Installation, painting, sculpture, participatory work
La mâna dreaptă
E o lină fântână;
La lină fântână
Este ş-o Babă Bătrână,
Cu ciomag în mână
BABA emerged from a personal experience of loss following the death of my grandmother. At the same time, the project draws upon Romanian funerary mythology, ritual songs, and traditions that accompany the soul on its journey from the world of the living to the world beyond.
The exhibition was inspired by an ancient Romanian funeral lament in which the deceased is instructed how to navigate the critical stages of the passage after death. Within these songs appears the figure of Baba Bătrână (The Old Woman), a mythical guide who accompanies and protects the soul as it travels between worlds.
At the centre of the exhibition stood a four-metre painting depicting my grandmother in a boat drifting across dark waters toward a luminous spring. Her eyes are closed, her expression serene. Holding a staff, she appears neither as a mourner nor as the deceased herself, but as a guide: the first presence encountered on the threshold between life and death. I imagined her as a figure of wisdom, kindness, and acceptance, peacefully leading the soul toward its next destination.
The boat references traditional Romanian funerary symbolism, where water becomes a liminal space separating one existence from another. The work was further informed by the ritual known as Dezlegarea Izvorului ("The Unbinding of the Spring"), performed forty days after death, when the soul is believed to continue its journey through water toward the beyond.
Crossing the gallery was an eight-metre suspended structure carrying forty circular paintings, each twenty centimetres in diameter. Inspired by the verse:
"Patruzeci de colacei / Toți cu lumină-n ei"
(Forty ritual breads / Each carrying a light within)
the works functioned as contemporary interpretations of colaceii cu lumină, symbolic offerings associated with memorial rites. Created through poured layers of colour, each piece resembled a fragment of celestial light, a small portal, or a map of an unseen landscape.
Visitors were invited to take one of these paintings home free of charge. This gesture referenced the Romanian tradition of pomana, the act of giving gifts in memory of the deceased for the benefit of their soul. Through this act, the exhibition extended beyond the gallery, dispersing fragments of remembrance into the lives of strangers and transforming mourning into an act of generosity.
The installation also included a sculptural work inspired by gulerele cu bănuți, ceremonial funeral objects mentioned in traditional lamentations.
While rooted in the memory of a specific person, BABA ultimately reflects on universal questions of departure, guidance, and continuity. Through painting, installation, sculpture, and participation, the project reimagines ancient Romanian funerary traditions as a space where grief, myth, and communal memory can coexist.
