"seeing things" is an art project of the Faculty of Visual Arts and Design, "George Enescu" National University of Arts in Iași, organized as part of MoBU - International Art Fair of Bucharest 2025, the largest art fair in Central and Eastern Europe. 

The contemporary art event took place at the Romexpo Central Pavilion in Bucharest, from May 28 to June 1, 2025, and brought together over 200 artists from 9 countries, major art galleries, independent artists, who explore diverse artistic mediums from painting to sculpture, installations, performance, video art and design. 

The exhibition project, curated by Lavinia German, included a selection of works by students and graduates of visual arts from Iași and proposed an incursion into the way young artists look at, interpret and reconfigure the world. 

Through its media diversity (painting, graphics, sculpture, photography and ceramics), the exhibition explored the boundaries of perception and representation, highlighting the plurality of contemporary visual discourses. Seeing Things thus becomes an invitation to rethink the gaze as a creative and critical gesture.

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"seeing things"

an exhibition of students of the Faculty of Visual Arts and Design, National University of Arts "George Enescu" in Iași within MoBU - International Art Fair of Bucharest 2025

Participating artists: Leo Bîrcu, Ioana Cojocea, Carla David, Codrina Dragomir, Dumitru Flocea, Carina Frunză, Mariana Hultoană, Alexandru Ilievici, Erika Ioan, Florentina Neghină, Raluca Niculaie, Roxana Pîrvu, Andreea Pușcașu, Alin Gabriel Rudei, Georgiana Șușnea, George Țapu, Oana Vieru, Anamaria Volintiru

Curator: Lavinia German

Coordinator: Cătălin Soreanu

Mediators: Sarah Muscalu, Lucian Brumă.

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The exhibition is part of a series of artistic, editorial and discursive events carried out within the project of the "George Enescu" National University of Arts in Iași entitled "Art-Hub UNAGE 165 - centers of artistic practice for students" (CNFIS-FDI-2025-F-0003)
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MoBU - International Art Fair of Bucharest 2025

Fenochio, who has lived and worked in La Boca for over three decades, paints from within the communities she depicts. Her subjects (neighbors, friends, and fellow artists) are never anonymous. Their presence is rendered with a painterly tenderness that resists voyeurism. As Longoni notes, Fenochio’s portraits begin with the eyes, which "shine and crash against the viewer," initiating a dialogue that unfolds across the canvas without preparatory sketches.

The exhibition’s centerpiece is a series of monumental canvases previously displayed on the Nicolás Avellaneda transporter bridge, connecting La Boca and Isla Maciel. Originally intended for a brief outdoor showing, the works remained in place for nearly two years, exposed to the elements and passersby's gaze. This act underscores Fenochio’s commitment to art as a public, participatory gesture, an extension of her long-standing engagement with political art collectives like Etcétera and collaborations with León Ferrari.

The paintings themselves are dense with atmosphere: dogs prowl alongside sleeping figures; bodies huddle beneath makeshift shelters; light flickers from unseen sources. Fenochio’s palette is dark yet vibrant, capturing the eerie beauty of nocturnal Buenos Aires. Her compositions, often constructed from memory and imagination, eschew linear perspective in favor of emotional truth. These are not documentary images but "fictions of the real," as Cristina Civale aptly describes them.

Also on view is "Naipas," a feminist card deck conceived during a hospital vigil in 2016 and printed for the first time for this exhibition. The deck extends Fenochio’s practice into the realm of participatory object-making, inviting viewers to engage with her work beyond the canvas.

"Ahora" situates Fenochio within a lineage of socially engaged Argentine painters, from Antonio Berni to Marcia Schvartz, while asserting her singular voice. Her work is a testament to the power of painting to bear witness, to dignify, and to disturb. In a world increasingly desensitized to suffering, Fenochio insists on seeing and on making us see.

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