WAR METANARRATIVES

  War metanarratives was a project I developed together with Mirela Joja and Alexandra Tataru for the program MORA EMERGING. The main motivation was the I World War commemoration in 2014 through various cultural initiatives which reminded us the war stories we had heard during our childhood from our grandparents. This experience gave birth to a subjective perspective of reliving these stories through empathy. In our project we tried to depict some symbols that we have kept in mind and which were activated by the actual situation of political instability. From this emotional context we have conceived an installation which unifies symbols like: bread, the black gloves and the clove pinks which represent our connection with the evoked war stories. It is a commemorative table dedicated to those who died during the war and didn’t have a proper burial service. This table seems untouched; nevertheless the presence of the black gloves instead of the eating utensil is suggesting the presence of the death ones. The bread centered on the table brings the ones we commemorate on the same spiritual level, being an aliment which is fictive shared equally to all the guests. The clove pinks are common elements known from the mortuary culture, covering the table with a macabre beauty.

  The symbol I used in this project was the black hand (black glove as a part of the  Remembrance table installation). It’s the symbol of the war and death, a phantomatic presence and the annoncer of panic. In the digital work Framing the loved ones, the black hand is surprised when hitting a nail with a hamer for fixing on the wall a picture portraiting a solder with his familly. The image was being born from the pain of being obliged to transform  the picture of someone you love in a commemorative image.

Remembrance table- group installation (by Adriana Vilcu, Mirela Joja, Alexandra Tataru), CONCEPT exhibition at MORA art center

Nourishemnt- installation by Mirela Joja, CONCEPT exhibition at MORA art center

Framing the loved ones- Digital print, by Adriana Vilcu, CONCEPT exhibition at MORA art center

Flowers for the soldiers- oil on canvas by Alexandra Tataru, CONCEPT exhibition at MORA art center