When I visited the Bucharest-based studio of Romanian artist Delia Popa there were drawings of mice on her walls, part of what she called her "Facebook Project". Yet those sketches in which she tried to merge memories from her childhood with social issues are just one aspect aspect of her practice.
After her studies in Romania, Britain and America, Popa started expressing her art through different media, from drawings and paintings to film and multimedia installations. The themes she tackled so far in her work include (just to mention a few) civic activism and spirituality ("We, Our Friends and Us", 2011-2013), the dynamics of a Roma community ("Chelen Amenca (Dance With Us)", 2012), identity and gender inequality ("Poli and Mano", 2010) and the liminality of the musical cretions of ethnic Roma ("Manele").
The drawings from Delia Popa's "Facebook Project" will be showcased within the “Good Girls” event curated by Bojana Pejić and Olivia Nițiș (Bucharest) at MNAC Bucharest (from today until 29th September 2013).
The exhibition, featuring Romanian and international artists, is structured around three concepts central to many contemporary women’s practices worldwide - memory, desire and power. Popa will be adding more drawings on her Facebook page and on the exhibition walls until the end of the event. Her recent video "PART I", made for the "Chelen Amenca" exhibition in 2012, will also be included.
Where did you study art?
Delia Popa: I studied painting for 5 years at the National University of Arts in Bucharest. Then I moved to London where I worked for a year and eventually went on and applied for a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College. From there I moved onto the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where I did a Master in Fine Art. I also worked in Chicago as an art teacher in a private school.
You employ a plurality of media in your work which is your favourite one?
Delia Popa: I primarily studied painting, but, while at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, I became interested in video and photography and I made my first video that documented a Christian sacrificial ritual, the slaughter of a lamb. The latter led to an exhibition that included painting, video and performative action with the public that prompted visitors to destroy my paintings after viewing the video. The project was called "The Territory of Fear" and it explored the relationship between violence and fear, and victims and aggressors. I don’t know if I can say I have a favourite media, but the most enjoyable activities to me are painting, drawing and performing with others.
Can you tell us more about your creative process, how does it start?
Delia Popa: The inspiration usually comes from my personal experiences, problems and interests, but my work is also based on fairly abundant research. I research by trying to look for books, videos or artworks related to my interests and then I try and find the best medium to express what I want to say. At the beginning of my creative process I usually do not know which is the best medium to express my inspirations or ideas, and I often let my curiosity being my main drive. But once I know the main topic and the medium, I try to philosophy on specific problems, making art that can transform or tackle the issues I'm dealing with.
In some of your works you display an interest in feminism, were you always into it or did you develop this interest throughout the years?
Delia Popa: I became interested in feminism while I was in Chicago and started reading feminist books and working with artists and professors who identified themselves as feminists. I consider myself a feminist, but I'm very critical as well and I think this concept must be discussed and redefined. A while back I started reading Romanian feminist writer and political philosopher, Mihaela Miroiu. She talks a lot about the reality of being a woman in Romania, especially before and after the totalitarian regime with the new capitalist system. Her works really prompted me to tackle issues that she writes about and I did so through a series of cartoons collected in “The Facebook Project”. In these cartoons anthropomorphized mice inspired by the childhood drawings I used to do while I was in primary school, talk to each other or poke fun at each other. They represent a way to give a voice to myself and to other women and talk about feminism, democratic ideas and what it feels like being a woman in Romania today. The cartoons are about my experiences and problems, but they also touch people in different ways since the message is open and easily understood as I'm interested in reaching out to a wide audience and not in a self-referential “inside-joke” type of discourse, as you can sometimes find in the art world.
Are there any other feminist projects you worked on?
Delia Popa: The two part project "Chelen Amenca" (Dance with us), curated by Anca Mihulet and developed with my former lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Ellen Rothenberg that revolved around the Roma community from Sibiu county, consisting mainly of women and children.
Can you tell us more about your recent exhibition at Magda Radu and Alexandra Croitoru's Salonul de proiecte entitled "We, Our Friends and Us" (2013)?
Delia Popa: It is a seven monitor video installation, structured in the shape of a theatre play of four acts, in which each monitor stands for a character. The seven characters are represented by people in my immediate surroundings and over a time span of 30 minutes they lead monologues, dialogues and what I called “superlogues” (2 or more monitors talking at the same time). They mainly discuss issues such as: to be or not to be vehement as a feminist, the lack of female professors in the Painting department of the National University of Arts, the prevalence of women who sabotage themselves, juxtaposed with stories, accounts and statements about recent spiritual and therapeutic trends in and around Bucharest, such as, Buddhism, off-center Christianity and holotropic breathing techniques. The “play” uncovers some connections and parallels between different types of beliefs, and attempts to offer a sort of “theatre of discourses” to put it this way. I consider each “discourse” a valid one, but I also see the conflicts inherent in them and in their juxtaposition. In the fourth act there is a sort of collapse moment, in which all voices speak at the same time and you can understand no one. I think it asks in a way if diversity of thought can actually work. If yes, how, would be my question for the ideal public.
Which are the main problems that you face as an artist in Romania at the moment?
Delia Popa: I'm an artist and an aspiring teacher. A while back I worked as a volunteer for Save The Children in a state school in Romania, but I'm planning to teach more. I have just started an association for education via art, called Artcrowd, with a stage designer friend, Vanda Maria Sturdza. Together we do creativity workshops for children, including shadow theatre workshops, and we design interactive installations for children, such as a work in progress for Carturesti Bookstore in Bucharest. We intend to promote self-expression, a spirit of experiment and enjoyable learning methods via our work with children from various backgrounds. I'm personally very concerned about the education and the health system slowly yet relentlessly going down in Romania. These sectors are subsidised by the state and are mainly women-led. Quite a lot of women work in care, assistance and education, key sectors in any society since they help people to be independent, autonomous, educated and knowledgeable. Yet the prestige of these sectors is going down since we are currently living in a capitalistic society in Romania and now the values that count are money, social power through cars, mobile phones, and pretty girlfriends (if you're a man...). So the image of women has radically changed after the revolution. It has become much more of a “consumption merchandise” than it had been before 1989, but of course at the same time some women have become financially stronger and thus their relationship vis-à-vis men has been modified. It is all quite interesting. As a freelance artist I am at the moment most concerned about my health insurance, which at the moment doesn’t exist due to unhelpful legislation, and the strange and peculiar system of rarely rewarding artists financially that exists in the art world probably everywhere, and which I am beginning to investigate more as part of a PhD programme I have started in 2011 on Arts management in contemporary art in Romania.
Your works can often be seen as a critique of contemporary society, but is it still possible to develop our own critical thinking in a society that has become strongly "acritical"?
Delia Popa: I think that, once you studied art, literature or culture-related subjects, you become more critical and you don't think that everything that crosses your mind is good. The only way to escape this bombardment of media and advertising is trying to be critical and set your own values, and, unfortunately, that's not such an easy thing to do in practice.
Image credits:
All images in this post by and courtesy of Delia Popa (except where otherwise stated).
1. "Empowerment"
2. "Reading Mihaela Miroiu in Bucharest"
3. "But I'm a Nice Mouse"
4. "But Mouse, What About Love"
5. Exhibition View, "We, Our Friends and Us", 7 Monitor Installation, Salonul de Proiecte, MNAC Anexa, Bucharest, Romania, April 25th-Jun 2nd 2013. Photograph by Ștefan Sava at Salonul de Proiecte.
6. The Christian Engineer, video still
7. The Feminist Atheist Artist, video still
8. Installation View, IVth Act, with editing sketch
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