ARTIST STATEMENT

I am a Romanian-Swiss artist whose artistic journey is marked by threads ranging from pop-culture to migration and death. My artistic practice is a multifaceted exploration of the complex intersections between identity, culture, and personal history.

Born nine years after the revolution in Romania, my childhood has been shaped by the enduring narratives and entrenched customs that have persisted since the days of communism. Through my work I aim to deconstruct the ordinary, the given narratives, costumes, and traditions, with a keen eye toward unraveling the layers of meaning and symbolism that lie beneath the surface. In my collaborative performance alongside David Dragan, we directly address the ambivalence of coming from a rigid system, incorporating the Romanian national anthem into a voguing act while adorning an image of a saint with make-up.

The formative era of internet trends and social media have left a mark on both my identity and my artistic expression. In my work titled "Losing Control in Progress," I dismantle a decade-old piece of online advice, harkening back to a time when eating disorder trends proliferated on platforms like Tumblr.

All of my artworks have their base in literary texts or contain text in a certain form. Crushing linguistic barriers, through combining sayings and expressions, translating and paraphrasing is an important part of my working process. This is audible in my performances and videos, where I simultaneously use German, English and Romanian, as a way of expressing the complexity of language fluidity.

 My work is underscored by deep introspection of my own biography, where I openly talk about issues such as alcoholism and drug abuse. In the works “The one’s that got away” and “LOL, am I pathetic?:(“ I take a close look at how people are encouraged to abuse drugs through internet tropes. I create exaggerated narratives to uncover the suffering that often accompanies it, which is concealed behind a screen on social media.

In conclusion, I like to understand my art as a conduit between cultures, delving deep into the layers of identity, cultural narratives, and experiences of migration. 

At the moment I’m working on my video installation titled “When I grow up I want to be a migrant” commissioned by Helmhaus Zürich. The show is opening on the 25th of January 2024.