Initiated by: Grădina Ideilor — Maia Ștefana Oprea
Curator: Nicoleta Popa Grigore
Artists: Chob, Ioana-Teodora Duță, Oana Mazarache, Maia Ștefana Oprea, Oana Tudose, Ramona Șlug
Grădina Ideilor presents REWILDING, a group exhibition bringing together six women artists and a landscape in which nature is approached as a space of memory, transformation, and interdependence.
In the Făgăraș Mountains, where Grădina Ideilor carries out its activities, rewilding is already a reality: the European bison has been reintroduced into its natural habitat, while species such as the asprete (Romanichthys valsanicola), whose survival depends on the Vâlsan River ecosystem, remain critically vulnerable. The region is also home to a remarkable diversity of protected plants, mammals, birds, and invertebrates.
Against the backdrop of growing global concern for ecosystem restoration and biodiversity recovery, rewilding is understood not as a return to an idealised vision of nature, but as the restoration of relationships and processes that allow the living world to endure, evolve, and regain its balance.
The works in the exhibition take this idea as their point of departure without merely illustrating an ecological discourse. Through a variety of artistic languages and materials, they create a shared territory inhabited by animals and habitats, nests and trees, soil and vegetation, disappearance and return, memory and the possibility of regeneration.
From “Forest Drama” and “Masters of Nature” to “Underground Pulse,” “The Landscape Remembers,” “Species Without a Habitat,” “The Nest,” and “Amulet of Return,” the works offer distinct perspectives on a shared question: what remains, and what might return, when space is given back to nature?
Painting, installation, sculpture, and textiles—as well as figurative, symbolic, and evocative forms—do not seek formal unity. Instead, they create a space of encounter in which the differences between the works become integral to the meaning of the exhibition as a whole.
Visitors are invited to enter this encounter without expecting definitive answers. Some works lend themselves to interpretation; others are meant primarily to be felt. Between image, material, and memory, a subtle dialogue emerges with that which exists beyond the human gaze.
REWILDING thus becomes more than a theme: it is an invitation to shift our perspective—from seeing nature as a backdrop to recognising it as a partner in our shared existence.
Grădina Ideilor is a contemporary art collective founded in Nucșoara, Argeș County, in the Făgăraș Mountains. Centred on ecological reflection, collective research, and site-responsive artistic practices, the project brings together artists from a range of disciplines through encounters in nature, dialogue with local communities, and collaborative forms of artistic exchange.
Partners: Union of Visual Artists of Romania; Curtea de Argeș Municipal Museum; Golești Museum of Viticulture and Fruit Growing
Media partners: Modernism.ro, Agenția de Carte, ArteVezi, Emerging Artists, Radio România Cultural
EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Olga Ciob (b. 1982, Chișinău)
Working under the name Chob, the artist explores the values, beliefs, and contradictions that shape contemporary human existence. Through painting, sculpture, and mixed media, she addresses themes including identity, freedom, memory, and collective experience. Her work reflects on the tension between the individual and the social structures that define our lives.
Ioana Teodora Duță (b. 1990, Curtea de Argeș)
Based in Curtea de Argeș, Ioana Teodora Duță is a graduate of the National University of Arts in Bucharest. Her practice encompasses easel painting, book illustration, and contemporary jewellery, exploring the natural world in its many forms—from the human figure and organic forms to non-figurative abstraction.
Oana Mazarache (b. 1994, Suceava)
Oana Mazarache is a visual artist based in Iași and a graduate of the “George Enescu” National University of Arts in Iași. Working across painting, drawing, and mixed media, she investigates memory, nature, and identity. Her practice approaches nature as a site of memory and as a bearer of both individual and collective identity.
Maia Ștefana Oprea (b. 1987, Bucharest)
Based between Prahova and Argeș, Maia Ștefana Oprea is a graduate of the National University of Arts in Bucharest and has received scholarships in France and the United States. Through an ecologically engaged visual practice, she explores the relationship between art and nature, investigating the intersection of contemporary approaches and traditional craft.
Ramona Șlug (b. 1979, Constanța)
A visual artist based in Curtea de Argeș, Ramona Șlug explores the relationship between education, nature, heritage, and artistic expression. In 2013, she co-founded BAR – Bărăști Artist Residency, transforming her family’s rural heritage into a vibrant space for artistic creation.
Oana Tudose (b. 1987, Roșiori de Vede)
Oana Tudose is a visual artist based in Denmark. Her practice draws on textile traditions shaped by repair and reuse in contexts of limited resources, examining care, vulnerability, and preservation as forms of ethical labour.
Text by Maia Ștefana Oprea
Curator Nicoleta Popa Grigore
