IOANA RUSU
BIO
Ioana Rusu is a visual artist from Iași, Romania, a second-year master’s student at the “George Enescu” University of Arts, Department of Photography and Video Art. Her artistic practice gravitates between two extremes: reality and fiction, contextualizing some elements or events corresponding to everyday life on a constructed territory. She focus on how the human mind perceives the outside and distort reality, influenced by their own experiences. Her research subjects search around the relationship between memory, behavior and imagination. She approach post-photography, installation and video medium as tools of expression or shaping of human perceptions.
SELECTION OF WORKS
EDUCATION
2022-2024. 'George Enescu' National University of Arts, Iași, Photography and Video Art MA Erasmus Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia Master: New Technology of Arts George Enescu 2019-2022. 'George Enescu' National University of Arts, Iași, Photography, video, computerized image processing BA 2023. Color grading workshop Luno Studio
SCHOLARSHIPS / RESIDENCYS
09.2023. Accelerator Braşov - Mentorship Program - mentorship and production programme for emerging artists 06.2023-07.2023. Acasa La Hundorf - Artistic Residency „Common matters. Young artists projects (RO/HU)” publication
EXHIBITIONS
In limbo: Navigating the states in-between, TÉR, Odorheiu Secuiesc, 2024 Fabulating About a Gelato Machine, 2023, Braşov Art Museum Strategies of Disappearance, 2023, Aparte Gallery Strange Times and Improbable Encounters, 2023, Täbăcarilor Bastion in Targu Mures Tell a Story or it goes..., MATCA, Cluj Napoca, 2023 Atelier 35, Iaşi, Nicolae Tonitza Gallery, 2023 A space of her own, Iaşi, Tranzit Gallery, 2023 White Night of the Galleries, Iași, "Temporal Interstices. Private situations", 2022 Photo-Video Alumni Exhibition 2022, "Victoria" Gallery, Iasi New Media Ally, Romanian Creative Week, 2022 VIDEO 3/LAN-a network of unpredictable behaviours, Iaşi, Aparte Gallery, 2022 Imperceptible, Iaşi, Aparte Gallery, 2021 `Intamplabil`, Iasi, Grup show, 2021 Indefine Places, Iași, Group show, 2021
MEMBERSHIPS
2024- . Off Space (Odorhei)
Autopsy of forgetting
In the series of nine photographs Autopsy of forgetting, I focus on memory – a sometimes
distorted, often incomplete reconstruction of the past. I start from Polaroid frames that I
transform through an experimental process designed to break down the original representation.
Thus, the Polaroid emulsion goes through several stages: with its removal from the original
surface it reaches a fluid state, and the final transfer to another surface becomes destructive. A
new image is formed, however, from the ethereal traces of the past. prints on Hahnemühle
Photo Rag Ultrasmooth 305g, format 25 x 25 cm
Monica opens her eyes (2023)
Starting from the search for absence in the rural space, I found elements of interest that draw
attention to them precisely through the presence of other things in a context. By exploring
cultural, educational or affective directions, I focused my attention to a 9-year-old girl. I
explored the ambiguities of a happy childhood through Monica’s gestures, understanding and
drawings, which I interpret. The project is realized in an abandoned school in Viisoara during
my artistic residency at `Home at Hundorf`. The text is a selection of fragments from Andrei
Gabriel Nicolae’s poems, written during the two weeks of residency, which I recontextualized
in my film.
Body talks (2022)
The way we relate to the female body has always been guided by the stable standards of society
and the media, aiming to achieve perfection. Thus, an unnecessary pressure is born that presses
on your shoulders all your life, counting on changing your appearance “Body talks” expresses
precisely this tension between being and not being among social expectations, creating a circuit
in which the symbol of the plant death overwhelms the frame, like a toxic thought that you
can’t let go of and ends up haunting you. dominate.
Memento (2022)
My interest in the way the human mind perceives the world as it passes each experience through
a filter of its own made me turn my attention to one specific moment in which the simultaneous
relation of the past with the present alters the logic of living for a few moments, generating a
strange sensation, namely déjà vu. The project alludes to an inner state dominated by confusion,
watching the visual transposition of some mental spaces that have as a starting point the way
in which sensation, going beyond the limits of the perceptible, modifies reality.“Memento”
project comes as a reminder of how imagination works when the individual analyzes the
potential offered by a thing which at first glance seems simple.
ENJOY YOUR MEAL! (2022)
The state of mind and decision-making in humans are shaped by their emotions, impacting
their approach to life. The "Enjoy your meal" project specifically targets emotions with a
negative impact on individuals. The installation constructs a recognizable setting – a dining
scene – where the only food is a series of emotions projected on five plates. The personification
of the hands actually highlights the stake of the work, the fact that the human being feeds on
different emotions but the consumption of some of them can be toxic
