The Romanian Cultural Institute in Berlin presents, in collaboration with the Galeria Artep Association, the solo exhibition Imago Mundi. Of Margins and Other Heroes by artist Nicu Ilfoveanu as part of EMOP Berlin 2025 – European Month of Photography.
“Nicu Ilfoveanu is an artist whose work equally explores socio-documentary themes as well as the theoretical and aesthetic dimensions of the image. His practice navigates a dynamic interplay between the unforeseen and the deliberate, the observational and the personal, the evident and the hidden, revealing the sublime within the mundane. With Imago Mundi, the artist guides us through complex constellations of images that raise profound questions about cultural continuity and ruptures, collective memory, and identity formation. Nicu Ilfoveanu constructs his own ´imaginary museum´ by delving deeply into ideas and motifs throughout visual culture, while preserving their relevance and freshness for today´s topics.
The exhibition, curated by Ioana Mandeal, brings together images from diverse documentary and conceptually driven projects that the artist continuously explores and refines in his practice. It highlights fundamental reflections on his choice of subjects and methodology, offering a nuanced understanding of the role and significance of photography in contemporary art.
IMAGO MUNDI.
OF MARGINS AND OTHER HEROES
Over time, Nicu Ilfoveanu has been creating a subtle atlas that captures the aesthetics of daily life in present-day Romania. Imago Mundi weaves together the picturesque and the intimate with the myth-laden world of county fairs. The result is a documentary meta-narrative that focuses on iconographies and geographies that only emerge at the ´margins´: the fringes of cities, collective consciousness, and modern civilization as we know it.
In this symbolically charged space, the artist sheds new light on the essential question: what constitutes the centre of the world? The evocative landscapes and genre scenes of rural fairs serve as vibrant sites of community bonding and social exchange. At the same time, the sensitive portrayals of unsung local heroes evoke the grandeur of heroic portraiture, recontextualising the concept of the ´other´ in broader cultural and art-historical discourses.
With Imago Mundi, we gaze into the mirror of an unexplored world. Reclaiming its hidden life, the artist challenges dominant perceptions of time, space, and identity, while seeking to bridge the divide between centre and periphery.” (Excerpt from the curatorial text)
This project is organized by the RKI Berlin in collaboration with the Artep Gallery Association as part of EMOP Berlin 2025 and is co-financed by AFCN (The Administration of the National Cultural Fund of Romania).
The exhibition Imago Mundi. Of Margins and Other Heroes takes place within the framework of “IMATERIAL. Or about the matter of photographic worlds” – a two-part exhibition project presented in Berlin and Iaşi (Romania).
Exhibition design: Nathalie Opris
Visiting hours: Monday-Friday: 2:00-7:00 pm.
