ORSOLYA
The project “Searching for a secret garden” is an allusion to Bosch’s Garden of earthly delights’ left panel, in which we look for households with vegetable gardens of small producers, who
manage to produce enough food on a relatively small territory for 1-2 families in Transilvania. Gardens that are
valuable from the point of view of diversity, complex gardening and beauty, and bring to focus an old sustainable model of cohabitation between man and natural habitat that can be adapted to our contemporary needs.
Gardens behind the gates and fences of people who know how to work the land, and do it in a way that combines the useful and beautiful, diversity with efficiency - qualities that disappear slowly from our gardens and houses.
Part of the project materialized in the work with the same title, built with the support of Cluj Cultural Center in 2023 and financed by Romania Remarcabila
valuable from the point of view of diversity, complex gardening and beauty, and bring to focus an old sustainable model of cohabitation between man and natural habitat that can be adapted to our contemporary needs.
Gardens behind the gates and fences of people who know how to work the land, and do it in a way that combines the useful and beautiful, diversity with efficiency - qualities that disappear slowly from our gardens and houses.
Part of the project materialized in the work with the same title, built with the support of Cluj Cultural Center in 2023 and financed by Romania Remarcabila
PHOTOS OF A SECRET GARDEN
2014 - ongoing
The project “Searching for a secret garden” started in 2014 with photographs of plants taken behind a paper filter, called “Photos of a secret garden”, with the desire of speaking about the world of fauna by partially hiding it from the viewer, creating an atmosphere where plants become enigmatic figures, possible characters of imaginary worlds - an homage to an apparently static and silent form of life, often forgotten when speaking about all living things.
Instead of botanical observations, the author wishes to present plants as characters with humanlike intentions and will in their movement captured on the photographs.
By this metaphorical approach, theatrical setup, we wish to invite the public to rediscover the kingdom of plants, it’s beauty and richness.
“An invested and knowledgeable public is one equipped to drive environmental policy reform. A plant aware public will only be achieved through education at all levels”( The botanical education extinction and the fall of plant awareness in Ecology and Evolution, by Sebastian Stroud).
Technique: digital photography with paper filter
Instead of botanical observations, the author wishes to present plants as characters with humanlike intentions and will in their movement captured on the photographs.
By this metaphorical approach, theatrical setup, we wish to invite the public to rediscover the kingdom of plants, it’s beauty and richness.
“An invested and knowledgeable public is one equipped to drive environmental policy reform. A plant aware public will only be achieved through education at all levels”( The botanical education extinction and the fall of plant awareness in Ecology and Evolution, by Sebastian Stroud).
Technique: digital photography with paper filter
ÉTUDES FROM AN INNER GARDEN
05-08 2020
During the lockdown in 2020, when having access to a garden proved to be a luxury, the project with plants evolved into an experimental short called “Études from an inner garden”, a video documentation of a 100 square meter garden in the center of Cluj Napoca, Romania. Based on the project “Photos of a secret garden”, using the same technique of the paper filter, the intention with this new approach was to create a story with plants in motion, in a city which has known an incredibly fast real estate development in the last 10 years, witnessing a moment of crisis in the present, while trying to rediscuss and reevaluate new and old value systems, our relation with the natural and man-made world.
Taking advantage of her experience in puppetry the author decided to work with plants in the way she does it with puppets. The puppet operates “in the collapsed boundaries between the living and the inanimate”, so “Études from an inner garden” invites the viewer to suspend these boundaries and reestablish a relation based on empathy and sympathy towards the material and natural world - in this case the world of plants. It could be a first step on the way to a less divided world where erasing the dichotomies between animate and inanimate could lead to a more responsible attitude regarding human actions.
The project includes the observation and manipulation of plants, with the desire of creating a multidisciplinary work, involving fine arts and narrative in movement.
“Etudes from an inner garden” participated at the Bucharest International Dance Film Festival in September 2020, at the Fuori Formato Festival Internazionale di Danza at Torino in 2021 September, at the group exhibition "Rerouting" in the gallery Contemporary Calgary and Oodaaq Festival in Rennes, France in 2022.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/829741252
Press: https://www.locacritica.com/storieswedance2021
Taking advantage of her experience in puppetry the author decided to work with plants in the way she does it with puppets. The puppet operates “in the collapsed boundaries between the living and the inanimate”, so “Études from an inner garden” invites the viewer to suspend these boundaries and reestablish a relation based on empathy and sympathy towards the material and natural world - in this case the world of plants. It could be a first step on the way to a less divided world where erasing the dichotomies between animate and inanimate could lead to a more responsible attitude regarding human actions.
The project includes the observation and manipulation of plants, with the desire of creating a multidisciplinary work, involving fine arts and narrative in movement.
“Etudes from an inner garden” participated at the Bucharest International Dance Film Festival in September 2020, at the Fuori Formato Festival Internazionale di Danza at Torino in 2021 September, at the group exhibition "Rerouting" in the gallery Contemporary Calgary and Oodaaq Festival in Rennes, France in 2022.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/829741252
Press: https://www.locacritica.com/storieswedance2021
REAL SHADOWS
05-09 2021
“Real shadows” is an interactive mechanical installation built with the intention of bringing back into focus Plato’s Allegory of the cave, his philosophical thoughts about human condition and true knowledge, placed in our present cultural context.
By the medium of the installation, the author is looking for possible answers to questions like: what is our relation with reality? is the world perceived by our senses the real one, or just a projection of it? are we capable to understand the real nature of the world that surrounds us?
If in Plato’s allegory the world that is visible to us, is just a world of shadows and appearances, then how does our perception of reality change, through the filter of today’s technology?
Does technology change the way we used to look at the world and ourselves, if our relation with the material world is weaker today? And what is our relation with the unknown?
Composed of a simple mechanical system and two wire sculptures, put in motion by the visitor himself, the installation is looking for possible answers, focusing in movement around us.
The installations was built with the support of Cluj Cultural Center in 2021, and exhibited at the group exhibition called WUD ( Work upside down) - The future of work, at Cluj Napoca, Romania
Video: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/730720472
By the medium of the installation, the author is looking for possible answers to questions like: what is our relation with reality? is the world perceived by our senses the real one, or just a projection of it? are we capable to understand the real nature of the world that surrounds us?
If in Plato’s allegory the world that is visible to us, is just a world of shadows and appearances, then how does our perception of reality change, through the filter of today’s technology?
Does technology change the way we used to look at the world and ourselves, if our relation with the material world is weaker today? And what is our relation with the unknown?
Composed of a simple mechanical system and two wire sculptures, put in motion by the visitor himself, the installation is looking for possible answers, focusing in movement around us.
The installations was built with the support of Cluj Cultural Center in 2021, and exhibited at the group exhibition called WUD ( Work upside down) - The future of work, at Cluj Napoca, Romania
Video: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/730720472
SHORT ESSAY ON UNCERTAINTY
05-09 2021
“Short essay on uncertainty” is a shadow theatre play for adults, constructed with the tutorship of
Alberto Jona, artistic director of the festival Incanti, and member of the company
"Teatro controluce".
The idea of the show, "Short essay on uncertainty", was born with the desire of creating a puppet play, based on several themes that appear in the books of Thomas Mann. The show wants to raise questions related to the relation between "individual" and community, culture and personal history, - with a critical approach.
The scenography consists a small stage, like the paper theaters made for children in the 18-19th century, which contains paintings in front of a light source. Black and white images, accompanied by sounds recorded in 4 countries, are telling us a story with the rhythm of the storytellers, concentrating on Thomas Mann's question: do we have free will? are we acting according to our own will? is a person who dares to question our convictions, guilty? What is human sin and who is a sinner? What can we do with these questions in the 21th century? I consider that being aware is more than enough.
The premiere of the show was in October in 2019 at the Festival Incanti, where it received a special prize for image and sound design.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiuhjzjvmuA&t=6s
The idea of the show, "Short essay on uncertainty", was born with the desire of creating a puppet play, based on several themes that appear in the books of Thomas Mann. The show wants to raise questions related to the relation between "individual" and community, culture and personal history, - with a critical approach.
The scenography consists a small stage, like the paper theaters made for children in the 18-19th century, which contains paintings in front of a light source. Black and white images, accompanied by sounds recorded in 4 countries, are telling us a story with the rhythm of the storytellers, concentrating on Thomas Mann's question: do we have free will? are we acting according to our own will? is a person who dares to question our convictions, guilty? What is human sin and who is a sinner? What can we do with these questions in the 21th century? I consider that being aware is more than enough.
The premiere of the show was in October in 2019 at the Festival Incanti, where it received a special prize for image and sound design.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiuhjzjvmuA&t=6s