At Iași International Airport, artist Radu Carnariu presents Freedom / Imponderable, an artistic installation on view until August 1, 2026, in the airport’s departures area.

The work Freedom takes the form of an oversized straitjacket made from old school maps recovered from the archive of the Octav Băncilă National College of Art in Iași. Cartography — the language of borders, control, and orientation — is transformed into a symbolic instrument of constraint. The maps become a kind of “garment” of limits, while borders seem to cling to the body, territorializing it through a prêt-à-porter restriction. The fragility of the paper contradicts the clinical rigidity of the form: control appears absolute, yet the material remains vulnerable, suggesting the precariousness of any certainty. Suspended within a black space scattered with coins, the installation evokes a satellite drifting between worlds — a metaphor for freedom as something constantly negotiated between territories, rules, and invisible costs. Installed just before the security checkpoint, the work does not ask whether we are free, but rather how much freedom costs, how long it lasts, and who controls it.

Alongside it, Imponderable reflects on the symbolism of flight through a material paradox. A balloon, typically associated with lightness and ascent, is manually shaped from barbed wire — a material of prohibition and injury. The hanging string is a tricolor ribbon, a sign of national identity which, in today’s context of polarization and disinformation, can acquire multiple and even contradictory meanings.

Through this intervention, Radu Carnariu transforms the transient space of the airport into a site for reflection on freedom, mobility, and identity, offering a critical reading of the gestures and everyday rituals associated with travel.

The project is realized by Artep gallery in partnership with Romanian Creative Week and Iași International Airport.