The Brașov Art Museum, in collaboration with the Centre for Visual and Digital Anthropology, presents HAIR! HAIR! HAIR! CONTEMPORARY ART & ANTHROPOLOGY, an exhibition project situated at the intersection of contemporary art and visual anthropology, curated by Gabriela Nicolescu, Nora Cupceancu, and Marina Aristotel.
The exhibition opens on Friday, June 12, 2026, at 6:00 PM, in the presence of the curatorial team and participating artists.
Artists: Alexandru Ranga, Beniamin Popescu, Diana Oană, Dumitru Gorzo, Emma Tarlo, Elena Waldorf, George Soare, Ioana Bălțan, Jenni Dutton, Marina Aristotel, Mihai Zgondoiu, Mircea Modreanu, Misha Diaconu, Nora Cupceancu, Petru Lucaci, Radu Pandele, Răzvan Neagoe, Saint Machine, and Victoria Zidaru.
“Hair grows, falls out, is cut, combed, braided, dyed, substituted, rejected, or revered. In each of these gestures we find traces of an ongoing negotiation of identity through recurring practices that we rarely question.
An anthropologist, an artist-curator, and a visual artist with experience in the beauty industry create a space for dialogue between Emma Tarlo’s anthropological research conducted in India, Myanmar, China, America, and Europe, and concepts developed by Romanian and British artists.
Entanglement: The Secret Lives of Hair maps the global circuits of human hair harvesting and trade. The book explores the tonsure rituals performed in and around Indian temples, the sheitel wig industry serving Orthodox Jewish women, and the luxury market for remy hair extensions, where hair becomes an exclusive commodity.
The exhibition narrative also highlights the cultural and political implications of head coverings, veiling practices, and hair-braiding traditions. It continues with presentations of innovative uses of hair in ecology and fashion.
Seeking to engage with the biological, symbolic, intimate, and cultural complexity of human hair, the participating artists address themes such as memory, acceptance, transformation, recycling, human-animal relationships, femininity and masculinity, beauty, sensuality, eroticism, ritual, otherness, and death.
HAIR! HAIR! HAIR! CONTEMPORARY ART & ANTHROPOLOGY explores both individual and collective memory, revealing a lesser-known history of connections between people. Whether rooted in anthropological research, personal histories, philosophical inquiry, or existential concerns, these investigations come together in a dialogue expressed through multimedia and intermedia works, installation, painting, sculpture, objects, photography, and ready-mades.
Through the lens of human hair, the exhibition raises fundamental questions about memory, identity, and the ways in which we understand the world.” (curatorial statement)
The exhibition will remain on view at Brașov Art Museum until July 26, 2026.
