Artists: Ioana Cîrlig, Morgane Denzler, Andreea Medar, Delia Popa, Iulian Bisericaru, Ilie Mihali, Damien Rouxel, Donald Simionoiu
15.08-31.08.2025
ARAC, Școala Gimnazială Repedea, Săcel, Maramureș
The event and the Opening of the exhibition took place in a former village school, closed due to depopulation, a symbolic space reactivated through art and engagement with the local community.
August 15th carried triple meanings: the Feast of Saint Mary, Maramureș Day, and Anca Poterasu’s birthday, the moment to celebrate the community , tradition, and contemporary art.
Over two weeks, a group of artists (Morgane Denzler, Damien Rouxel, Delia Popa, Ioana Cirlig, Andreea Medar and Ilie Mihali) reactivated the project in Sacel (Maramures, Romania) at the invitation of Anca Poterasu (ARAC). A collective time of thought, encounters, plastic experiments, lo,gues discussions and questioning about the agricultural realities of our place. We are aware of the extreme fragility of these agricultural realities. Practices are based on family subsistence. This blatant fragility contrasts with the intensity of the interdependence between faith, rurality, crafts (ceramics, weaving and embroidery in particular), traditions, animals, the river and the forest. At Sacel, everything in daily life and in its own ecosystem (visible and invisible, human and more-than-human), is connected. Thus, Morgane Denzler continued her reflections on sheep farming, wool and the relationship between shepherd, flock and place. Damien Rouxel sought to merge personal issues with observations made in Maramures about traditions and material realities. Ilie Mihali devoted his time to working with earth and fire to create ceramic works. Ioana Cirlig has immersed herself in the vegetal dimension of Sacel. Delia Popa thought up links between her place (Crețești, Vidra region) and Sacel, two vulnerable villages. Andreea Medar continued her research into a disappearing memory. In Sacel, she became aware of the disappearance of pastoral customs and collaborated with a potter and a singer to revive a gestural and musical memory.
(Julie Crenn, july 2025)
Below are installation views from the exhibition presenting the outcomes of the Săcel Art Residency. Over a two-week period in Săcel, Maramureș, seven artists and one curator engaged in a collaborative creative process.
We warmly thank our guest curator, Julie Crenn, for her dedication and involvement, as well as the participating artists: Delia Popa, Morgane Denzler, Damien Rouxel, Ioana Cîrlig, Ilie Mihail, Andreea Medar and invited artist Donald Simionoiu and Iulian Bisericaru.
is based on a pastoral custom from the Maramureș region of Romania, also practiced in the village of Săcel. During her stay at our Residence, she was inspired by a a traditional pastoral ritual from Maramureș, which marked the start of the grazing season and affirmed communal belonging through the measuring of sheep’s milk. Her work entitled Ruptul Sterpelor, consists of a ceramic vessel (historically used as a milk container), made in collaboration with local potter Burnar Tănase. On its inner surface, a fragment of a traditional song related to Ruptul Sterpelor is inscribed in Braille. A light source inside transforms the vessel into an intimate lantern, alluding to its current uselessness. The vessel it’s displayed on a rotating stand, with an audio recording playing underneath — created together with Mrs. Maria Catană, one of the few people who still remembers those melody.
The song becomes a sonic code of collective memory, embedded in clay. “Ruptul Sterpelor” is both an act of recovery and transformation. It is a work that speaks of community, loss, and resilience.
in front: Ilie Mihali
Part of the research The New Empire an ongoing visual investigation by Romanian artist Ioana Cîrlig. Started in 2017, initially as a personal exploration of her relationship with Nature and Home, this photographic journey evolved into a broader inquiry into our connection with the Earth, looking at themes like: the concept of wilderness and our
bizarre relationship to nature, science and research, the possibility of plant//trash kinship, the utopia of space colonies, and the sensuality of flowers.
The project is co-funded by the Ministry of Culture.
Partners: French Institute Bucharest and Goethe-Institut.
Local Partners: Primăria Săcel, Borodi Design Studio, Consiliul Local Săcel, Județul Maramureș
Photo credits: Ioana Cîrlig