percepții.

Marina Oprea – Where lucid waters flow

Practica Marinei Oprea se angajează cu procese de acumulare, conservare și transformare, construind arhive speculative care interoghează identitatea și memoria. În instalația sa, ea combină materiale video, fotografii de film alterate și sfere sculpturale care reprezintă structuri moleculare, înglobând obiecte găsite – pietre, scoici, plante – în rășină epoxidică. Aceste elemente, colectate în timpul rezidențelor din Oslo și de la Dunăre, funcționează atât ca urme materiale ale unor locații specifice, cât și ca artifacte conceptuale ce reflectă asupra fluidității istoriilor personale și colective.

Video-ul se aseamănă cu o reflecție onirică, fragmentată, asupra impermanenței. Vocea din film curge ca un șuvoi liniștit, țesând fragmente de memorie și dor într-o tapiserie șoptită a timpului, o meditație asupra interacțiunii fragile dintre ceea ce se pierde și ceea ce rămâne. Se scurge, fără grabă, prin straturi de sunet, muzică și tăcere, purtând cu sine greutatea momentelor uitate și durerea ușoară a impermanenței. Fiecare cuvânt vine ca o undă, care se dizolvă imediat ce se formează, lăsând în urmă un ecou care persistă în gând. Este o voce care nu cere atenție, ci invită la reflecție, trăgând ascultătorul în curentul său, unde trecutul și prezentul se contopesc precum acuarelele care curg una în cealaltă.

Vorbim despre gesturi, texturi și peisaje care par să se dizolve și să se reformeze sub privirile noastre. Este această tensiune sublimă între lucrurile care se descompun și cele care sunt conservate, ca și cum natura și artificialul ar fi într-un dans perpetuu. Fotografiile ei pe film duc această idee chiar mai departe—ea intervine fizic asupra lor prin încorporarea unor fragmente de material, estompând granița dintre imagine și obiect în sine. E ca și cum ar întreba: Ce este real? Ce rămâne în urmă?

Abordarea artistei se opune modurilor tradiționale de arhivare, abordând în schimb fluiditatea și transformarea ca condiții esențiale ale existenței. Prin conservarea rămășițelor efemere în materiale sintetice, artista evidențiază paradoxul conservării: însăși actul de protejare anulează starea inițială. În definitiv, lucrările sale pun sub semnul întrebării dacă identitatea poate fi vreodată cu adevărat fixată, sugerând în schimb că, la fel ca peisajele la care face referire, este într-o stare constantă de reconfigurare.

Prin acest joc între organic și artificial, Marina Oprea creează hiperobiecte care încorporează atât conceptul de timp geologic, cât și un prezent continuu. Obiectele sale încastrate depășesc temporalitatea umană, existând dincolo de percepția imediată. Actul de încapsulare a materialelor naturale în rășină reflectă modul în care procesele geologice fosilizează și transformă materia de-a lungul mileniilor, sugerând o arhivă care nu este nici pur umană, nici pur naturală. Redefinind conservarea drept un proces deschis, ea ne invită să reflectăm asupra relației noastre cu timpul profund, în care obiectele, amintirile și corpurile se dizolvă unele în altele într-un flux continuu, inevitabil. 

Prin prezervarea acestor momente efemere în materiale sintetice, ea semnalează acest paradox straniu: actul de a salva ceva înseamnă adesea alterarea lui dincolo de orice formă de identificare.

Cosmin Haiaș – Fish & (micro)chips

Fish & (micro)chips este o serie de panouri luminescente ce se aseamănă cu relicve dintr-un viitor îndepărtat. Aceste lucrări încapsulează urmele geologice, vegetația și esențele cromatice atât ale Dunării, cât și ale fiordului Oslo, transformându-le în artifacte care par să fi apărut dintr-o lume în care natura și tehnologia au fuzionat într-o singură entitate hibridă, invitând privitorii să contemple hotarele fluide dintre trecut, prezent și viitor.

Practica artistică a lui Haiaș este definită de o fuziune unică între inginerie și artă, reflectând o abordare interdisciplinară. Lucrările sale nu sunt obiecte statice, ci procese dinamice, materializând ideea că totul este în flux. În această serie, Haiaș abordează teme recurente precum: schimbarea, inovarea și tensiunea dintre permanență și evoluție. Panourile servesc drept critici subtile ale valorilor emergente ale tehnologiei avansate, totodată reflectând profund asupra impactului acestora asupra societății contemporane. Prin integrarea elementelor geologice și botanice în materialele sintetice, Haiaș creează un dialog între natural și artificial, întrebându-se ce înseamnă să păstrezi esența unui peisaj într-o eră definită de transformări tehnologice rapide.

Haiaș imaginează o lume în care arta joacă un rol crucial în umanizarea progresului tehnologic, încurajând privitorii să mediteze asupra întrebărilor etice și existențiale ridicate de aceste progrese. Lucrările sale nu reprezintă doar o critică, ci și o provocare, sfidând limitele tradiționale ale artei și invitându-ne să ne gândim la responsabilitatea noastră în modelarea viitorului, prin intermediul acestor portaluri către un viitor speculativ în care Dunărea și fiordul Oslo au devenit locuri ale memoriei și posibilităților.

Alexis Parra (Pucho) – Fishing report

Alexis Parra (Pucho) ne invită, prin prisma sa, să reconsiderăm poveștile pe care le spunem despre trecut și rolul apei atât ca depozitar al istoriei, cât și ca forță care remodelează limitele memoriei umane. Mai mult decât o simplă relatare geografică sau istorică, video-ul său este o explorare stratificată și imersivă a semnificației culturale, sociale, politice, ecologice și simbolice a fluviului. Dunărea și fiordul Oslo, două linii vitale care se întind de-a lungul mai multor teritorii și civilizații, păstrează în apele lor urmele a nenumărate povești umane, fiecare modelată de timp. Abordarea lui Parra față de aceste narațiuni nu este una liniară, ci mai degrabă o metodă non-lineară, fragmentată, care reflectă modul în care apa șterge, modifică și distorsionează trecutul.

Conceptul de „mărturii ale modurilor de viață” este esențial în opera lui Parra. Aceste obiecte de fier, roase de timp și apă, devin dovezi ale narativelor umane uitate—povești despre industrie, migrație, război și schimburi culturale—care au fost inundate de forțele naturii. Prin studiul meticulos al acestor obiecte, artistul ne provoacă să regândim modul în care ne amintim și uităm, cum se păstrează sau se pierde istoria și cum apa însăși poate acționa ca martor al timpului.

Alexis Parra (Pucho) este, din multe puncte de vedere, un arheolog al apei, scufundându-se în adâncurile sale pentru a descoperi fragmente de istorie care evocă modul în care am trăit, am construit și, pe alocuri, am eșuat. Aceste obiecte, ruginite și transformate de mediul lor acvatic, devin metafore ale fragilității eforturilor umane și ale rezistenței naturii. Lucrările sale ne îndeamnă să considerăm ce semne vom lăsa în urmă și cum vor fi acestea interpretate de generațiile viitoare. În acest sens, Parra nu este doar un artist, ci și un povestitor, un cronicar a cărui practică este menită să creeze o punte între local și global, între trecut și prezent.

În esență, arta sa este despre legături—între culturi, între oameni și natură. Este o practică care ne provoacă să percepem lumea nu ca pe o colecție de fragmente izolate, ci ca pe un întreg interconectat, în care fiecare acțiune, fiecare obiect, fiecare poveste face parte dintr-o narațiune mai vastă, în continuă evoluție. Iar în această narațiune, Parra este atât un participant, cât și un ghid, conducându-ne prin adâncurile apei și ale timpului pentru a descoperi adevărurile care se află dincolo de suprafață.

Want to find out more?

READ THE BOOK >

No posts were found for provided query parameters.

CURATORIAL LOG

Oslo Fjord

Day 1 

N59°55’3.335”E10°45’28.925”

It’s my third time in Oslo. The second time I stay in this location, I have no expectations to be surprised anymore. What I longed for the most was to see the sea. The fjord. The sea has a very particular characteristic here, it doesn’t have tides; it’s not loud, but quiet and still, with lots of plis (folds), almost like a natural silk creasing. But deep waters are always quiet and, in my imagination, I try to build a fantasy underwater world, bringing together many pieces of puzzle from my memory: species of fish, flora, old viking ships. 

Water is not a construct of our mental abilities, though. So I try to change my perspective. I go to the conceptual basis of the eco-cultural theory that invades my mind, in search of a logical and rationalized truth in the water dialectics. Ideas connected to Donna Haraway (being with the water), Timothy Morton (hyper water), or Deleuze (water as a complex world in itself, linking everything else in nature, but still autonomous and functioning by an encrypted set of rules) stream into my thoughts. I then try to think what swimming in this water could teach me about it. I don’t have the courage. It’s November and there is a reason for why this water is called the North Sea.

Many in our team had never been to Oslo before, so I try to see what their reaction is when encountering this beautiful scenery for the first time. I think I catch a glimpse of a certain aesthetic surprise on some of their faces. But I am not sure, maybe it’s only another subjective perception. Therefore, I focus my attention on the sites we are exploring with Kristin. The programme she has created for us gives me the opportunity to see a different view of Oslo and the Fjord. My nonexistent expectations fade away, as I embark on a journey through the eyes of the artists and scientists that we shall meet in the next few days.
I leave Haraway, Morton and Deleuze for another day. We are now going to focus on this “togetherness”, this unity between nature and the city that is walking together. I feel that water is, for our project “Eco cultural tides – Submerged narratives of the Danube and Oslo Fjord” not merely a medium or metaphor, but a material articulation of the dynamic forces of the present.  

Day 2

N59°50’39.196”E10°40’42.537”

Kristin, Puchu, Marina, Alex, Cosmin, Dan, Miruna, Monica. Today we have a full programme. We will be meeting artists who have developed artistic practices and have done research in connection to Oslo Fjord at SENT Bergaust, on a peninsula of Oslo called Nesodden. For us, it feels like going on a hike, in the forest, by the lake. For Kristin and Puchu, it is both their home and studio, as well as headquarters of the artistic organization that is our partner in this project. The fjord looks different from this point. The view is more open and vivid, the huge modern buildings of Oslo are no longer in our sight, with Kristin telling us that they are sometimes visited by deers.

The shores of the sea are like rich sediments of big rocks: a very dark clay, vegetal remains, pebbles of different shades of brown and some hard shells. I wonder if I could work here, as this poetic scenery sweeps you away from reality and introduces you to a dreamy state. I soon realize that inside the studio beautifully crafted by Kristin and Puchu I can indeed work, as the invited artists and curators have interesting materials to present about the fjord that now seems, once again, only a sediment of my memory. I start thinking about what being disconnected from nature means for our current way of reasoning: Nature vs. Culture, Bruno Latour’s concept that deals with the ontological dissolution in nature, about Guattari and Arne Næss, the Norwegian philosopher of deep ecology, about the concept of Ecosophy and about Zygmunt Bauman’s “liquid modernity.”

Aesthetics has always given me a compass to navigate through different perspectives when trying to build a concept for an exhibition or project. We go on a stroll around the peninsula, on the wood decks built around and I literally taste the sea. I leave aesthetics and concepts behind, as the water and its slightly salty taste ground me to have a more intimate experience with the sea, the sky, the slippery wood and the sunset streaming an almost pink aura around the clouds. Kristin tells us about one of the biggest threats to the ecosystem here: the Pacific oyster, coming with commercial ships from the ocean. 

Days 3 and 4N59°54’47.988”E10°44’20.292” | N59°55’3.335”E10°45’28.925” |  N59°54’8.792”E10°45’31.79” 

I woke up thinking about the oysters. Thinking of them, I get reminded of a similar issue in the Danube Delta: the pink peril, an invasive species that is also considered a threat to other living beings in the water.

Capitalism carries with its “economical sediments” which the bodies of water now have to accommodate. The water is impregnated with its natural floral, faunistic, chemical and physical structures, but also with our own ecologies, politics, cultural paradigms and collective projections. The ecosystems have been critically compromised by human activity and water is perceived more and more only as a resource for economical and political reasons.


The main discussion around Norway’s art scene is based, of course, on oil exploitation. Artists and art practitioners are raising important questions regarding the devas
tating effects that this kind of aggressive profiteering has not only on nature, but on society as well. Creating new narratives for communities seems to be underlying in many of the art endeavors that we have seen or discussed these days. Visiting some interesting sites, like the contemporary art park Ekeberg, makes the genuine significance that is given to the present in this place all the more clear. Unconsciously, I start comparing this mindset to the one in Romania, where we are still so far from acknowledging the actual composition of our current times, issues and opportunities, where the society tends to be, generally, more attracted to a fantasy of a romanticized past (whether it be old or more recent, like the atrocious communism).
I soon find something that bonds us. It’s bread. We visit a project titled the Flat Bread Society, conceived by Future Farmers. It is a “a public art project that brings together farmers, oven builders, astronomers, artists, soil scientists, bakers, anthropologists and others who share an interest in humankind’s long and complex relationship with grain”. It took several years for the project to happen, due to the need of a long research, field trips and community discussion before becoming also a physical space. We need more time to act though thinking, not simply acting and thinking afterwards. But time is a resource we scarcely own, as the capitalist society promises to offer us anything, except the most vital of all: time.
These last two days give me hope that our project will also have time. I had been thinking about starting this research regarding the Danube for many years, but meeting Kristin in 2023 and finding out about her wonderful project “Oslofjord Ecologies” has offered me the right opportunity to find inspiration for the practices that might emerge from this venture. We tend to think of ourselves as the bread, leavening through time. But what if we are the bacteria activating it and we have to work together, in order to raise more questions about our role in culture and society?

Day 5

N59°54’24.93”E10°43’18.976” | N59°54’31.363”E10°45’8.884” | N59°53’41.509”E10°41’18.305” | N59°54’35.74”E10°43’30.15” 

I was thinking yesterday about questions and they streamed like water when we visited an unexpected exhibition at my favorite art scene in Oslo: Astrup Fearnley. The exhibition is titled “Between Rivers” and it brings together the practices of contemporary artists “who respond to the place of rivers in our lives at a moment when they are being profoundly reshaped by human activity”. The artworks exhibited were not monumental only in scale, but also in significance. Artist James Webb’s vessel and sound installation found in this Astrup exhibition proved to be a trigger that made me think what questions I would ask the Danube. 

I have always asked Danube questions in my head, we have always had a quiet dialogue with each other from the first moment I laid my eyes on her. Why do I always call her her? I am here in Oslo, happily loving every day spent together with the artists in the project, though I have a kind of childlike emotion thinking that we will all soon be at the Danube trying to decipher her. 

Days 6 and 7

N60°11’24.93”E11°5’58.831′ | N47°30’13.129”E19°3’48.753′

I got used to the silent cars. There are so many electric cars here that we all need to be careful when crossing the streets since you don’t hear them in the oncoming traffic. We meet many times during the day, we talk, we start to think about what we will do at the Danube and how we shall approach that terrain which is still virgin  from an eco-contemporary art point of view. For as long as we stay here we try to learn more, to see as much as we can, as long as our feet can carry us. Now we know each other a little better. Genuine smiles, joking with each other, feeling free to express ourselves. 

We flow. And I am thinking about how much of the language we use today is related to water: liquidity, cash flow, streaming, flux, fluidity, deep data etc. How do these terms impact our perception on what is material and what is not? Water has no defined borders, it’s always adapting, always eluding. Are truth and reality no longer definite? Is this why we feel like drowning, like a catastrophic flood of information is about to annihilate us? I don’t know the answers, but what I like the most about the project’s team is that we are all open to identify more questions.
I keep wondering how the final exhibition of the project would look if it was a big question mark “?” and the visitors would be interested in finding out its significance and that which it represents. When asking questions, people always wait for answers. What if the question is the answer? What if art isn’t about meaning, answers, ideas or certainties, but complex entities, similar to bodies of water, and in order to understand their meaning we had to give up trying to find meaning? It’s clear I am thinking about the Wittgensteinian dilemma during these last days in Oslo. And this is because I have seen so many wonderful things, found out a lot of information about the fjord, talked to so many talented artists, saw all this research and art practices and, now, when I try to put them all together, I find myself faced to oblivion. It’s like all these ideas are now sedimented in my subconscious: they are there, but I can not access them. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Danube


Day 1
N44°44’15.00″E21° 40′ 0.98″ | N44°36’59.99″E22°15’60.00″ 

My Danube. I have always called you like that, because you are my home. I don’t remember when we first met, as I must have been a little baby then, but I see in you my mother, my grand-grandmother, and all the other female ancestors, even though it seems so hard to imagine who they were, what they did, how they looked and if they had ever met you or thought about you. I guess this is how mythologies are born, emerging from the unknown, magical creatures. They hold the dual power of healing or destroying us; they are, in equal measure, splendid and terrifying; they are called supernatural beings, though there is nothing extraordinary about them, except the mirror they hold in front of us, the mirror that shows our true nature. Art is born in the same manner: from the chaotic depths of the artist’s imagination, from what thinker Timothy Morton calls the “quantum soup”.
Following this thread, I start to believe that we, the project team, the dinosaurs and the ancient mud on the bottom of the river coexist in a atemporal configuration space in which we are perpetually interconnected. The catfish (rom. “somn”), that ghastly creature that still bears the features of its ancestors and me are not very different beings. In fact, we are quite similar, sharing the same proto-cell that made life possible on earth. The only thing telling us apart is not thinking about each other too much. You seem to be preoccupied with catching other fish and feeding yourself and my kind is preoccupied with eating you or other beings like you. Both in my medium – earth – and yours – water – we can still find traces of our former compositions, going back thousands and thousands of years ago.
If we cut a slice of this earth and read it as one would read a history book, we would be shocked to find out how long we have been together and how little we know of each other after all this time. Of course, I know your name, of course I know how you look, what you taste like, what you eat and what threat, me and my kind, are to you, and, of course, you know me, how ridiculous I look when I swim in your water, how inadequate is my body from your perspective and how dangerous I am to your whole destiny. I can decide, in a blink of an eye, to totally delete your existence from the present. 

Day 2

N44°36’59.99″E22°15’60.00″ | N44°30’0.47″E22°06’17.57″ | N44°32’43″E 22°9’48” 

What separates an artist from a scientist is not in the way they look at things, but in the way each perceives them. Of course there are artists who have a more scientific approach and vice versa, but their practice is differentiated in an essential point. And I always like to observe this point in artists. I have this slightly allusive demeanor and artists don’t realise how much I like to observe them. But I do observe, and I do try to decipher how they are thinking about things and what activates them in creating such interesting ideas and concepts and encapsulating them in their artworks.

 How does the world speak to you now? 

What questions do you have that remain unanswered? 

Where do you feel vulnerable?

This residency gives me a great opportunity to be more a part of this process, to understand the artistic practices better. Kristin Bergaust. Artist. Professor. Researcher. Her practice is based both on knowing (bildung), experiencing (staying with the problem) and questioning how the other humans and non-humans might perceive the same situation. I very much admire her curiosity, inquisitive nature and ability to share her thoughts and ideas with others, while remaining true to her art and approach: not letting herself be influenced by outer forces, but rather dissecting, deconstructing and building a new vision out of all the pieces. 

Day 3 

by boat.

tides. The sun and moon pull on the rivers, seas and oceans with a „tractive” force, drawing water toward their ever-changing „sublunar” and „subsolar” positions. This interplay, combined with other factors, generates the natural rhythm of the tides—a cycle that flows from low tide to the rising flood, peaks at high tide, then recedes through the ebb, and returns to low tide again. The timing of these tides is constantly shifting, moving across the waters and along their shores. 

This rhythm is set to be the dynamic of our residency for the next few days. We have moments in which we very much like being together, sharing thoughts, asking questions etc. and moments in which we need to withdraw in our own solitude, trying to understand the things happening currently. I look through the window and I see Danube in one of her most glorious states of her course from Black Forest Mountains to the Danube Delta: the Clusters of the Danube at Dubova. 

Hidden in the forests that defend the borders on each side, the dissidents of the Communist era would try to swim to freedom. Shielded by the dense forest and the dark, they would try to cross the river by swimming and, many of them, ended up on the same side, just a few kilometers or merely hundreds of meters down the Danube. The dream of liberty would soon end in a prison after abominable inquiries. For others, the Danube would have to clean the mortal wounds inflicted by the frontier guards in the backs of the dissidents. 

How did you feel when the dissidents of the Communist era were killed in your waters?

What do you wish to forget? 

What questions do you have that remain unanswered? 

The borders remain unclear. Alexis Parra (Puchu) is very interested in the tormented communist past of the Danube. Sometimes, when in the car, he thinks we have crossed the border and that we are in Serbia. I find it very surprising, because I know that the Serbian border is always on the other side of the Danube. He was born on an island, in Cuba, another country with a troubled past and a very uncertain present, now he lives in Oslo. This “spiky”, forbidden borders that are so visible here, might seem peculiar to someone else. Puchu’s look is more fresh, he doesn’t see “sides”, he sees nature, he sees the water and he sees tormented histories of Eastern Europe mixed together in the late 80’s news of the fall of communism, Ceaușescu, the Berlin wall and so on. I wish I could see Eastern Europe the same way. With fluid borders, without restrictions, without the criminal regimes that fractured our collective consciousness so irreparably. 

Day 4

N44°43’31.01″E22° 23′ 46.00″ | N44°43’0″E22°26’59” (submerged) | N44°40’16″E22° 31’45”

How did the dam impact your wellbeing?  

We had talked a lot in the previous days about the dam and the submerged histories of the places that once were and now are no longer. The tourist tours by boat in the Dubova area are usually conducted by some young or slightly middle-aged men from the area, who always speak with enthusiasm about “the great accomplishment” of the communist era and the progress to the society that the building of the dam has brought with it. We are lucky enough to have our boat tours around the area (Dubova – Eșelnița – Orșova – Ponicova) with a more realistic guy of about 60 years who has lived in both periods of time as an adult, Sorin Costescu. He feels more the loss of the people, he understands better what it means to be forced to demolish your own house and move it up the hill because authorities tell you to do so.  

Artist Alex Mirutziu never looks at things as we are taught to look at them, or as established, he revolts at the status quo and I appreciate that a lot about him. He questions the very definition of every idea, concept and situation and he has a sort of wittgensteinian wit in investigating the reality of things. We have a long, interesting discussion about the Austrian philosopher and how semiotics can serve as a method in developing a new vocabulary of the Danube. I am curious how he will transform a possible dialectics of water in a performative act (as all his artworks have this performative quality, regardless of the medium he uses).

What does time mean to you? 

Ada Kaleh, the submerged island, with its many stories and mythologies, is still a source of stories for tourism and we feel happy to spend some time on top of it, in the boat, imagining what it would be like to drink a traditional Turkish coffee in that colourful place. For me, the place bursts with colors, the smell of blue vitriol, a substance that is used in dying the wool for carpets, something I am very familiar with, Turkish delight with exotic flavors and children doing hard adult work. Ada Kaleh and the other submerged places are like the long lost Atlantis, but without the human beings adapting to underwater life – gills, fins, scales, eyes with no eyelids – but rather with fish that can now discover the wonders of human way of life. 

Intermezzo

Olga

N44°45’38.99″E22°58’45.98″ | N44°43’0″E22°26’59” (submerged) | N44°25’56.10″E26°06’22.54″ | N44°37’54.98″E22°39’22.00″ 

Olga was born in 1908 in the village Meriș, in the region of Oltenia. Her father died in the First World War and soon after, her mother. She has 6 brothers and sisters: Iulica, Melaiche, Safta, Alexandru, Gore and Ileana. Her older sister, Iulica, transforms into a little dictator after their parents die and her younger brothers and sisters become the target of her fury and the object of her nervous relief. They have to do all the housework, wander around the village and work for other people in order to provide the necessary goods. But the earned goods are not enough and so Iulica decides to “sell” her siblings to different businesses in order to get some more money.
Olga is sent to work on Ada Kaleh island for the making of traditional carpets, at the age of 11. Children are the perfect color mixers for the Turkish carpet makers as their feet are smaller and they have to jump all day in a big basin in which colors and wool are swirling in an endless motion. At first, the whole situation seems like a game for the little girl, but after a few days she is exhausted and wishes she could escape. But where can you escape at 11 years old when you are on an island? Only in the water around you. And the girl doesn’t know how to swim, so she is trapped. The Danube becomes for her both a menace and a canvas on which she can weave dreams about the future. 

Olga is now 18 and she can leave this place and follow her dreams. Because she is so exceptional not just in mixing colors for the carpets, but also in weaving them, Bucharest seems to be the next stop in which her ambitious dreams come to reality. You can imagine young, bold, finally free, Olga wearing beautiful, theatrical dresses and hats of the era, having fun with her friends and finding her big love. But of this love we know nothing. Because she doesn’t want to talk about it. Never. All this love leaves behind are some photos, in which a silhouette is cut out, covering the liaison in total mystery. 

Olga is now 40 and she is so skilled at making and restoring carpets, that she is detached close to her birth place, at the museum of Drobeta Turnu Severin, where she becomes the head of the Textile section. She marries and has three children.
Olga is now 92. And on her death bed she tells me: “I love you the most”. Me.

Day 5

N44°37’54.98″E22°39’22.00″ | N44°22’48.0″E22°30’49.1″

We have already become like a little family. We eat together three meals a day made by a local from Dubova and we are occasionally visited by Mr. Gigi, the handyman of our place. We learn the story of the swan that came here about five seasons ago and never left. In all these years, she has not joined another group of swans that seasonally go down the Danube to the Delta in the fall, but has „befriended” the tourists and hotel owners who feed her. We find out that she is also an excellent fish hunter (or should I say fisher?), so she hasn’t lost any of her natural abilities, even if she is also fed by humans, and it doesn’t look like she will be leaving this place any time soon.

How long have you survived?
We also encounter a nutria, another specimen that is not from the area, but who established here and has five offspring which have swimming and hunting lessons twice a day. Mr. Gigi tells me that two years ago, when she was established here, the locals were trying to catch and kill her because she was eating too much fish and the fishermen didn’t get enough. Now, they are not troubled by her presence any longer, as they realised that she eats more water grass and not that much fish. She is safe for now. 

We discuss the circuit of water in nature, and I love how artist Marina Oprea explores everything with a holistic eye. Every particular thing is a complex world in itself and Marina has developed a kind of ontology that is embedded in her artistic practice and drives her to overlap the microcosm and macrocosm in a playful and very sensitive manner, a magical realm in which imagination and real action are driving forces for what I will expect to be a very poetic artwork that she will create for this project.

We go to the Port Cultural Cetate and have a great evening with local musicians, Mr. Gogu and his band from Cetate, along with some wonderful food. We are already saddened that we shall soon say goodbye to each other for some time.  

Day 6

N44°37’54.98″E22°39’22.00″  | N45°45’13.39″E21°13’32.56″

What can never be taken away from you? 

Interdisciplinary artist Cosmin Haiaș is always one step ahead in the future. His critique and preoccupation is rooted in the present, but his consciousness always tries to project a not so optimistic future. His artworks are presuppositions of a dark apocalyptic world, in which the human is only a distant memory and the hybrids are the new beings inhabiting the world. Relics sent to us in the present from one of the many possible futures that only a quantum artificial intelligence can determine. I return to you, Danube. I wonder what will become of you in 50, 1000, 2000, 50000 years. The dam will be a long forgotten memory, and some species will only be remembered by you – will the human one be among them? Will you roam natural and unleashed once more, or will you be just a muddy valley, soon to become a desert? How will AI treat you? I will not be here to witness you.
We shall not be able to meet in those times, but I shall not forget you, and you shall not forget me. As you are a living archive encapsulating our past, present and future, our hopes, our wars, our destruction and our frailty. Our politics and our murders. Our DNA is a like a stream of mineral sediments spilling into your consciousness, our bodies are constituent elements of your being. Our names shall be forgotten, but time and space will bend once more and we shall resurrect from a black hole in an obscure galaxy, billions and billions light years away from who we think we are today. 

Till soon. Summer 2025.

TEAM

The team that made the Submerged Narratives of the Danube and Oslo Fjord – Eco-cultural Tides project possible contributed to its implementation, resource management, initiative promotion, and the strengthening of international partnerships, supporting the creation of a sustainable platform for dialogue between culture, nature, and community.

Ioana Bartha – Communication manager

Josepha Blanchet – Graphic designer

Simona Herczeg – Acquisition officer

Monica Ocnean – Assistant manager

Miruna Robescu – Curatorial assistant

Dan Stoeac – Project manager

Mediere culturală | Let's learn!

We invite you to join the series of events organized throughout February as part of the exhibition 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐎𝐬𝐥𝐨 𝐅𝐣𝐨𝐫𝐝 – 𝐄𝐜𝐨-𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 at 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐭̦𝐢𝐮.
Through guided tours, workshops, and cultural mediation sessions, you will have the opportunity to explore themes related to ecology, collective memory, and the connection between natural landscapes and culture.
Here is the complete schedule:
February 8th, 12:00 – Guided tour with the exhibition curator
February 8th, 12:00 – Bioart workshop with Ramona Haiaș
February 12th, 16:00 – Cultural mediation session: Landscapes of Memory
February 15th, 12:00 – Cartography workshop with Dorian Bolca
February 19th, 16:00 – Cultural mediation session: Echoes of Water
February 22th, 12:00 – Guided tour with the exhibition curator
February 26th, 16:00 – Cultural mediation session: The Politics of Nature
Find us

We are a contemporary art gallery and cultural center situated in the heart of the campus of the University of Polytechnics in Timisoara. 
Bd. Mihai Viteazu 1, Timișoara, Romania
PIN POINT: META Spațiu

Contact us

By email: contact@metacontemporary.ro

By phone:
+40 758 014 015

Past events

Scroll up Drag View