The “Mother’s Nature” group exhibition, curated by Maya Økland and Cristina Bută, can be visited at the Sector 1 Gallery in Bucharest.

“In Norwegian, the word føde means both food and give birth. Nature is commonly referred to as Mother Earth, as she is portrayed in almost every culture: to the Aztecs, Earth was called Tonantzin – “our mother”; to the Incas, Earth was called Pachamama – “mother earth”, the word pacha in Quechua also signifying “space-time” or “universe”. The Chinese Earth goddess Hou Tu is similar to Gaia, the Greek goddess personifying the Earth.
In other words, mother is simultaneously the symbol of our entire existence, and the everyday woman we all must relate to whether we like her, or not. She can be a he, she, them or they, biological, cultural, or spiritual. Absent, present, good, and bad. We dream of her unconditional love just as much as we find it hard to resist the desire to control her. Honored and blamed, the multitude of ambivalence in her relations holds no limits. She can destroy us and nurture us, all at the same time.

In her writings, philosopher of science Isabelle Stengers calls Gaia/Earth a devastating power that shifts our categories of thought. Mother Nature is not the constant giver promising us nourishment, or, in a paradoxical fashion, the land of resources our capitalist societies continue to exploit. The title of the exhibition references both Mother Nature beyond her romanticized personification, as well as the relations and non-relations that we have with our mothers and other maternal figures and constructs.

Within a society that is still prejudist towards gender, race and sexuality, in which certain stories and histories are or remain silenced, ecologies of care appear. How do we negotiate the relationship between care and emancipation? How do we grow with the other? From queer and feminist perspectives, the artworks and performances of Norwegian and Romanian artists Cristina David, Jasmina Al-Qaisi, Kiyoshi Yamamoto, Monica Winther and Ștefania Crișan trace existential affection, power, anxiety and love while calling upon Mother.” ( excerpt from the curatorial text)

The exhibition, open until August 24, 2023, includes a program of performances. The performance “Paction Drawing” by the artist Monica Winther took place during the opening event. On July 22, the Norwegian artist with Brazilian origins, Kiyoshi Yamamoto, staged “It Takes No Compromise to Give People Their Rights,” 2023. On July 28, the young artist Ștefania Crișan will present for the first time in Bucharest the performance “Reverse the Entropy,” part of a larger project around the village of Geamăna, swallowed by the waste resulting from copper mining in the area.

Participating artists: Jasmina Al-Qaisi, Ștefania Crișan, Cristina David, Monica Winther, Kiyoshi Yamamoto

Maya Økland (b. 1980, Bergen) is an artist and curator. She holds an MFA in photography from Bergen National College of Arts in 2005. Maya Økland co-founded the independent art gallery KNIPSU in Bergen and co-curated its program from 2010-2015. Between 2015-2017 she worked for Director Hanne Mugaas as Assistant Curator, Interim Director, and Coordinator at Kunsthall Stavanger. In 2021, she was the art advisor for the public sculpture “Benkene til Kim” by the artist Lina Viste Grønli in honor of the queer rights activist Kim Friele (1935-2021). From 2013 to 2023, Økland was part of the editorial team of the feminist magazine Fett, where she frequently published texts on art and feminism.

Cristina Bută (b. 1992, Timișoara) has a bachelor’s degree in Literary Studies and Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam, obtained cum laude and a master’s degree in Curating Art & Cultures, University of Amsterdam and Vrije Universiteit. She was a curator-in-training at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and a freelance writer and editor, publishing in journals such as Third Text.
She collaborates as a curator with the Sector 1 Gallery, where she is also the artistic director, and in 2023 she was part of the curatorial collective of the Art Encounters 2023 Art Biennale “My Rhino is Not a Myth. art science fictions” and is one of the editors of the catalog of the same name.

The exhibition program of the Sector 1 Gallery, established in 2017, is mainly based on the exhibition of contemporary artists trained in the context of the strong artistic community in Cluj and on the representation of the heritage of several post-avant-garde Romanian artists.
Currently, the gallery is developing a diverse program to (re)present emerging talents and established Romanian and international artists.

Cover photo: Nini Rădulescu