Ada Muntean. Lacrimarium: Suspended Memories

A new exhibition project signed by the artist Ada Muntean joined SCAF (Sibiu Contemporary Art Festival) After Season program. The exhibition opened on Friday, November 1, in the presence of the artist and the curators of the exhibition, Alexandra Runcan and Alexandra Goșnescu, can be visited at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Tribunei Street no. 6) until December 22, 2024.

The Lacrimarium: Suspended Memories project starts as an idea from the meaning of the artefact of the same name, the lacrimarium. This type of ancient vessel was found in the Hellenistic civilization and spread in the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and the states that Byzantine Orthodoxy influenced. A lacrimarium is a small terracotta or, more commonly, glass vessel found in late Roman and Greek tombs, which is thought to have been the container in which the mourners kept their tears. It contained perfumes, ointments, and holy oils (myrrh). The purpose of this artefact was, of course, symbolic.

Starting from this object’s symbolic function, the entire exhibition space metaphorically sums up the vessel’s purpose —that of the keeper of sensations, states, memories, and fragments of reality—which materialize in the form of two-dimensional and three-dimensional works, creating an aesthetic and conceptual dialogue around identity and memory.

The exhibition presents compositions made using mixed techniques (predominantly graphic and photographic), which synthesize plastic concerns developed during the last two years, with an experimental tendency regarding the association of materials. Lacrimarium. Suspended Memories configures the exhibition space as a frame of perception and reflection regarding the passage of time and how this process influences the perception of the fragile nature of existence. Thus, an imaginary construction is made about the existential course and then its dissolution to immerse the viewer in a cyclical journey about loss and recovery.

Born in 1987, Ada Muntean lives and works in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She is a graduate of the Cluj University of Art and Design, with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Fine Arts, specializing in Graphics, and a PhD in Visual Arts, completed in 2019 at the same institution. Ada Muntean has won and benefited from cultural exchange scholarships at the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (Great Britain), the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (Poland), the Peckham Platform Art Gallery in London and the Plan B Gallery, Berlin. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions. Her activity also includes curatorial projects and extends to cultural journalism.

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