Press om Studio44

Articel Transhumance

Translation:

Transhumance: A Journey of Cultural Passage

In Gamla Stan, at Skeppsbron 20, lies the Romanian Cultural Institute in Stockholm, overlooking the quay and the sea. On one of its windows, a poster in ochre-yellow and brown tones announces that for nearly two and a half weeks, a story will unfold here—of transhumance, a journey through identity and movement.

The exhibition trilogy Transhumance: A Journey of Cultural Passage reflects, through contemporary art, the symbolic migration of identity across multiple cultural spaces. The project, taking place between Bucharest and Stockholm, explores the concepts of origin, transition, and integration. Three different colors—green, blue, and ochre—serve as thematic and visual compasses through the journey. Over 30 artists from Romania and Sweden interpret the ideas of transhumance through works that bear traces of transformation, adaptation, and the remaking of the self in motion.

It is a poetic reflection on cultural mobility and redefined roots—a visual odyssey in which movement is understood not only geographically, but also emotionally and existentially. The project is a collaboration between the artist-run space Etaj in Bucharest and Studio 44 in Stockholm, with support from the Romanian Cultural Institute in Stockholm. Here, transhumance is reinterpreted not just as a traditional agrarian practice, but as an artistic mindset, an inner migration, and a fusion between root and movement.

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I. Origin and Departure – Color: Green (ETAJ, Bucharest)

The first part, Origin and Departure – Color: Green, was shown in Bucharest. Green symbolizes growth, fertility, and potential—the beginning of an existential and creative journey. The green is likened to the valleys where shepherds begin their ascent toward the mountains, but also to the artist’s first steps in an inner dialogue with the world.

The works in this stage explore themes of genealogy, heritage, and cultural roots. Fragments inscribed with topographic shapes or fictional anatomies form sensory maps, intimate territories, memory cartographies. The pieces have an organic and tactile texture, and their forms suggest both preparation for departure and a vulnerability to what lies ahead.

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II. Passage and Transition – Color: Blue (Studio 44, Stockholm)

The second part, Passage and Transition – Color: Blue, was exhibited at Studio 44 in Stockholm. Blue here represents the crossing—air, water, depth, movement. It is about geographic and cultural transition, but also about the artist’s inner transformation. Blue holds both melancholy and dream, but also the courage to face the unknown.

The artworks take the form of installations and are in dialogue with the room’s architecture. Almost transparent blue sheets resemble water ripples or windows into other realities. On the walls appear collages, silhouettes, and maritime symbols, hinting that the person in transition is caught between waves, anchors, and butterflies—stability and freedom at the same time. Identity is in formation—trapped between what restrains and what propels forward. The body becomes a vessel for tension and change.

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III. Arrival and Integration – Color: Ochre (ICR Stockholm)

In the final stage, Arrival and Integration – Color: Ochre, the works are shown at the Romanian Cultural Institute in Stockholm. Ochre—the color of earth, clay cover, and archaic structures—symbolizes temporary grounding and new beginnings.

The artworks here are formally varied and symbolically rich. Painted floral arches resemble sun gates, vegetal totems, ritual gardens. Installations with anthropomorphic figures enveloped in networks and winding roots, a wooden sculpture from which water flows from the palms, a silhouette under an ochre-colored burka, another leaning against a window—all portray hybrid beings of wood, earth, and spirit. They are guardians of new territories.

Other works point to the inner space: nests, caves, hills, memory boxes—shelters for the germinating seeds of identity. Microcosms of moss, fungi, and plant parts express metaphors of adaptation and symbiosis. Portraits, embroidered family scenes, handwritten texts—all contribute to weaving memories into the fabric of integration. Personal stories are intertwined into a shared, collective narrative.

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Transhumance is more than a project about artistic migration. It is a visual meditation on roots and journeys, vulnerability and strength, memory and dream. The thematic transition of color—from green, through blue, to ochre—traces an arc across beginning, transformation, and grounding. Over 30 artists from Romania and Sweden contribute to this shared narrative, each offering a piece of their inner map. The result is a palimpsest of voices, textures, and perspectives.

In a world in constant motion, Transhumance leaves no answers—only an open question:
How do we remain ourselves while becoming something else?

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Transhumance and Supermarket Art Fair

As part of the Transhumance project, ETAJ artist-run space also participated independently with support from ICR Stockholm at Supermarket – Stockholm Independent Art Fair, held between April 3–6. Works by artist Mircea Modreanu were showcased here. Supermarket is an international art fair focused on encounters, performance, and artist-run galleries and collectives. Since its inception in 2006, the fair has become an important forum for emerging artists and self-organized initiatives.

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Participating Artists (selection from Bucharest, Stockholm, and Supermarket):

Dorinel Marc, Ana María Almada De Álvarez, Zoltan Bela, Andrei Zverev, Carolina Hindsjö, Ekaterina Sisfontes, Kjell Hansson, Jacob Anckarsvärd, Susanne Hogdahl Holm, Lena Rammi, Rikard Fåreaus, Andreas Ribbung, Erik Lindeborg, Diana Butucariu, Ninni Nylen, Adrian Ghiman, Andrei Tudoran, Ruxandra Tudoran, Cătălin Burcea, Corina Păcurar, Ilina Schileru, Lucian Sandu Milea, Mihai Zgondoiu, Mircea Modreanu, Radu Panait, Raluca-Ilaria Demetrescu, Răzvan Năstase, Răzvan Pascu, Ruxandra Tudoran, Sebastian Iacob, Sergiu Chihaia, Mugur Grosu & Lumi Mihai, among others.