The aim of  “UNAGE IASI ART RESIDENCY” is to create various and complex events in Iasi, a cultural town with a lots of inspiration sources, to meet the students from “George Enescu” National University of Arts and the local artists, in order to exchange ideas and share experiences with them as for a future possible collaboration - the project team informs.

The artists-in-residence (Colectivo Cherani) worked in the studios of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, together with other students of the university. They also had access to the library of the art faculty, for computers and art books.

The artists had totally freedom to take their time while creating the art projects. Later, their art will be exhibited in Aparte Gallery which belongs to the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, or in another local gallery.

The project consisted in a collaboration of resident Mexican artists: Francisco Huaroco Rosas, Giovanni Fabián, Josue Alonso (Colectivo Cherani) with the students of Painting, Fine Arts and Sculpture specializations, from the Faculty of Visual Arts and Design in Iasi. The artists carried out their project within the artistic residency program "U.N.A.G.E. Iasi Art Residency'', with the support of the Painting Specialization and implicitly the Painting Research Center - Contemporary Visual Practices belonging to the Painting Department.

The result was an artistic installation with colored balloons, filled with hot air and launched into the air at the end. The installation project consisted in making Chinese paper balloons of various models, colors and sizes. It was an interactive, interesting and useful collaboration that was well documented, to be published in a catalog.

This collaboration was possible following the conclusion of an Erasmus+ partnership agreement between the "George Enescu" National University of Arts from Iasi and the cultural association "La Coyotera Taller Estudio" from Mexico.

Mirela is known for her experimental-abstract works, covering a wide range of styles and techniques, from photorealism and neo-expressionism to abstract, from painting, linocut and pointe sèche to photography, collage, assemblage and land-art. The works made in recent years are situated at the stylistic confluence between abstract expressionism, gesturalism and the lyrical abstract.

"The artist experiments with spatiality between interior and exterior. Initially, the artist worked on a canvas of over 100m prepared during the residency period and intervened directly under the influence of the open environment of the city's Central Square, and later the painted line became the material from which she built the interior of a cube of the painting.

The linear exposure became, as it transformed into an hermetic spatiality, the artist's camera obscura through which the relationship between positive and negative spatiality, between the affirmation and negation of space, was accentuated. The plastic construction of one of the rooms reminds us of the myth of Plato's cave, it is surprising how the optimistic forms of the public intervention were transformed into an environment of constraint by closing the spatial cube. The artistic process manifests itself as a conversion process in which the experiment demands and motivates our senses and reactions, beyond the visual concept itself.” – Cosmin Nasui (modernism.ro)

"In the volumetric development of the painted canvas, light plays an essential role, with a focus on areas of chromatic and graphic interest.

The viewer's shadow also plays an important role, interacting with the entire installation of EXPERIMENT INSIDE.

During the two weeks of this artistic residency I lived a profound and transformative artistic experience.

I had the privilege of exploring new techniques and working materials, on a new medium for me, being a 100 meter black canvas. This exploration challenged me both technically and conceptually, confronting new issues of plastic language on the new surface.

The creative process culminated in the installation of this canvas in the public space in the first stage, placed in a dialogue with the shadow of the tower of the Evangelical Church, and then it was transformed into a cube that invites the viewer to enter and explore it.

At this stage, I tried to create a link between the past and the present, bringing to the fore multiple genesis, then memories related to the experiences of the ancestors on their journey in cave art, then black African art, and the microscopic world, generating a language.

The role of lights and shadows is essential, emphasizing the key points of the composition, contributing to a complex visual game that the viewer is involved in. Once inside this cube, its borders and edges begin to merge, turning into imaginary stalactites and stalagmites, created by nervous and gestural touches, united by light in a unique symbiosis.

This experience was one of continuous discovery, a true experiment that challenged me and expanded my artistic horizons." – Mirela Iordache

The results of the project can be seen starting August 22nd, at Casa cu Lei, where the public can immerse themselves into Mirela's art, until September 15. The residencies are supported by the George Coșbuc Municipal Cultural Center in Bistrița and offer artists a laboratory of experiments for visual arts, during the summer.