My practice as a post-conceptual artist, writer, photographer, and activist is always in flux, being reframed. I started very performative and I’ve always framed my work in writing. I also worked to build up or reimagine institutions, always in agonistic dialogue.
I am at the moment interested, in more general terms, in the topic of standing in solidarity through protest and in how image-making - both online and off - plays a part in this.
My question: What is the role of the image when it comes to standing in solidarity through protest against capitalist hegemony and precarity? How is the image of a movement formed through official and alternative media instances? How can I, as an artist, contribute to the forming of the image of a protest movement through socially engaged means? What kind of imaginary new models of living together can be brought about collectively?
In my work I am observing, documenting, and doing solidarity with collectives and individuals facing precarity which come together to dismantle capitalist business-as-usual systems of exploitation within the Netherlands while being globally connected and inspired. My aim is then to reactivate the power and presence of protest beyond its confines.
Here protest has a quite broad definition for me: from acts of civil disobedience that are non-violent, to petitions, debates, and building of counter-capitalist structures of care, creating a series of dialogues on alternatives to exploitative systems.
My methodology includes embodied research. I act as a member of several collectives, not someone outside of them, and also work towards reimagining ways of being together.
My framework of engaging takes into account my position, that of a Romanian migrant who has been living in the Netherlands continuously since 2012, as well as my practice as an artist within this timespan.
Blending these influences, as well as taking into account the need for rest and regeneration within protest movements, my work attempts to tie in the performative, written, and reflective with varying success.
In what follows I will enumerate the institutions and collectives I am associated with and I still keep a connection with.
As an activist I am a member of non-hierarchical decentralized collectives: Extinction Rebellion and XR Justice Now!, Workers for Palestine, KABK Student Union, and a part of the Amsterdam Students’ Encampment for Palestine that was set up at the University of Amsterdam and that is connected to Encampments in Nijmegen, Utrecht, Groningen, Delft, Leiden, Maastricht, Eindhoven, The Hague, Wageningen.
I am in support of Dutch Scholars for Palestine which is nationwide connected in the Netherlands and GRA.SI Students for Palestine originated in the Rietveld Academy, my alma mater.
As a socially engaged artist, I am a general board member of Platform BK, was a member of the programming committee at Kunsthuis Syb, and I am a union member with Kunstenbond, and a former member with Kunstverein, Amsterdam. I have also volunteered with Fairwork, which directly supports victims of labour exploitation in the Netherlands. And I’ve been a member of the Federation of Dutch Unions (FNV).
I am also a member of the newly founded improvised collective “Not Surprised” that tried to lend out from the Stedelijk Museum the work “Bakunin’s Barricade” by Ahmet Ögüt.
As a post-conceptual artist in Amsterdam, I’ve had talks and exhibited at Pakhuis de Zwijger, De Appel, Kunstverein, Stichting Link, radio JaJaJaNee- NeeNee, TAAK, W139, This Art Fair, Buro Stedelijk, Gallery Plan B, Amsterdam Museum.
As a post-conceptual artist otherwise:
In Hoorn I’ve exhibited and was in residency at Hotel Maria Kapel.
In Utrecht I’ve exhibited at IMPAKT via a curator friend.
In Leeuwarden I’ve exhibited and was in residency at VHDG.
In Beestezwaag I was nominated for the Kunsthuis Syb prize and exhibited as part of it.
In Eindhoven I’ve worked with Onomatopee.
In Croatia I’ve exhibited at Drugo More.
In Lithuania I’ve been in residency at NIDA Artists Colony.
In Romania I’ve worked with FABER in Timisoara and Goethe Institut and Tranzit in Bucharest.
As a writer, I’ve sold my publications at San Serriffe, Bookie Wookie in Amsterdam, and KIOSK in Rotterdam. And I’ve printed with Raddraaijer and Terry Bleu. My graphic designers throughout time have been my peers from the Rietveld Academie: Andreea Peterfi, François Girard-Meunier, and Till Hormann.
When it came to writing shorter pieces that I’ve also illustrated with photos I’ve published articles in Tijdschrift Kunstlicht, Revista IDEA, Tubelight, Metropolis M, Mister Motley, Simulacrum, The Hmm, DAMN Magazine, and Trigger Online. I’ve also published repeatedly on some of these platforms, not just as one-offs.
As a volunteer I’ve given my time and money to Hiba Abu Nada, or The People’s University, Helen’s Free Food Market, the Dyke March, salwa, in Amsterdam, and varia in Rotterdam, because I believe in supporting a diverse and socially engaged ecosystem that bridges the arts and other disciplines.
My external mentors have been gerlach en koop, a duo that has given me support with exhibition making in the past, via the Mondriaan Fonds, and with which it’s been a pleasure to reconnect in my position as an MA student.
Within these configurations of display and distribution, I’ve made work that is both fitting into traditional exhibition gallery formats, I’ve worked with performance, I’ve self-published experimental texts, and I’ve initiated calls to organize within the field of visual art.
My medium is always defined by the topic I tackle. It can end up being a petition, an installation, a performative reading, a banner, an article, a print, a general assembly, a union, a public space intervention, an audio essay, a flag, or a pot of soup. The point is less to become tied to a medium, and more to put across an idea.
It’s difficult in all of this to emphasize my entrepreneurialism, given that the aim of my work has never really been to become an entrepreneur, but rather the core of all of my works has been to highlight how capitalist neocolonialist Western systems of exploitation should be tackled and turned into systems of care instead. Many times I achieved this by highlighting the systems of care that already struggle to keep themselves afloat and by lending them a hand, in a non-hierarchical, non-exploitative, non-extractivist manner. One doesn’t always need to reinvent the wheel!
In that sense I am an artist who is very well embedded into an alternative to the regular entrepreneurial art field, I am in the margins, showing that there can be generous ways of making that call established exploitative systems into account.
Given the current context, which sees the rise of the far right across Western Europe, the rise of militarism, as well as a lack of care for people and the planet, support given to practices like mine, networked with other similar practices of resistance, is all the more necessary.
In terms of reaching out to audiences, I want to see the term “audience” be reimagined as well - moved beyond the passive idea of receiver of visual, text, or auditory knowledge, into an active co-creator and participant. The “audience” of my performance pieces, of my visual art and text contributions, are the very members of the institutions and platforms that I present things with and on. Together we are co-creating works and alternatives to the status quo, switching between giving and receiving.