“Here was once water”, the first exhibition of the Art and Anthropology project, aims to bring together the results of the four weeks of interdisciplinary residency in the village of Luncavița, Dobrogea.
The Art and Anthropology Residency, the first project of its kind carried out in the area of Northern Dobrogea, brought together artists and anthropologists over the summer in a complex interdisciplinary research approach to the former floodplains of the Danube located in this area.
The exhibition builds a laboratory space where artistic and anthropological research processes are carried out simultaneously. The two methods of investigation weave the stories collected over the summer from the inhabitants of the area, recover lost realities and imagine a state of the place in a present time. Traces of the interaction between people and nature, symbols with potential for socio-cultural postures likely to trace the community’s surroundings are hidden from the area.
Fish, beehives, puddle, water, rush, Danube, and isle are words that have been on our lips for more than a month, in our discussions but also those with the locals, as an incantation that we hoped would help us penetrate more quickly into the water universe that is no more. I did not seek a lost universe of water but rather its traces, islands of its resistance, and, equally, the palpable concreteness of the present transformed by survival, Dana Pârvulescu- Project coordinator.
Artists: Alexandra Boaru, Alexandra Moț, Alexandru Vârtej, Andreea Pielescu, Lena Ciobanu, Maria Trifon, Matei Emanuel, Petra Maria, Raluca R. Gorgos.
Mentors: Maria Mandea, Monica Stroe, Bogdan Iancu.
Project coordinator: Dana Pârvulescu.
The exhibition can be visited until September 24, 2023 at the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Aquarium Hall.
Art and Anthropology is an initiative of @laborator_artistic.
The Artistic Laboratory Association is a project started in the spring of 2020 that aimed to become a viable partner for emerging artists by creating opportunities not only for exhibitions but also for learning and experimentation through dialogue and mutual support. Until now, the association has organized collective exhibitions within the NAG 2020 edition in the @stirbei47 space and the @spațiul Dialog on the 4th floor of the MNAC.
“Art and Anthropology” is a project initiated by the Artistic Laboratory Association and co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration. The project does not necessarily represent the position of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the project’s content or how the project results may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.














Photo credit: @georgecaptivant.exe