“Starting from the techniques used by students during manual work in communism, Mihaela Moldovan puts on view in this solo show a visual concept with several binary pairs. The paper weaving in black and white unveils from a feminist perspective the relationship between applied arts and 'major' arts, between lived reality and imagined reality, between everyday rhythm and domestic rhythm, between utilitarian time and creative time, or between personal time and time dedicated to others. At the same time, the selection revisits identity perspectives from the local topos that lie at the intersection of personal introspection and social memory, respectively between common experience and breaking the mold through the act of creation. Whether she weaves narratives in textile thread (like installations resembling oversized milieus) or in paper (like the works presented here), Mihaela Moldovan's current artistic practice focuses on repetitive gestures that can be claimed anthropologically or ideologically, in the sense of a subtle-subversive feminism.” – Ana Daniela Sultana

Mihaela Moldovan (Vezentan) is one of the visual artists who form the community of Atelierele Malmaison and also a member of Group ~28, a collective dedicated to exploring representations and experiences of women in art. A graduate of UNArte Bucharest, with a degree in Textile Arts and Textile Design and a master's degree in Visual Arts, Mihaela Moldovan positions her artistic practice in the area of experimental textiles, using old embroidery/lace techniques while employing new materials from the industrial field (ropes, cables, hoses, etc.) as well as cut paper techniques inspired by the manual workshops of her childhood. She exhibited solo and group exhibitions at Anca Poterașu Gallery, the National Museum of Romanian History, Scena 9, Art Safari, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, and WHITECUIB Gallery in Cluj.

Ana Daniela Sultana is a curator and columnist, who graduated from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Her articles appear in ARTA magazine, Romanian-Italian Cultural Horizons and on agentiadecarte.ro. She collaborates with institutions such as creart – the Center for Creation, Art and Tradition of Bucharest, the International Cultural Centre in Krakow, the Romanian Cultural Institute in Istanbul, the Romanian Cultural Institute in Vienna, the Romanian Cultural Institute in Venice, the Austrian Cultural Forum in Bucharest, the Museum of Bucharest, the Literature Museum in Bucharest, the Art Museum of Timișoara, Kunsthalle Feldbach, Aluniș Art Center and with various contemporary art galleries.

Photo credit: Răzvan Năstase